Overall, Good Q4 Earnings

Well, I'm just waiting for one more company from my portfolio to report Q4 earnings. Las Vegas Sands (LVS) is expected to report in early March. I'm not worried about that one since all signs are pointing to very strong Q4 earnings. The stock is starting to break out, looks like it's pricing in strong earnings.

Qiagen (QGEN) reported today and beat estimates by one penny. Stock sold off a bit, looks like sell on the news. I basically characterize it as in-line revenues and earnings. This is a long term play in the field of molecular diagnostics. They have growing earnings and generating a nice free cash flow.

I'm still keeping an eye on Apple. Everyone is still gobbling up the iPods. My coworker just purchased not only an iPod, but also a Shuffle. When I research companies, I like to use the Peter Lynch philosophy. Just observe what's around you (i.e. which stores are always crowded, what people are buying, etc...). That's actually how I came up with one of my early winners (Qiagen). I use to work in a research lab and everyone was raving about the Qiagen DNA purification kits. When the company went public, I just bought as much as I could at the time and it's paid off nicely. Apple may be a bit extended at this point, I'm willing to be a bit patient and wait for a small correction to get into Apple.

In summary, the companies in my portfolio reported good Q4 earnings. A few missed by a penny - no big deal (no blow ups). So looks like I will not be making any major changes to my portfolio. As you probably noticed, I trade very little. I like to minimize transaction costs and taxes. But I will bail out of a position if something is wrong (i.e. big earnings miss).