Better late than never! December's month in review is a bit late, but still a worthwhile exercise.
December was another good month for Michigan, when it came to stock performance. The fiscal cliff may have come in with the lion's share of headlines, but went out with barely a whimper.
Out of the 37 Michigan stocks I follow, 24 performed better than the S&P500. For a second straight month, the S&P500 index basically broke even with a return of 0.7% (November saw an increase of just 0.3%).
On the downside, 2 stocks fell more than 5% (WWW and SYNT), and only 6 fell more than 1%!
December's big winner was Compuware (CPWR), with a gain of 16.3%. Before you get too excited, you need to know that almost the entire gain occurred after Elliot Management Corp. offered to buy the company for $11 a share. Otherwise, the price action was fairly flat. Last month's best stock (Rofin-Sinar) gained another 2.5%.
Rounding out the top 5 performers for the month were Kelly Services (KELYA), Mercantile Bank (MBWM), Ford (F), and CMS Energy (CMS) with returns of 15.2%, 14.0%, 13.1%, and 13.1% respectively.
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This commentary does not constitute individualized investment advice. The opinions offered herein are not personalized recommendations to buy, sell or hold securities.
Disclosure: At the time of publication, Joel Wenger held no positions in any of the stocks mentioned within this article.
Mr. Wenger, who has successfully invested and traded in the US markets for over a decade, created a website to help you learn how to invest safely. Access this free resource today by visiting Invest-Safely.com.
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