Tax Selling the Winners?

jamesmith

Tax Selling the Winners?
MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2012 AT 11:20AM
There's been a lot of talk over the last few weeks about investors selling long-term winners to lock in gains before capital gains taxes go up in 2013.  Apple (AAPL) has been the main talking point since it's down 8.90% since election day.  

The average S&P 500 stock is currently down 0.06% (basically flat) since the close on election day on November 6th.  Below is a list of the 30 best performing stocks in the S&P 500 since the bull market began on March 9th, 2009.  If any stocks are ripe for capital gains selling, these are the ones.  

Of this list of 30 stocks, 17 are down since election day while 13 are up.  Their median performance since election day is -1.60% (average is -0.73%), so there's an argument to be made that tax selling is impacting these big winners a little bit.  That being said, there are a number of stocks on the list that are up nicely as well since election day.  These include names like CBS, Tenet Health Care (THC), Ford (F) and Starbucks (SBUX).