NEW SELLS

I have decided to take some profits and sell several stocks today. I still hold positions in GE, Sarah Lee, and Gabelli Utility Trust and sold partial positions in them.

GE sold @ 38.24 for a 12.5 percent profit and held for 1 year and 10 months. Remember it pays a 3 percent dividend so I collected that while I held the stock so my real return was around 17 percent, when divided by 1 year and 10 months equals a yearly return of 7 .79 percent.

Sarah Lee (SLE) sold at $17.56 and held for 10 months for a 18.3 percent return. Sarah Lee pays a 2.3 percent dividend.

Gabelli Utility Trust (GUT) sold at $9.73 and held for 6 months for a 6.5 percent return. Gabelli pays a 7.6 percent dividend so real return with dividend is close to 10 percent on an anualized basis.

This one gets a little more complicated. I bought 100 shares of Philip Morris (MO) 9 months ago. While I held it, it spun off Kraft Foods (KFT) and I got 69 shares in the spinoff. So I now had 100 shares of Philip Morris and 60 shares of Kraft. I sold the MO at $70.44 and the Kraft at $35.48. My return was 20.3 percent over a 9 month period and this includes the dividend paid.

I am going to wait a while to invest the money and will hold it in my money market account until then.

NETFLIX (NFLX)

I purchased Netflix on June 20 at $19.71 per share. Netflix has dropped about 25 percent this year and I think now is a good time to buy on weakness. Competition with Blockbuster's aggresive pricing model and competition from video-on-demand have hit the stock.
Netflix is the largest online movie rental service offering 80,000 DVD titles to 6.8 million subscribers. I like Netflix's business model by using the Internet to manage customers and the Postal system to reach them, Netflix has been able to build it's business without drowning in red ink. On each dollar of non-cash assets it generates more than $4.50 in revenues and .30 cents in operating income.
Netflix's balance sheet has $388 million in cash, no debt, and not one inventory or accounts receivable cost. During the past three years, it has spent $381 million on new DVD titles for it's library.
Reed Hastings, Netflix chairman and CEO, has been the visionary ever since he founded the company 10 years ago. He now owns $60 million in Netflix stock.

HRPT PROPERTIES (HRP)

I purchased more shares of HRPT Properties today at $11.02 per share. It pays a dividend rate of 7.6 percent and is close to it's 52 week low. Nice solid company to hold and reinvest the dividends and let it grow.

HRPT Properties Trust operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT) in the United States. It engages in the ownership and operation of real estate, including office buildings, industrial buildings, and leased industrial land. As of December 31, 2006, the trust owned 504 properties, including 351 office properties and 153 industrial properties. HRPT Properties Trust is elected to be treated as a REIT. As a REIT, it would not be subject to federal income tax, provided that it distributes at least 90% of taxable income to its shareholders
HRPT continues to diversify and build on its strategy of going into markets that aren't quite as high-profile. During the quarter, HRPT purchased four office buildings in South Carolina and Massachusetts, with 391,000 square feet and 96.3% occupancy, for $42.6 million at a very healthy 9.8% cap rate.
Although nationwide occupancy was slightly down, HRPT did see some positive trends. Management noted that competitors were pushing for stronger rental rates and fewer concessions of free rent. Tenant improvement dollars have largely stayed constant, but lessors are getting longer lease terms as a result -- which means, on a net basis, the landlord is getting higher rents.

CENTRAL FUND of CANADA (CEF)

I had a limit buy order for CEF for about a week and it hit Friday June 8th at $8.98 per share.
I've written about this stock several times which holds Gold & Silver buillion. This stock has been bouncing around like a yo yo for the past month. Hopefully I hit it at the downswing.

RECENT TRADES

New Purchases
June 1, 2007 Newmont Mining (NEM) $41.33
June 5, 2007 Hawaiian Electric (HE) $23.91

New Sells
June 7, 2007 Halliburton (HAL) $35.212 18.5 percent profit held 6 months
June 7, 2007 Brown Forman (BFB) $69.41 3.9 percent profit held 6 months