My Current Financial Status - Feb 10

This month I finally got Ohio's 529 plan for my son; We chose a out-of-state 529 plan because the California 529 plan offers no state tax exemption, and it was a toss-up between Utah and Ohio 529 plans. I ended up with Ohio as I preferred to use Vanguard's age-based options rather than Utah's custom age-based options. Furthermore, the fee differences between the two were minor. I imagine I will be equally happy if I had gone with the Utah 529 plan.

This month included adding to my position in UFP Technologies (UFPT), a packaging company specializing in fabricating specialty foams, plastics, and natural fiber materials. Their products are used in automotive, commercial and consumer markets. UFPT announced on Wednesday continued positive non-GAAP earnings of $0.45 per share, for an estimated earnings of $0.94 per year for 2009. This is annualized 3-year growth rate of 86%. UFPT has low debt (quick ratio of 1.04 and current ratio of 3.13); a good thing in this financial climate. Price/Free Cash Flow for Trailing Twelve Months is 8.7 (versus around 20 for S&P in general). UFPT has been undervalued for quite a while - I had been picking up shares from $4.39 to $7.71. Since the earnings announcement on Wednesday, UFPT has risen to $10. 

I have also continued to purchase shares of companies I find fairly-priced but with good growth prospects or undervalued during market downturns, like PBR, PFE and KFT.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. In fact, I am not trained in finance at all. Investing in any financial products can be highly risky and use of the information provided by here is at your sole risk.