A Gay Friendly Portfolio Includes Apple, Microsoft & HSBC -- And Beats The Market By 47%

Motif Investing looks for “trends, ideas and world events that could create an investment opportunity.”

It then finds related stocks and builds portfolios, which weigh the stocks (10 to 30, usually) based on their exposure to a particular idea. In this article, we will look into a gay friendly portfolio.

A Gay Friendly Portfolio? What’s That?

Although embracing all sexual orientations is no longer a controversial approach in the U.S., “some companies deserve extra credit for actually influencing US attitudes by stepping up support of their own gay and lesbian employees. From domestic-partner benefit coverage to sensitivity training and event sponsorships, these companies are making employees of all kinds feel welcome,” Motif explains.
“With many of these early-adopting corporations getting singled out for support by gay and lesbian consumers (who represent a market worth $790 billion), doing the right thing could be a move in the right direction.”

Thus, the people behind the portfolio selected US-listed stocks and ADRs of companies that are regarded as LGBT-friendly by the Human Rights Campaign. Among them, we can count Apple, Microsoft and HSBC.

Source: Motif Investing

The chart above illustrates the return of this motif (in blue) over the past year, compared to the S&P 500 (in green). While the motif surged 12.6 percent, the S&P 500 rose only 8.57 percent.

Allocation

In terms of overall allocation, 42.5 percent of the motif’s assets are placed in tech stock, 22.9 percent in consumer products and services, 14.9 percent in financial companies, 10.8 percent in transportation, 4.5 percent in commercial services, 2 percent in telecom stocks, 1.6 percent in healthcare and 0.7 percent in energy.

Looking at particular allocation, these are the top stocks in the motif:

Apple Inc. AAPL, 21.9 percent

Microsoft Corporation MSFT,6.1 percent

Walt Disney Co DIS, 6.0 percent

HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) HSBC,5.4 percent

Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO, 5.3 percent

Johnson & Johnson JNJ,4.8 percent

Thomson Reuters Corporation (USA) TRI,4.5 percent

Progressive Corp PGR, 3.8 percent

Danaher Corporation DHR,3.7 percent

Kellogg Company K, 3.7 percent