My Bunny Portfolio Has Averaged a 13.7% Return
Posted: December 09, 2025
December 8, 2025 (Maple Hill Syndicate) – Happy 25th birthday, Bunny.
Today’s column is the 25th I’ve written about a collection of stocks named after the Energizer Bunny of commercial fame. That bunny is “still going” long after you would have expected it to fail.
My Bunny stocks are supposed to do the same thing. They are stocks with a glorious past but an uncertain future. More specifically, they have grown earnings at a 25% annual clip in the past five years but investors are gloomy about them, valuing them at 12 times earnings or less.
The theory behind this portfolio is that human beings are terrible at predicting the future. Therefore, when negative sentiment hits companies that have done well in the past, it may pay to stick with those companies.
The first 24 Bunny Portfolios have posted an average 12-month return of 13.7%. That beats the average for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Total Return Index, which came in at 11.0%.
Bear in mind that my column results are hypothetical and shouldn’t be confused with results I obtain for clients. Also, past performance doesn’t predict the future.
Members of this hypothetical portfolio are chosen by formula, not by judgment. Among stocks that meet the basic qualifications, the five fastest growers and the five cheapest stocks are combined into a ten-stock portfolio.
Here is the lineup for the 25th Bunny Portfolio.
Amphastar
Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc. (AMPH) specializes in “technically complex” injectable drugs and nasal sprays. Its earnings have grown rapidly over the past five years, but took a tumble in the past year. The stock has lost 26% of its value in 2025 to date.
Cal-Maine Foods
The largest U.S. egg producer is Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (CALM), out of Ridgeland, Mississippi. It has benefitted from a sharp rise in the price of eggs. But earnings are volatile because of fluctuations in the incidence of avian flu and the price of corn (chicken feed).
Civitas
Civitas Resources Inc. (CIVI) explores for and produces oil and gas in Colorado. It had less than $1 billion in revenue as recently as 2021; that jumped to more than $5 billion in 2024. However, debt has also climbed. Civitas pays more than 8% interest on a lot of the debt, and more than 9% on some of it.
GigaCloud
GigaCloud Technology Inc. (GTC) operates an e-commerce platform for big and bulky goods such as appliances, fitness equipment and furniture. It facilitates transactions between sellers and buyers, and takes a slice of the transaction amount. The stock, public since 2022, trades at 12 times earnings.
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG) is part of American folklore, but the stock has lost nearly half its value in the past three years. The motorcycle maker has labored at times under a heavy debt load. The debt is still higher than I prefer, but the debt-to-equity ratio today is the lowest in ten years.
Rayonier
Structured as a real estate investment trust, Rayonier Inc. (RYN) owns some two million acres of timberland. The stock has done poorly over almost any period you want to name. Analysts paradoxically don’t like it (four “holds” and only one “buy” rating) yet project its price will risen 37% in the next year.
Stride
Stride Inc. (LRN)is an online education company, used mostly by people who are doing home schooling. The stock has plunged this year after a county board of education in Illinois accused the company of wrongdoing, including overstating the number of enrolled students it has.
Three Banks
Three banks made the Bunny list. First Citizens BancShares Inc. (FCNCA) has averaged 38% annual growth in profits for the past five year, but profits fell 12% in the past four quarters. Analysts mostly take a favorable view, with 9 out of 14 analysts calling the stock a “buy.”
Third Coast Bancshares Inc. (TCBX) has 11 branches in Texas, mostly in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin. It went public in 2021 and has earned better than 1.00% on assets – my favorite yardstick for banks – in 2024 and this year.
NorthEast Community Bancorp Inc. (NECB) is based in White Plains, New York, and operates throughout the Northeastern U.S. The stock trades for less than seven times earnings and is almost completely ignored by Wall Street.
Recent Flop
While the Bunny Portfolio has, on average, been successful, it did miserably last year, dropping 15.5%. That was its second-worst performance ever. Only the 2006-2007 period was worse, with a 23.9% loss.
The Bunny’s best outings were in 2002-2003 (up 76.6%) and 2012-2013 (up 47.9%).
Disclosure: I own Cal-Maine Foods personally and for most of my clients. Figures and ratios in this column are as of December 5, 2025.
John Dorfman is chairman of Dorfman Value Investments in Boston. His firm of clients may own or trade securities discussed in this column. He can be reached at jdorfman@dorfmanvalue.com.