The very little research, but are these really hopeless cases? portfolio vs. FTSE250

Just for a bit of fun, I thought I'd pick a few companies whose share prices look a little battered and bruised and compare their performance against the FTSE 250 over the next two/three years. I haven't done any research on these companies, and all I'll do is make a few cursory observations in their favour. I don't currently hold any shares in the companies I shall mention. Those of you who do read the blog from time to time will know that I tend to concentrate my efforts on trying to find bargains in the small/micro cap sector (see previous blogs).

For simplicity, I am going to allocate an equal (but fictional) investment in each of the eight companies.

The companies and their respective share prices at the close of play today are as follows:-

Aviva                                                            318.8p
Cable and Wireless Worldwide                      34.44p
Cable and Wireless Communications              32.12p
Game Group                                                  23p
ITV                                                                55.85p
Man Group.                                                   206.1p
Thomas Cook                                                43.55p
Vodafone                                                       162.85p

The share prices are the mid-prices given on the ADVFN monitor at the time of posting (17:40 Thurs. 25 Aug 2011).

The FTSE-250 finished the day at 10,021.39.

Starting with Aviva. Well known Life Insurer that pays a dividend of over 8%. If it holds the dividend for the foreseeable future then that's a pretty good return when you compare it against other investments.

The two Cable and Wireless companies. Proof that performance after a demerger can be as unimpressive as it was before, so far investors have had the opportunity to be disappointed twice as often. However, the yields from both companies are quite high (again if they can maintain them), and aren't both companies possible takeover targets?

Game group. Is this company seen in the same light as HMV? Looks to have better prospects to me, and  a cursory glance seems to indicate that it is adapting and fighting back with a growing online presence.

ITV. Can still attract huge audiences for popular shows e.g. around 20m for the X-factor final and hence still attracts the advertisers. Apart from the BBC, does it really have any credible opposition in the UK? Just re-instated a dividend payment. Possible takeover target?

Man Group. Nice dividend. Possible takeover candidate.

Thomas Cook. Pessimists think TC could go bust or at the very least need to issue more equity. However, TC will be merging with the Co-op to make it the biggest UK tour operator. Despite the many issues facing TC, Russian acquistion looks promising, the Brits still love their package holidays and the chaos caused by the ash cloud should benefit companies like TC in the long run. At today's share price the yield is about 25%. Market obviously believes a cut is imminent, but if it isn't or it returns to the same levels in a year or two then what a fantastic return. Directors have been buying at current levels.

Finally, Vodafone. Dividend yield must be over 7% with the special dividend in January. Will the special dividend be a one off? Probably not.

You can clearly see that I haven't done much research, but I am interested to see how the performance of this portfolio pans out against the FTSE250 over the next two or three years. Just to stick my neck out, my guess is that this portfolio will out perform the FTSE250, but I'm not recommending it and I certainly haven't done this myself.

As I said at the beginning, it's just a bit of fun that fits in with my value and contrarian instincts, and on a monthly basis I shall return to compare performance.