New-York tribune., 1922-01-22
Too Many Stocks

i, Cuestior-As daily reader OF your
hoancial 4 id, column should greatly iilse to
curties that hold. Il own the following
securities and derive from them about one
half OF my total income. the other half
being derived about equally from farm
mortgages and salary. l am forty years
Ola, married and have no dependents. 1
give approximately the prices that the
st L. preferred at 61 thirty shares Balti-
mere 1;s & oho preferred at 55 forty shares
shares New York Central, at ~; ten shares
New York. Laokawanua E. Western. at 12O
3S5 shares Pennsylvania. at 40; nfty-nine
sharcs Pennsylvaria, ut so: fifteen shares
Southern Railway preferred. Mt 5S; thirty
shares Southern Pacifc at 81; Twenty-Five
shares southern Pacific, at 9l thirty-nvc
shares Atchison common. at IS; thirty
shares - Union Pacinc preferred; at 50; NJ
teen shares American Telegraph and Gable
at 5S: twenty eight shares American Light
and Traction preferred. at 95: fourteen
shares American Light and Traction COM
mon. at EOS; ten shares Pacific Gas and
Electric preferred. at 81; twenty shares
Pacific Gas and Electric preferred. at 9l
twenty-five shares Cities Service preferred
at So ten shares Franklin Motor pre-
ierred. at 100; twenty shares United Fruit.
at lo!; nfty-nve shares Pacific Oil, at rs;
ono $1,000 st. Croix Power Company 5 per
cent bond. 1929: one $1,000 New Yo'S Cen
tral per cent bond, 1885, one $1,000 Della
loan. $3.50 third Liberty loan. s1.ioo
fourth Liberty loan, s1.loo fifth Liberty
! loan. Would you kindly criticize this list
with the following statement in view and
sugEest what changes YOU would malSe7
should Ike to revise the list in such
way that at least three fourths of 1t Will
consist OF securities of a grade not lower
than what you call business mans invest
income is not entirely derived from the
nst | feel that ] can retain about one
fourth OF 1t in stocks that you class
speculative. as for example,. Pacific Oil.
New York Central and Southern Pacific
realize. of course. that II L sell of
the securities l shall have to take a con-
ne element Of safety, inasmuch as a num-
ber of securities in the list have either
since have held them. II you will adj
wise what securities you would sell, will
you also kindly suggest a diversified list
OF securities in which to reinvest the
money? Roughly. should like to dis
tribute the money reinvested in such
one-thrd in high grade preferred stocks
and one-thrd in good common stocks, and
In such .aor way M that if pes.tble. the total
averaged together would bc high as 6 u
per cent l should like the list to be
about $500 in any single security
l.. y. n.
Answer-In our opinion you have too
large proportion of your money now
in stock and instead Of third of the
money in common stock, as you sug-
gest, we think 20 per cent in common
stock would be maximum However,
in making the following suggestions
we have made the list long enough so
that you can follow our advice or not,
you see fit. We would sell the
Baltimore & Ohio, preferred and COM
mon: Chicago, Milwaukee e. st. Paul.
common and preferred; Pennsylvania,
Southern Railway preferred, your City
Service preferred, your Franklin Motor
preferred, your United Fruit and your
Pacific Oil. The other stock we ad-
wise you to keep, and also keep the
bonds which you have. If you have
some special reason for trying to hold
the Pacific Oh, we'll and good, but it is.
not, in our opinion, the kind of specu-
lative stock that you ought to indulge
IN. 1t is not in the same case with
the speculative stocks which we
have advised you to hold on to.
the Southern Pacific, for instance,
about which you can inform yourself
quite fully. We suggest the following
bonds: Western Union 61zs, due 1886,
recently selling at ", yielding 6.1O
per cent current and 5.S3 per cent
income to maturity; Niagara Falls
Power first 5s, due 1882, recently sell
iuS az ~, ylclulHS On per cent 10
maturity; P. Lorillard debenture Is,
due 1914, recently selling around 112,
yielding SOP per cent to maturity;
New York Telephone 6s, due 1941, re-
Gently selling at 1915, yielding 5.S1
per cent to maturity; Virginian Rail
way first IS, due 1862, recently selling
around 80, yielding little over $50
per cent to maturity; Oregon Short
Line first 5s, recently offered at 94ls
81 ~ ko
ferred stocks we suggest the American
Rank Note preferred; American Car and
Foundry preferred, American Tobacco
Company preferred, and Corn Products
preferred. For the common stocks we
suggest Westinghouse Electric and
Manufacturing Company, Norfolk g.
Western, Montana Power, Canadian Pa
ciiic, Detroit Edison, Kansas City
Southern preferred and General Elec-
trio.