Buying GE, Dumping GM, Cisco, DowDuPont, Lilly

ALPS Advisors is the asset management arm of ALPS Funds Services and oversees a portfolio of around $ 14 billion in shares.

Investments are based largely on energy. According to S & P Capital IQ, that sector represents approximately 73% of the portfolio, but ALPS made some interesting investment movements in the fourth quarter outside the master limited companies.

ALPS increased its holdings of General Electric (GE) ticker: in the quarter and came out relatively substantial positions in General Motors (GM), Cisco Systems (CSCO), DowDuPont (DWDP) and Eli Lilly (LLY).

GE seemed cheap in the fourth quarter. On its way down to a collapse of the 50% price in 2017, GE reached the multi-year lows in November and December. ALPS purchased 800,300 more shares of GE in the quarter, increasing its holdings to 2.7 million shares at the end of the year. Unfortunately, GE has gone to lower lows in 2018, losing another 16% until the midday session on Wednesday. We see that stocks fall another 10% from here.

ALPS reduces another general name, GM. In fact, there were no more shares of the automaker in the garage of ALPS after the asset manager sold its holdings of 1.23 million shares. GM advanced well in 2017, as shares rose 23%, excluding dividends, exceeding the 20% increase in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. GM issued an optimistic guidance in January, but the stock has stalled; the shares are flat so far in 2018.

ALPS had 1.44 million shares of the Cisco network giant at the end of the third quarter, but it sold all of them at the end of 2017. That's a shame, since ALPS lost connection with Cisco's continued growth. The shares rose 31% in 2017 and have added 16% more so far this year. Cisco has been generous with more repurchases and dividend increases, always a good formula to raise stock prices.

DowDuPont found good chemistry with investors in 2017, as it increased by 28%. We have expressed our optimism about the stock, considering that it could go up to $ 92. It is not there yet. Stocks have stagnated the year to date. They were trading at $ 72.16 at noon on Wednesday, an increase of 1.3% in 2018 so far. ALPS sold 700,000 shares of DowDuPont in the fourth quarter and did not own any at the end of the year.

Lilly obtained a decent performance, although lackluster, in 2017, increasing by 18%. ALPS considered it appropriate to sell the 547,300 Lilly shares it had held at the end of the third quarter. That could have been a prophetic movement. So far in 2018, Lilly has dropped almost 7% as it has not yet recovered from a January 31 sales wave on what could have been a conference call in the fourth quarter. In August, we noted that Lilly promised growth in sales that an analyst said required acquisitions.

Speaking of acquisitions, the definitive parent company of ALPS, DST Systems (DST), agreed in January to be purchased by a larger software company, SS & C Technologies Holdings (SSNC) in a $ 5.4 billion deal. It should be noted that ALPS had only a nominal amount of DST shares at the end of 2017, 8,900 shares. If ALPS had had many more properties, it could have taken advantage of the greatest potential in the home. DST shares rose after the agreement was announced and have risen 34% so far this year, which exceeds most of the shares.