Q3 Window Dressing Stocks (CSCO, GOOG, AAPL, RIMM, CROX, XOM, SLB, HAL, NOV, FSLR, BIDU, VMW, AMZN)

As quarters come to an end, with today being the quarter end, we usually like to review the top hi-flyers, usually in tech or energy of late, but we like to look for stocks that have performed the best during a quarter that fund managers and pension managers like to have on their books.  That is the famed Window Dressing trading. Below is a list of some of the top names that portfolio managers would want to show as being on their books at the end of a quarter (prices are last hour, not closing prices)

                                                June 29     September 30 (last hour)
Cisco Systems (CSCO)        $27.85        $33.02
Apple (AAPL)                           $122.04        $153.06
Research in Motion (RIMM)   $66.66        $98.07
Amazon.com (AMZN)              $68.41        $93.17
VMware (VMW)            n/a IPO $29…         $83.15
Baidu.com (BIDU)                 $167.98       $290.10
First Solar (FSLR)                   $89.29        $115.85
Crox (CROX)                            $43.00         $67.48
Google (GOOG)                     $522.70        $566.00
Exxon Mobil (XOM)                  $83.55          $92.24
Schlumberger (SLB)              $84.74          $105.00
Halliburton (HAL)                    $34.41          $38.45
Nat’l Oilwell Varco (NOV)      $104.24        $144.31

If you thought the market malaise of mortgages and brokerage blow-ups was a wreck, these guys sure didn’t know it.  What tends to happen is that many of the "index" type traders that play rebalances and play January effect tend to lighten up on the hi-flyers at the end of the quarter or immediately after it, although these have to all be looked at on a case by case basis and there are many will refute this theory.  I lean toward the refuting crowd on this as an ‘every single quarter’ basis, but when you look at the monster performance of these you can understand why some would try to sell the names.

Also, as a reminder many of the funds have OCTOBER Year-End, so this may make this quarter end a bit different.  The underlying trends are also quite favorable, although that is enough on the caveat front.   

Jon C. Ogg
September 28, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he produces the Special Situation Investing Newsletter and does not own securities in the companies he covers.