Putting Capital to Work Following Wednesday’s Economic Data

SymbolTransaction Type (Sell/Buy)# Shares Traded
AXPBuy60
AXONBuy45
BABuy60
WM Buy64

After you receive this alert, the Pro Portfolio will make the following trades:

— Buy 60 shares of American Express ($AXP) at or near $305. Following the trade, we will own 760 AXP shares, accounting for roughly 3.75% of the Pro Portfolio’s assets.

— Buy 45 shares of Axon Enterprise ($AXON) at or near $420. Following the trade, we will own 460 AXON shares, accounting for roughly 3.1% of the Pro Portfolio’s assets.

— Buy 60 shares of Boeing ($BA) at or near $189. Following the trade, we will own 1,000 BA shares, accounting for roughly 3.1% of the Pro Portfolio’s assets.

— Buy 64 shares of Waste Management ($WM) at or near $206. Following the trade, we will own 942 WM shares, accounting for roughly 3.15% of the Pro Portfolio’s assets.

On the heels of the softer-than-expected August PCE price index, stronger-than-expected September jobs data offered by ADP this morning, and favorable August Personal Spending data, we are going to put some cash to work in several holdings. 

You’ll notice a few things about these moves. First, the bite sizes are smaller, and second, these four holdings have been beaten up of late, with some in or just having exited oversold conditions. In the case of AXON, BA, and WM, it also pulls down the Portfolio’s respective average cost basis. 

After completing these four trades, the Portfolio’s cash position will be just under 11% of the Portfolio’s assets. That cash size will temporarily climb further this afternoon when we commence the first part of our quarterly EPS All-Stars reconstitution. We will then draw down cash as we upsize the Portfolio’s EPS All-Stars exposure to ~8% of the Portfolio assets, which equates to a 1% position size for each of the basket’s eight holdings. 

Once we complete these planned moves, the Portfolio’s cash position will be around 9.0% of its assets. As we digest the upcoming ISM September Manufacturing PMI data, when we collect the September Flash heavy truck order data from ACT Research we may elect to increase the Portfolio’s Paccar ($PCAR) exposure a wee bit further. We are also evaluating adding to Netflix ($NFLX), and we continue to do work on SpaceX ($SPCX). More to come on the latter. 

While we make these buys, we will continue to monitor market breadth, be on the lookout for negative earnings pre-announcements in the coming days, and watch other items that have rankled the market and investors. Included in that bunch are Treasury yields, oil prices and developments between the U.S. and Iran. And it goes without saying, we will be mindful of the market’s technical setup. 

With that said, should market conditions warrant us to become more defensive in the coming weeks, we will do what is necessary to protect the Portfolio and its members, balancing those decisions against medium to long-term potential and opportunities. 

Finally, with these trades, we will use the compelling risk to reward tradeoff in Axon shares to upgrade them to a One rating from Two. With Boeing, we will look to see the company’s September deliveries and revisit our Two rating as needed. We will also reset our checkpoints as follows:

AXP: $275

AXON: $380

BA: $175

WM: $187

More Pro Portfolio:

(Please note that we are looking to execute these trades at or near the share price mentioned above. Once the trade is completed, subscribers can see the trade’s executed price here. Be sure to toggle the chart to sort by Purchase Date.)

At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long AXP, AXON, BA, PCAR, NFLX, and WM.

SymbolRating (0 = Not Rated, 1 = Buy, 2 = StockPile, 3 = Hold, 4 = Sell)
AXON1
SymbolPanic Price
AXP275
AXON380
BA175
WM187
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Posted by Chris Versace

With 30 years of cross-industry experience, Chris Versace brings his thematic investing lens to TheStreet Pro Portfolio (formerly Action Alerts PLUS) each day as lead portfolio manager. His daily insights, analysis, and recommendations provide the foundation for TheStreet's Pro Portfolio. Versace began his career in equity research before founding Versace Management in 2005. He joined TheStreet team in 2011 as a Real Money contributor before becoming portfolio manager of Action Alerts PLUS in 2021. He holds an MBA from Fordham Gabelli School of Business and has co-authored a book called “Cocktail Investing - Distilling Everyday Noise into Clear Investing Signals for Better Returns.” With a passion for teaching others about investing, Versace spent 9 years as an Assistant Professor of Finance at NJCU School of Business. When he’s not contributing to TheStreet’s premium services, he can be found speaking at industry conferences or at a Bruce Springsteen concert (he’s seen him 50 times and counting!).

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