Performance Review
Below is the performance of the Nasdaq 100 watch list from May 9, 2014:
| Symbol | Name | 2014 | 2015 | % change |
| DISCA | Discovery Comm. | 37.33 | 31.33 | -16.07% |
| BBBY | Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. | 61.31 | 71.44 | 16.52% |
| ISRG | Intuitive Surgical, Inc. | 353.06 | 494.32 | 40.01% |
| NTAP | NetApp, Inc. | 34.19 | 35.65 | 4.27% |
| EBAY | eBay Inc. | 50.54 | 58.82 | 16.38% |
| ALTR | Altera Corp. | 32.38 | 44.46 | 37.31% |
| WFM | Whole Foods Market, Inc. | 39.32 | 42.58 | 8.29% |
| SIRI | Sirius XM Holdings Inc. | 3.16 | 3.87 | 22.47% |
| VRSK | Verisk Analytics, Inc. | 60.53 | 73.66 | 21.69% |
| COST | Costco Wholesale | 115.39 | 145.88 | 26.42% |
| LMCA | Liberty Media Corp. | 34.18 | 37.93 | 10.97% |
| SRCL | Stericycle, Inc. | 113.90 | 134.01 | 17.66% |
| CERN | Cerner Corporation | 50.19 | 68.02 | 35.53% |
| CA | CA Technologies | 29.41 | 31.60 | 7.45% |
The average gain of the entire list was +17.78% while the top five stocks (DISCA, BBBY, ISRG, NTAP, EBAY) gained an average of +12.22%. This compares with the gain for the Nasdaq 100 index of +23.41% in the same 1-year time period.
As has frequently been the case, analyst expectations were too optimistic for stocks on the far right (DISCA, CA, CERN, SIRI, NTAP) where the average gains of +10.73%. Likewise, the view was too pessimistic for stocks on the far left (LMCA, ISRG, WFM, COST, BBBY) which averaged +20.44% in the above chart.
The absolute change in Liberty Media (LMCA) and Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) was the most extreme. Liberty Media saw its p/e ratio expand from 20 to 72 while ISRG’s p/e ratio increased from 26 to 39. The increase in the p/e ratio should be expected with the increase in price. However, value oriented investors would have overlooked these stocks simply because of the high p/e ratios and the expectation of lower earnings by analysts in 2014.
Watch List: May 8, 2015
Below are the Nasdaq 100 stocks of interest: