Image Source: Ken Mist

Two of our favorite ideas have been leading the pack.

By Brian Nelson, CFA

We don’t send newsletter notifications often. In fact, they are few and far between. But when we do highlight an idea for the newsletter portfolios, we want it to be a good one. On Friday, 24/7 Wall Street reported that Boeing (BA) had increased its lead as the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s (DIA) top performer during 2017, with the year-to-date mark reaching nearly 65%, as of the end of last week. If you recall, on January 26, we "added" the idea to the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio at $168.44, making it perhaps one of the best large-cap ideas highlighted anywhere during 2017. On September 22, 2017, the aerospace giant closed at $256.45.

What’s the second-best performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average thus far in 2017? Well, 24/7 Wall Street noted that Visa (V) has advanced ~35% thus far this year, as of the end of last week. Why is this meaningful? Well, the credit card network is the largest “weighting” in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio. How about that? Boeing – the best performer in the Dow Jones Industrial Average so far in 2017 – added to the Dividend Growth Newsletter near the start of the year, and Visa – the largest “weighting” in the Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio -- has been the second-best performer. If we skip Caterpillar, Apple (AAPL) -- an idea in both newsletter portfolios -- is the fourth-best performer.

We’re excited about our ability to generate new ideas for consideration (“success rates” in the Nelson Exclusive publication are fantastic, too!), and we want to build on this concept as we roll out new enhancements to Valuentum in 2018. We hope that you will like the improvements in the works. One quick note: the Financial Advisor level publications – the Ideas100, Dividend 100, and DataScreener – will be released on Sunday, October 15, instead of originally scheduled concurrent with the Dividend Growth Newsletter on the first of October. If you have any questions, feedback, or if we can be of any assistance, please just let us know. Thank you!

Related: DDM, DOD