If you're thinking of making some stock purchases based on broker or magazine 2012 stock recommendations, you may want to review how they performed in 2011. We tracked the performance of the stock pick portfolios for SmartMoney, Money, Fortune, Kiplinger and Barron's publications and also brokers, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. How did they perform? Half of the portfolios beat the S&P 500 SPY ETF, which lost 1.95%, and also the Nasdaq 100 ETF QQQ, which gained 0.95%. The clear winner was Goldman Sachs with a 10.66% gain for the year. Money, Kiplinger and SmartMoney magazines beat the index ETFs with gains of 3.29%, 2.92% and 2.41% respectively. Morgan Stanley lost 5.73%, Barron's lost 6.99%, Fortune lost 19.45% and at the bottom of the list is JPMorgan with a 23.13% loss. You can see the individual 2011 portfolios, stock picks and performances here.
How did the individual stock picks fare? Exactly half of the 84 stock picks selected by the group were in positive territory and half of them were in negative territory. Since the stock market was essentially flat for the year, this performance is no better than one would expect by random selection. However, there were some notable stocks that performed well. The top five stock picks are shown below:
| Company | Ticker | Purchase Price | Price Now | Percent Gain | Stock Picker |
| VF Corp. | VFC | $86.63 | $126.99 | 46.59% | Kiplinger |
| TJX | TJX | $44.57 | $64.55 | 44.83% | SmartMoney |
| Visa | V | $70.40 | $101.53 | 44.22% | Money Magazine |
| Starbucks | SBUX | $32.49 | $46.01 | 41.61% | Goldman Sachs |
| McDonald's | MCD | $77.10 | $100.33 | 30.13% | Kiplinger |
JPMorgan picked four of the bottom five worst performing stocks. MF Global Holdings, which went bankrupt recently, was one of their unfortunate selections. The worst five stock picks are shown below:
| Company | Ticker | Purchase Price | Price Now | Percent Gain | Stock Picker |
| MF Global Holdings | MF | $8.43 | $0.11 | -98.70% | J.P.Morgan |
| Entropic | ENTR | $12.40 | $5.11 | -58.79% | Fortune |
| Rubicon Technology | RBCN | $21.41 | $9.39 | -56.14% | J.P.Morgan |
| US Steel | X | $59.29 | $26.46 | -55.37% | J.P.Morgan |
| Vecco Instruments | VECO | $43.68 | $20.80 | -52.38% | J.P.Morgan |
So what do this year's picks look like? Apple (AAPL) is the most selected stock with five picks, Chevron (CVX) is second with three. Altria (MO), AT&T (T), Brinker International (EAT), Freeport McMoRan (FCX), Haliburton (HAL), Lincoln National (LNC]], Microsoft (MSFT), Royal Bank of Canada (RY), Target (TGT), Union Pacific (UNP) all have been selected by two stock pickers. The complete list is shown in the table below. You can read more information and reasons for these recommendations by clicking the highlighted links with the stock picker's name.
| Potash Corporation | POT | SmartMoney |
| CNOOC | CEO | SmartMoney |
| SAP | SAP | SmartMoney |
| Siemens | SI | SmartMoney |
| AT&T | T | SmartMoney |
| Exelon | EXC | SmartMoney |
| Newmont Mining | NEM | SmartMoney |
| New Gold | NGD | SmartMoney |
| GOOG | SmartMoney | |
| Baidu | BIDU | SmartMoney |
| General Electric | GE | S&P Capital IQ |
| Hasbro | HAS | S&P Capital IQ |
| Dupont | DD | S&P Capital IQ |
| Altria | MO | S&P Capital IQ |
| Chevron | CVX | S&P Capital IQ |
| AT&T | ATT | S&P Capital IQ |
| Harris Corp | HRS | S&P Capital IQ |
| Royal Bank of Canada | RY | S&P Capital IQ |
| UGI Corp | UGI | S&P Capital IQ |
| Abbott Labs | ABT | S&P Capital IQ |
| Schlumberger | SLB | Morgan Stanley |
| PT Telekomunikasi | TLK | Morgan Stanley |
| Amazon.com | AMZN | Morgan Stanley |
| BorgWarner | BWA | Morgan Stanley |
| Union Pacific | UNP | Morgan Stanley |
| Terumo | TRUMY.PK | Morgan Stanley |
| InterContinental Hotels | IHG | Morgan Stanley |
| Teradata | TDC | Morgan Stanley |
| Target | TGT | Morgan Stanley |
| RenaissanceRe | RNR | Morgan Stanley |
| Ryanair | RYAAY | Morgan Stanley |
| Imperial Tobacco | ITYBY.PK | Morgan Stanley |
| Anheuser-Busch InBev | BUD | Morgan Stanley |
| Life Healthcare Group | LTGHF.PK | Morgan Stanley |
| NVIDIA | NVDA | Raymond James |
| Superior Energy Services | SPN | Raymond James |
| Whiting Petroleum | WLL | Raymond James |
| BMC Software | BMC | Raymond James |
| Lincoln National | LNC | Raymond James |
| Stanley Black and Decker | SWK | Raymond James |
| TW Telecom | TWTC | Raymond James |
| Verifone Systems | PAY | Raymond James |
| BB&T Corp | BBT | Raymond James |
| Nuance Communications | NUAN | Raymond James |
| Chevron | CVX | Raymond James |
| Post Properties | PPS | Raymond James |
| Brinker International | EAT | Raymond James |
| United Health Group | UNH | Credit Suisse |
| Wellpoint Inc | WLP | Credit Suisse |
| Dish Network Corp | DISH | Credit Suisse |
| Peabody Energy Corp | BTU | Credit Suisse |
| Tesoro Corp | TSO | Credit Suisse |
| Community Health | CYH | Credit Suisse |
| Stillwater Mining Company | SWC | Credit Suisse |
| Hess Corp. | HES | Credit Suisse |
| Valero Energy Corp. | VLO | Credit Suisse |
| Staples Inc. | SPLS | Credit Suisse |
| Nabors Industries | NBR | Credit Suisse |
| St.Jude Medical | STJ | JP Morgan |
| Brinker International | EAT | JP Morgan |
| CVS | CVS | JP Morgan |
| Lam Research | LRCX | JP Morgan |
| Viacom | VIA.B | JP Morgan |
| Crown Holdings | CCK | JP Morgan |
| Apple | AAPL | JP Morgan |
| Owens Corning | OC | JP Morgan |
| The Fresh Market | TFM | JP Morgan |
| Las Vegas Sands | LVS | JP Morgan |
| Mylan | MYL | JP Morgan |
| Agilent | A | JP Morgan |
| Robert Half International | RHI | JP Morgan |
| Allstate Corp | ALL | JP Morgan |
| Broadcom | BRCM | JP Morgan |
| Freeport McMoRan | FCX | JP Morgan |
| Accretive Health | AH | JP Morgan |
| Haliburton | HAL | JP Morgan |
| HCA Inc | HCA | JP Morgan |
| Denbury Resource | DNR | JP Morgan |
| NRG Energy | NRG | JP Morgan |
| Pioneer Natural Resources | PXD | JP Morgan |
| Citigroup | C | JP Morgan |
| Cree Industries | CREE | JP Morgan |
| Consol Energy | CNX | JP Morgan |
| Nexen | NXY | JP Morgan |
| Zipcar | ZIP | JP Morgan |
| United Continental Holdings | UAL | JP Morgan |
| Lincoln National | LNC | Merrill Lynch |
| Marathon Oil | MRO | Merrill Lynch |
| CenturyLink | CTL | Merrill Lynch |
| Apple | AAPL | Merrill Lynch |
| Air Products and Chemical | APD | Merrill Lynch |
| CBS Corp. | CBS | Merrill Lynch |
| Eli Lilly | LLY | Merrill Lynch |
| Union Pacific | UNP | Merrill Lynch |
| Altria | MO | Merrill Lynch |
| Xcel Energy | XEL | Merrill Lynch |
| Aeroflex Holdings | ARX | Goldman Sachs |
| Apple | AAPL | Goldman Sachs |
| EMC Corporation | EMC | Goldman Sachs |
| NCR Corporation | NCR | Goldman Sachs |
| Oracle Corporation | ORCL | Goldman Sachs |
| Qualcomm Inc. | QCOM | Goldman Sachs |
| Synchronoss Technologies | SNCR | Goldman Sachs |
| Visa | V | Goldman Sachs |
| VMWare Inc. | VMW | Goldman Sachs |
| Apple | AAPL | Kiplinger |
| Chevron | CVX | Kiplinger |
| Dover Corp. | DOV | Kiplinger |
| Lockheed Martin Corp. | LMT | Kiplinger |
| Microsoft | MSFT | Kiplinger |
| Schnitzer Steel industries | SCHN | Kiplinger |
| Target | TGT | Kiplinger |
| Teva Pharmeceuticals Indust. | TEVA | Kiplinger |
| Apple | AAPL | Fortune |
| Caterpillar | CAT | Fortune |
| Enbridge Energy Partners | EEP | Fortune |
| Goodyear Tire | GT | Fortune |
| Halliburton | HAL | Fortune |
| Intel | INTC | Fortune |
| Johnson Controls | JCI | Fortune |
| Lockheed Martin | LMT | Fortune |
| Microsoft | MSFT | Fortune |
| Royal Bank of Canada | RY | Fortune |
| Berkshire Hathaway | BRK.A | Barrons |
| Comcast | CMCSA | Barrons |
| Daimler | DDAIF.PK | Barrons |
| Freeport McMoRan | FCX | Barrons |
| MetLife | MET | Barrons |
| Procter & Gamble | PG | Barrons |
| Royal Dutch ADR | RDS.A | Barrons |
| Sanofi | SNY | Barrons |
| Seagate Technology | STX | Barrons |
| Vodafone Group ADR | VOD | Barrons |
We'll be tracking how all the portfolios perform on a weekly basis and report their performance at the end of the first quarter. Good luck and remember past performance is no guarantee of future performance.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
