(DD, MCD, BA, CAT, KFT, AA, HPQ, MSFT, BAC, CSCO, VZ, T, IBM, CVX, TRV, KO, PG, MRK)

For the calendar year through August 30th, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 4%. But that 4% is not spread evenly among the components of the DJIA, and we thought it might be instructive and entertaining to look at the five leading gainers and the five leading losers from among the Dow 30.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (NYSE:DD) leads the gainers with a pickup of 19.75% year-to-date. The second leading gainer is McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD), with a gain of 16.5%. Third on the list is Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), up 14.72%, followed closely by Caterpillar, Inc. (NYSE:CAT) with a gain of 14.25%. Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE:KFT) rounds out the top five with a gain of 10.1%.

The biggest loser to date this year is Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE:AA), which has dropped -36.41%. Next is Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ), down -24.83%. The third biggest loser is Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), down -22.6%, followed by Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), down -17.33%. Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) tops off the bottom five with a loss of -15.66%.

Among the Dow 30, the leaders in dividend yield are Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T) at 6.5% and 6.3% respectively. Yet neither is among either the best or worst performers since the beginning of the year.

Verizon’s P/E ratio of more than 115 leads the Dow 30 by a mile, with Boeing at nearly 45 next. Neither Bank of America nor Alcoa has a positive P/E.

The trailing-twelve-month EPS leader is IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM) with earnings of $10.58. Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) paid $8.41 and The Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV) paid $6.66. Again Bank of America and Alcoa both posted EPS losses.

Looking ahead, the next-year forward P/E ratio leaders are McDonald’s and The Coca Cola Co. (NYSE:KO) at 14.97 and 14.93, respectively. Proctor & Gamble (NYSE:PG) is next at 13.78. The high-tech firms H-P, Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco post ratios of 7.76, 8.92, 8.91, and 10.14, respectively. Cisco’s forward P/E is about equal to Alcoa’s.

In only 4 of 30 cases is the forward P/E ratio above the trailing-twelve-month P/E ratio: Dupont, Kraft, Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK), and Travelers. And even in those four cases, the change is quite modest.

Overall, the biggest share prices losses were larger than the largest gains. Forward P/E ratios seem to indicate that there’s not a lot of enthusiasm either in high-tech or in the Dow 30 components as a group. The landscape going forward looks a lot like the ground we’ve just covered.

Paul Ausick

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