Saturday, November 7, 2009

Yonder 40: In First Week, the 40 Beats Dow, S&P 500

07/06/2007

The Yonder 40

Only eight of the Yonder 40 stocks were down in the first week of July, across the board gains that allowed the Daily Yonder's index of stocks to beat the Dow Industrials and the Standard & Poor 500. Only the tech-heavy NASDAQ beat the Yonder 40 in the first week of July -- and only by a fraction.

The Yonder 40 is an index of stocks chosen to be representative of the U.S. rural economy and the stocks that do a substantial portion of their business there. The 40 this week was led by gains at Gaylord Entertainment (owners of the Grand Ole Opry), Alico, Inc., (a Florida citrus grower), Walters Industries (coal mining and manufactured housing) and the small-town retailer Cato.

Stage Stores suffered the largest loss of the week, losing 26 cents a share to $20.70.

The full list of Yonder 40 stocks and how they did in the first week of July (and the first week of the index) is on the next page.

 

 

 

 

 

Yonder 40 Stock Ticker Ending Price Change July 2-6 % Change
Alico Inc. ALCO $64.85 $3.86 6.33%
Andersons Inc. ANDE $47.43 $2.10 4.63%
Bassett Furniture Industries Inc. BSET $13.40 -$0.25 -1.83%
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Cl B BRKB $3,704.90 $99.90 2.77%
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. BNI $86.70 $1.56 1.83%
Cabela's Inc. CAB $22.16 $0.03 0.14%
Cato Corp. Cl A CTR $23.29 $1.35 6.15%
Cimarex Energy Co. XEC $40.46 $1.05 2.66%
Citizens Communications Co. Series B CZN $15.32 $0.05 0.33%
ConAgra Foods Inc. CAG $27.24 $0.38 1.41%
Dean Foods Co. DF $31.42 -$0.45 -1.41%
Deere & Co. DE $123.71 $2.97 2.46%
DIRECTV Group Inc. DTV $23.94 $0.83 3.59%
FairPoint Communications Inc. FRP $17.28 -$0.47 -2.65%
Family Dollar Stores Inc. FDO $34.60 $0.28 0.82%
Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. FLE $9.52 $0.47 5.19%
Gaylord Entertainment Co. GET $57.39 $3.75 6.99%
Hormel Foods Corp. HRL $37.45 $0.10 0.27%
International Speedway Corp. Cl A ISCA $53.87 $1.16 2.20%
Lee Enterprises Inc. LEE $21.33 $0.47 2.25%
Mine Safety Appliances Co. MSA $44.12 $0.36 0.82%
Mohawk Industries Inc. MHK $103.00 $2.21 2.19%
Monsanto Co. MON $66.84 -$0.70 -1.04%
Peabody Energy Corp. BTU $50.26 $1.88 3.89%
Penn Virginia Corp. PVA $42.10 $1.90 4.73%
Plum Creek Timber Co. Inc. REIT PCL $43.70 $2.04 4.90%
Ralcorp Holdings Inc. RAH $56.60 $3.15 5.89%
Regions Financial Corp. RF $33.75 $0.65 1.96%
Skywest Inc. SKYW $24.43 $0.60 2.52%
Smithfield Foods Inc. SFD $30.39 -$0.40 -1.30%
Southern Co. SO $34.08 -$0.21 -0.61%
Southwest Bancorp Inc. OKSB $24.71 $0.67 2.79%
Stage Stores Inc. SSI $20.70 -$0.26 -1.24%
Sturm Ruger & Co. RGR $15.94 $0.42 2.71%
Tractor Supply Co. TSCO $52.15 $0.10 0.19%
Tyson Foods Inc. Cl A TSN $23.68 $0.64 2.78%
UST Inc. UST $53.41 -$0.30 -0.56%
Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. WDR $26.79 $0.78 3.00%
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT $48.39 $0.28 0.58%
Walter Industries Inc. WLT $31.91 $2.95 10.19%

Comments

What does the Yonder 40 tell us?

This is an interesting idea -- an economic indicator of the relative health of rural America. But what will we really know when the Yonder 40 soars, and when the Yonder 40 falls? With stocks like Wal-Mart, Tyson, Smithfield, Monsanto, and ConAgra included in the index, the economic health of rural America might in fact be measured as an inverse of the Yonder 40. When Wal-Mart is doing well, businesses up and down main street in rural communities are being driven out of business. And when Wal-Mart is doing well money is being sucked out of rural communities, destined for the pockets of rich urbanites. When Smithfield is doing well, farmers aren't receiving a fair price for their livestock. And when Smithfield is doing well, family livestock producers are being put our of business. And so it goes for a number of the stocks in the Yonder 40. So, what does the Yonder 40 really tell us?

The Yonder 40 is Actually Rural America

None of us may like it and would love a stock index that reflects the hard work of the small farmer and throws in the sweet smell of alfalfa drying in the windrow, but the reality of what really drives the rural American economy is Wal-Mart and the 39 other companies in the Yonder 40. We did take the Waltons down a few notches when we equal-weighted their $115 billion colossus in the Yonder 40 with the $4 billion Dean Foods that peddles butter and half and half, all made from real American milk. Or, at least, none of it from cows in China. We sorted through about 3000 stocks before we selected the sainted 40. It would have been nice had we come across investable public companies that represent farmer cooperatives, rural electric co-ops, or worker-owned coal mines and sawmills. There ain't none. No fan of the Daily Yonder may be comfortable with it, but the reality is that Thomas Jefferson's vision of America as a nation of farmers and toilers in the soil is as dead as our third president. Or at least that's what you find when you try to construct an index using SEC registered and stock exchange listed companies for rural America. Had we tried somehow to value the private companies that deal with rural America, impossible as that probably is, we would also have had to list Cargill and Koch Industries and the Chicago Board of Trade as well as the little bitty businesses that dot our small towns. Those of us who think about indices and derivatives and also love rural America would love to find some way so we could all go short the Farm Bill and all the presidential candidates who haven't even bothered for more than a few minutes to construct a rural policy platform. More work to be done! We're always open to suggestions of public companies that we may have overlooked. Given how fast mergers and acquisitions are taking place these days, we are going to need some good replacement candidates!

The Conversation Continues

This conversation continues at some length here, and here.

With the way the markets

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