I've always struggled with the concept of describing four stocks I would buy with $10,000.
So rather than speculate about what stocks I would buy under unarticulated circumstances, I've decided to write about four stocks I have actually bought with $10,000. In fact, I spent $12,932 on these four shares, so let's have a look at why I did that, and if those companies are still worth buying today.
I covered the first two companies on my list in Part 1 of this series. Here are purchases numbers three and four:
ICS Global Limited (ASX: ICS) is another little company that serves the medical industry. I like it because it has the potential to earn sticky recurring revenue that should grow as demand for medical services increases with the ageing population. This accords with my philosophy of tailwind investing, which requires that the majority of my shareholdings benefit from long-term changes, as I believe these slow shifts are often underestimated by myopic Mr Market. I bought $2,100 worth of ICS Global shares at a price of 4.2 cents per share – the same price it traded at when I first suggested it could thump the market.
The company's main business is managing billing for medical professionals. It grew revenue by over 10% from FY 2012 to FY 2013 and also from the first half of FY2013 to the first half of FY2014. Further growth could make the company extremely undervalued. I wouldn't be in a hurry to buy shares because it appears the former managing director is willing to sell at what I think are low prices, but if the report demonstrates decent growth, the current price is a steal. I'm certainly not selling at these prices. The worst thing about this company is that the board awarded themselves performance shares based on an extremely temporary share price spike to 6c which was of basically no use to shareholders. It is also rather illiquid.
Servcorp Limited (ASX: SRV) rounds out my four stocks as a lower risk investment. I spent $3,600 on shares at a price of $3.60 before writing this article on Servcorp when shares were trading at $3.72 and since then, I've received 16.5c in dividends.
The company's main business is providing serviced offices to other businesses. It has a huge cash hoard and management was savvy enough to sign a lot of new leases after the GFC. As each floor gradually improves occupancy, operating leverage kicks in. My reading of it is that the number of profitable floors continues to increase, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some stark improvements in operating cash-flow – at least until the next, global recession, depression or serious downturn. I'm not buying more shares at the last traded price of $4.91, but I'd be tempted to buy on any share price weakness, or if occupancy rates exceed expectations.
