April 2018 VOL. 67, NO. 7

STOCK TO STUDY: Fastenal Co. — Tightening Up Its Growth Strategy? (p. 19)

www.betterinvesting.org

Some of the companies making the most significant upward movements in the BetterInvesting Top 200 from 2016 to 2017.

Club holding information is from myICLUB.com.

Our annual Top 100 Survey of Investment Clubs is presented on the following pages. The Top 100 Companies are listed on pages 36 and 37, while the Second 100 listing is on page 38. An alphabetical index of the Top 200 Companies is on page 39.

At the end of 2017, the average port-folio value of clubs

subscribing to the myICLUB.com club accounting portal totaled $220,500, compared with $186,000 the year before. The typical port folio held more in stocks versus the year before — 89.9 per-cent of the total value com-pared with 86.4 percent — while cash dropped to 8.2 percent from 11.4 percent. Most of the major movers on this year’s list were involved with three industries: tech (Applied Materials and Nvidia), defense (Raytheon and Lockheed Martin) and retail (Alibaba, Ulta Beauty, Dollar General and Tractor Supply). Nvidia especially continues to march up the table, going from outside the top 200 in 2015 to 95 in 2016 to 38 in 2017.

Cover Story | FEATURE

April 2018 | BetterInvesting | 35

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104 Applied Materials 190 to 86

72 Raytheon 157 to 85

57 Nvidia 95 to 38

33 Lockheed Martin 123 to 90

30 Alibaba 73 to 43

29 PayPal 69 to 40

25 Ulta Beauty 90 to 65

21 Dollar General 92 to 71

21 Tractor Supply 105 to 84

20 Citigroup 118 to 98

Places Moved Company Movement From 2016 to 2017

UP

Big Movers on the Top 200 List

FEATURE | Cover Story

Number Rank by Number of Rank by Total Value of Rank by # of Clubs Total Shares Total Value Shares Held Companies of Clubs Holding Shares Held by of Shares by Members Ticker Holding Stock Held Members Held on 12-31-17

Apple Inc.Alphabet Inc. Amazon.com, Inc Facebook, Inc. Johnson & Johnson Disney (Walt) Company, The Starbucks Corporation Visa Inc. Microsoft Corporation General Electric Company Home Depot, Inc., The Costco Wholesale Corporation Berkshire Hathaway Inc. PepsiCo, Inc. Procter & Gamble Company, The AT&T Inc. Exxon Mobil Corporation Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. Intel Corporation Verizon Communications Inc. Skyworks Solutions, Inc. Gilead Sciences, Inc. McDonald’s Corporation AbbVie Inc. Southwest Airlines Co. Boeing Company, The Pfizer Inc CVS Health Corporation Ford Motor Company Stryker Corporation Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Cisco Systems, Inc. Netflix Inc. LKQ Corporation Aflac Incorporated Air Lease Corporation Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.Nvidia Corporation Tesla Motors, Inc.PayPal Holdings, Inc. Wells Fargo & Company Lowe’s Companies, Inc. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Under Armour, Inc. � Caterpillar Inc. Gentex Corporation Amgen Inc. Oracle Corporation Bank of America Corporation Coca-Cola Company, The

AAPLGOOGLAMZNFBJNJDISSBUXVMSFTGEHDCOSTBRK.BPEPPGTXOMCTSHINTCVZSWKSGILDMCDABBVLUVBAPFECVSFSYKWMTCSCONFLXLKQAFLALWBANVDATSLAPYPLWFCLOWBABAUAACATGNTXAMGNORCLBACKO

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1011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950

2,021983869818756698684677618597592564551504468451445431410409352348341338336334333330328323323322315306292282278276269268261259244243238233228227227215

16977171525

5862

2639272919101813

79

2414373111382041

4404321601628

34267994633457944581268342232

974,89858,93250,363

227,138254,320212,638368,670347,578348,894450,422194,886122,912189,680186,518226,112334,265226,448261,590348,195342,778218,513256,177137,114179,423278,631134,157225,235117,023392,016117,886109,940225,230

68,146253,039186,553401,195109,956

63,01418,302

105,405171,512106,080

48,948107,762

73,350266,487

60,468156,842222,326178,555

12369

1314

51056

812

7161831201928251517112324

45243782234422937272151306146363844

100326535545850

$174,760,13866,811,58465,135,39440,839,48137,364,76323,479,53922,522,02442,790,28231,435,314

7,553,58138,651,75523,538,81640,437,93722,204,93720,390,81012,417,92819,798,38720,077,03915,487,71117,670,21622,351,65120,793,85123,936,03518,625,85818,127,74145,634,887

8,331,4589,285,7744,731,638

18,894,83311,466,753

9,301,98215,014,55910,804,75116,125,65219,409,817

8,356,62814,142,859

6,306,4098,742,331

10,968,22210,752,246

9,025,9981,420,594

12,383,6626,078,570

11,343,1867,878,1586,998,829

8,370,663

36 | BetterInvesting | April 2018

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* Advanced five positions or more in rank since last year. � Combines Class A and C shareownership.

Cover Story

Number Rank by Number of Rank by Total Value of Rank by # of Clubs Total Shares Total Value Shares Held Companies of Clubs Holding Shares Held by of Shares by Members Ticker Holding Stock Held Members Held on 12-31-17

Shown on these two pages are the most popular and widely held stocks amonginvestment clubs and their members nationwide as of late 2017.

Abbott Laboratories Celgene Corporation 3M Company Fastenal CompanyChevron Corporation Nike Inc. TJX Companies Inc.Kraft Heinz Company, The Altria Group Medtronic, Inc. Qualcomm Incorporated United Parcel Service, Inc. UnitedHealth Group IncorporatedDowDuPont Inc. � �Ulta Beauty, Inc. YUM! Brands, Inc. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Mondelez International, Inc.Target CorporationFedEx Corporation Dollar General Corporation Merck & Co., Inc. United Technologies Corporation CSX Corporation FactSet Research Systems Inc. Danaher Corporation Express Scripts, Inc. Corning Incorporated Philip Morris International, Inc. Union Pacific CorporationYum China Holdings, Inc. Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. Tractor Supply CompanyRaytheon Company Comcast CorporationApplied Materials Inc.Schlumberger Limited ConocoPhillips IPG Photonics Corporation Lockheed Martin Corp. Cerner Corporation Waste Management, Inc. ResMed Inc. Constellation Brands, Inc.BP p.l.c. Mastercard Incorporated Phillips 66 Citigroup Inc. Kroger Co., ThePaychex, Inc.

ABTCELGMMMFASTCVXNKETJXKHCMOMDTQCOMUPSUNHDWDPULTAYUMJPMMDLZTGTFDXDGMRKUTXCSXFDSDHRESRXGLWPMUNPYUMCDLTRTSCORTNCMCSAAMATSLBCOPIPGPLMTCERNWMRMDSTZBPMAPSXCKRPAYX

51525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899

100

215206204201198191188181179173170170168167167164163161158156153148147147141137137137136134131130127127127126126124123123123122120119116112106106105105

475283356549668136785992762397617053879580508657906273485171728256985463857589

10064888496559193943074

103,85483,65043,661

145,89463,92593,65163,19846,603

138,39549,63272,32034,41350,802

218,88724,27268,13858,24880,58940,86831,71548,47190,33241,89574,03537,48567,02057,46594,07085,75858,20557,77844,35977,40824,22980,35466,53742,55153,92137,59414,02465,69040,81843,26828,72877,85335,95433,93432,473

180,02355,053

64483955496676884183748033266869609197477571708457598194455398

73627792869596407982898563936790997287

$6,134,6858,508,869

10,736,6957,774,7058,411,9196,003,9354,882,0343,694,2069,691,8184,330,8654,921,3654,597,263

12,352,94316,641,964

5,901,7305,662,2486,597,1643,520,1113,183,6488,632,1264,896,9905,521,9655,639,5074,297,7057,468,8106,684,5994,597,1833,278,3329,010,6278,173,7382,608,0985,008,1316,262,2804,741,7973,362,8283,819,2033,249,6333,222,3299,802,5794,670,0104,564,7933,590,3563,841,7426,242,1993,339,8795,949,6123,572,9322,513,0915,231,4673,793,672

April 2018 | BetterInvesting | 37

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** New to the Top 100. � Merger of Dow and DuPont

BetterInvesting Magazine continues its expanded coverage of the most widely held stocks among investment club members nationwide by presenting

the Second 100, companies that are among the 200most popular holdings by active club investors in today’s equity market.

Rank Number Total Value by No. of Clubs of Shares of Clubs Holding Held by Holding Company Ticker Stock Members

Rank Number Total Value by No. of Clubs of Shares of Clubs Holding Held by Holding Company Ticker Stock Members

BetterInvesting’s 2nd 100 Companies for 2017 Co

FEATURE | Cover Story

38 | BetterInvesting | April 2018 * Advanced 5 positions or more in rank since last year. ** New to the Top 200.

◀ Spun off from Biogen.� Merged with Spectra Energy.

� Formerly Coach, Inc.� Formerly Taser International.

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Price (T. Rowe) Group, Inc.Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.IBM CorporationBank of the Ozarks, Inc. Activision Blizzard, Inc. Duke Energy Corporation Sysco Corporation Kinder Morgan Inc. Deere & Company Johnson Controls, Inc.Fortive Corporation American Tower Corporation Harley Davidson, Inc. Honeywell International Inc. O’Reilly Automotive, Inc.Biogen Inc. Priceline Group Inc., The General Motors Company Colgate-Palmolive Company American Water Works Co., Inc.Square, Inc. Illinois Tool Works Inc. General Mills, Inc. Cummins Inc.salesforce.com, inc. Sirius XM Holdings Inc. NextEra Energy Inc. Canadian National Railway Valero Energy Corporation Fiserv, Inc.Adient plcAdobe Systems IncorporatedArconic Inc. Clorox Company, TheNucor CorporationHanesbrands Inc. Emerson Electric Co.Micron Technology, Inc. RPM International Inc. Diageo plc Smucker (J.M.) Company, TheFive Below, Inc.BofI Holding, Inc. Automatic Data Processing, Inc. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.Hormel Foods CorporationAlaska Air Group, Inc.Edwards Lifesciences CorporationBioverativ Inc.�◀International Paper Company

TROWBMYIBMOZRKATVIDUKSYYKMIDEJCIFTVAMTHOGHONORLYBIIBPCLNGMCLAWKSQITWGISCMICRMSIRINEECNIVLOFISVADNTADBEARNCCLXNUEHBIEMRMURPMDEOSJMFIVEBOFIADPTMOHRLALKEWBIVVIP

103103103102100999897979595959493939393928985858584848282797977767573737372727270707070696968686867666666

$4,587,2862,858,5014,475,9893,224,6092,844,6452,260,915

10,782,7532,893,5974,416,8291,769,2132,117,8313,180,1871,572,5083,445,285 6,399,5133,967,0327,421,5978,028,8344,458,9502,313,4211,651,3034,125,2561,719,9703,419,6952,282,6431,101,8743,131,2512,738,6217,989,7006,949,851

602,3703,306,5311,053,6332,281,3552,734,3111,260,3682,927,6062,430,0462,853,6602,119,8272,495,6702,047,8902,205,6473,312,1844,601,3341,790,7499,055,7033,032,090

507,0201,900,772

$2,973,6341,868,9202,401,3731,911,0581,668,050

240,8691,582,9651,456,6252,408,1833,196,374

964,2222,671,8832,511,2321,725,292

562,1581,159,6661,280,7001,096,2671,220,5651,077,7931,182,242

988,5732,104,8472,168,8074,738,562

635,2231,506,9221,027,8946,235,3282,488,7034,993,113

896,3094,748,4451,285,9901,572,9431,657,8621,479,477

420,0741,074,3421,142,6231,409,7487,283,551

508,1291,674,884

641,430313,926

1,164,094249,701

2,100,4591,410,726

6463636262626059575757565656565555545454535353535252525251515150494948484846464645454444444443434343

GDNVOMARKMBCHRWSNAPHEIUSBBIDUBDXDNKNLRCXNSCDALEBAYBXWTRNVSSHOPAPOGRDS.AENBCHKPHSYISRGTPRSOHALQQQCHDDHIWDCSPYXLFECLILMNLLYAAXNAGNTMDTHOJBLUSBNYTEVATWTRETNBBBYADMLCII

General Dynamics Corporation Novo Nordisk A/SMarriott International, Inc. Kimberly-Clark Corp. C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc.Snap Inc.Heico Corporation US Bancorp Baidu.com, Inc. Becton, Dickinson and Company Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc.Lam Research Corporation Norfolk Southern Corporation Delta Air Lines Inc. eBay Inc.Blackstone Group L.P., The Aqua America Inc.Novartis AGShopify Inc.Apogee Enterprises, Inc.Royal Dutch Shell plcEnbridge Inc. �Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Hershey Corp.Intuitive Surgical, Inc.Tapestry, Inc. � Southern Company, The Halliburton CompanyPowershares QQQ ETF Church & Dwight Co., Inc.D.R. Horton, Inc.Western Digital CorporationSPDR S&P 500 ETFFinancial Select Sector SPDR Fund ETFEcolab Inc.Illumina, Inc.Eli Lilly and CompanyAxon Enterprise, Inc. �Allergan plc Toyota Motor CorporationDominion Energy, Inc.Thor Industries, Inc.JetBlue Airways CorporationSignature Bank Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Twitter, Inc. Eaton Corporation plc Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Archer-Daniels Midland CompanyLCI Industries

151152153154155156157158159160161162163164165166167168169170171172173174175176177178179180181182183184185186187188189190191192193194195196197198199200

Company Rank Company Rank Company Rank

Alphabetical Listing of the Top 200 CompaniesCover Story

April 2018 | BetterInvesting | 39

3M Company .......................................................53 Abbott Laboratories..............................................51 AbbVie Inc. ..........................................................24Activision Blizzard, Inc. ......................................105Adient plc ..........................................................131Adobe Systems Incorporated .............................132 Aflac Incorporated ................................................35 Air Lease Corporation ..........................................36Alaska Air Group, Inc. ........................................147 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd....................................43Allergan plc .......................................................189Alphabet Inc. .........................................................2 Altria Group .........................................................59 Amazon.com, Inc. ..................................................3 American Tower Corporation ..............................112 American Water Works Company, Inc. ...............120 Amgen Inc. ..........................................................47Apogee Enterprises, Inc. ....................................170 Apple Inc. ..............................................................1Applied Materials Inc. ...........................................86 Aqua America Inc. .............................................167 Archer-Daniels Midland Company.......................199Arconic Inc. .......................................................133 AT&T Inc. ............................................................16 Automatic Data Processing, Inc..........................144Axon Enterprise, Inc. ..........................................188 Baidu.com, Inc. .................................................159 Bank of America Corporation................................49Bank of the Ozarks, Inc. .....................................104 Becton, Dickinson and Company ........................160 Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. .....................................198 Berkshire Hathaway Inc. .......................................13Biogen Inc. ........................................................116Bioverativ Inc. ....................................................149Blackstone Group L.P., The ................................166 Boeing Company, The ..........................................26BofI Holding, Inc. ...............................................143BP p.l.c. ..............................................................95Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. ...................................102 C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. ...........................155 Canadian National Railway .................................128 Caterpillar Inc.......................................................45 Celgene Corporation .............................................52 Cerner Corporation ...............................................91Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. .............173Chevron Corporation ............................................55 Church & Dwight Co., Inc. .................................180 Cisco Systems, Inc. .............................................32 Citigroup Inc. .......................................................98 Clorox Company, The .........................................134 Coca-Cola Company, The ....................................50 Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. ................18 Colgate-Palmolive Company ...............................119 Comcast Corporation ...........................................85 ConocoPhillips .....................................................88 Constellation Brands, Inc......................................94 Corning Incorporated ...........................................78 Costco Wholesale Corporation .............................12 CSX Corporation ..................................................74 Cummins Inc. ....................................................124 CVS Health Corporation ........................................28D.R. Horton, Inc. ................................................181 Danaher Corporation ............................................76 Deere & Company ..............................................109 Delta Air Lines Inc. .............................................164 Diageo plc .........................................................140 Disney (Walt) Company, The ..................................6

Dollar General Corporation ...................................71 Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. ........................................82Dominion Energy, Inc. ........................................191DowDuPont Inc. ...................................................64 Duke Energy Corporation....................................106 Dunkin’ Brands Group, Inc. ................................161 Eaton Corporation plc.........................................197 eBay Inc. ...........................................................165Ecolab Inc. ........................................................185Edwards Lifesciences Corporation ......................148Eli Lilly and Company.........................................187 Emerson Electric Co...........................................137Enbridge Inc. .....................................................172 Express Scripts, Inc. ............................................77 Exxon Mobil Corporation ......................................17 Facebook, Inc. .......................................................4 FactSet Research Systems Inc. ............................75 Fastenal Company ...............................................54FedEx Corporation ................................................70Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF ..............184 Fiserv, Inc. .........................................................130Five Below, Inc. .................................................142 Ford Motor Company ...........................................29Fortive Corporation .............................................111General Dynamics Corporation ...........................151 General Electric Company ....................................10 General Mills, Inc. ..............................................123 General Motors Company ...................................118 Gentex Corporation ..............................................46 Gilead Sciences, Inc. ...........................................22 Halliburton Company ..........................................178Hanesbrands Inc. ...............................................136 Harley Davidson, Inc. .........................................113Heico Corporation ..............................................157 Hershey Corp. ....................................................174 Home Depot, Inc., The .........................................11 Honeywell International Inc. ................................114Hormel Foods Corporation .................................146 Illinois Tool Works Inc. .......................................122Illumina, Inc. ......................................................186 Intel Corporation ..................................................19 IBM Corporation .................................................103International Paper Company ..............................150Intuitive Surgical, Inc. .........................................175 IPG Photonics Corporation ...................................89JetBlue Airways Corporation ..............................193 Johnson & Johnson ...............................................5 Johnson Controls, Inc. .......................................110 JPMorgan Chase & Co. ........................................67 Kimberly-Clark Corp. ..........................................154 Kinder Morgan Inc. ............................................108Kraft Heinz Company, The ....................................58 Kroger Co., The ...................................................99Lam Research Corporation .................................162LCI Industries ....................................................200 LKQ Corporation ..................................................34 Lockheed Martin Corp. .........................................90 Lowe’s Companies, Inc. .......................................42Marriott International, Inc. ..................................153 Mastercard Incorporated ......................................96 McDonald’s Corporation .......................................23 Medtronic, Inc......................................................60 Merck & Co., Inc..................................................72Micron Technology, Inc......................................138 Microsoft Corporation ............................................9 Mondelez International, Inc. ..................................68 Netflix Inc. ...........................................................33

NextEra Energy Inc. ............................................127 Nike Inc. ..............................................................56 Norfolk Southern Corporation .............................163Novartis AG .......................................................168 Novo Nordisk A/S ..............................................152Nucor Corporation..............................................135Nvidia Corporation ...............................................38 O’Reilly Automotive, Inc. ....................................115 Oracle Corporation ...............................................48Paychex, Inc. .....................................................100PayPal Holdings, Inc. ...........................................40 PepsiCo, Inc. .......................................................14 Pfizer Inc .............................................................27 Philip Morris International, Inc. .............................79 Phillips 66 ...........................................................97Powershares QQQ ETF .......................................179 Price (T. Rowe) Group, Inc. ...............................101 Priceline Group Inc., The ....................................117 Procter & Gamble Company, The .........................15 Qualcomm Incorporated .......................................61Raytheon Company ..............................................84 ResMed Inc. ........................................................93Royal Dutch Shell plc .........................................171 RPM International Inc. ........................................139salesforce.com, inc. ..........................................125Schlumberger Limited ..........................................87Shopify Inc. .......................................................169Signature Bank...................................................194 Sirius XM Holdings Inc. ......................................126 Skyworks Solutions, Inc. ......................................21 Smucker (J.M.) Company, The ...........................141Snap Inc. ...........................................................156 Southern Company, The .....................................177 Southwest Airlines Co. .........................................25SPDR S&P 500 ETF ...........................................183Square, Inc. .......................................................121 Starbucks Corporation............................................7 Stryker Corporation ..............................................30 Sysco Corporation .............................................107Tapestry, Inc. .....................................................176Target Corporation ...............................................69 Tesla Motors, Inc. ................................................39 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. ...................195 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. ..............................145Thor Industries, Inc. ...........................................192 TJX Companies Inc. .............................................57 Toyota Motor Corporation ..................................190 Tractor Supply Company ......................................83 Twitter, Inc. .......................................................196Ulta Beauty, Inc. ..................................................65 Under Armour, Inc. ..............................................44 Union Pacific Corporation .....................................80 United Parcel Service, Inc. ...................................62 United Technologies Corporation ..........................73 UnitedHealth Group Incorporated ..........................63 US Bancorp .......................................................158 Valero Energy Corporation ..................................129 Verizon Communications Inc. ...............................20 Visa Inc. ................................................................8 Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ...........................................31 Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. .............................37 Waste Management, Inc. ......................................92 Wells Fargo & Company.......................................41Western Digital Corporation ................................182Yum China Holdings, Inc. .....................................81 YUM! Brands, Inc. ................................................66