We are now at the end of March and what a month that has been. An absolute roller-coaster, but more about that later. This article is about my portfolio so let’s get into it:
Apple (AAPL) – 18.32%
Qualcomm (QCOM) – 10.86%
Cisco (CSCO) – 9.24%
Abbvie (ABBV) – 8.26%
Unilever (UN) – 6.96%
AT&T (T) – 6.86%
Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF (VFEM) – 6.63%
Caterpillar (CAT) – 6.11%
Mcdonald’s (MCD) – 5.97%
Shell (RDS.B) – 5.89%
Pfizer (PFE) – 5.82%
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) – 5.22%
BP (BP) – 3.60%
Removed Positions
This is the first time I have this column since I started doing my Portfolio Reviews. Or in other words – this is the first time I have sold any of my stocks since I started tracking my portfolio.
Those stocks are Bank of America (BAC) and US Total Corporate Bond ETF (VUCP). I sold them, because honestly I didn’t really believe in them to that extent and because I don’t feel great having exposure to any bonds at the moment.
The bond ETF was just a vehicle for me to get a decent monthly dividend. I sold at a decent profit of around 10% and decided to use the cash for other positions.
As for Bank of America, I am just not that big of a fan of holding financials and I realised it in the last couple of weeks. I bought the stock primarily because of it’s Metrics. I didn’t buy it because I believe in the company or anything else, but purely because I saw it as undervalued. I sold my position at about break-even price.
There is nothing wrong with the company, in fact they are quite well-managed and I am sure will do well in the long-term. What was wrong though is that I picked them purely because of valuation.
There are a lot more companies around that I believe in, but didn’t have a chance to invest in, because of really high valuations. Now the prices are a bit better and would prefer to build my portfolio around companies that I believe in and in sectors I understand better. Which brings me to my next section.
New Positions
Mcdonald’s (MCD)
I initiated a starting position in the company with the idea of growing it over time. I managed to pick up some shares at around $140-$145. The yield was good, it’s one of the most robust companies around the world and it is a company that has shown knows how to operate their business.
They will be having some troubles of course in the short-term because of the global pandemic that we are in right now. They are forced to close down restaurans and operate takeaway and drive-through only. Their bottom-line will suffer for a while, but this is the case for the majority of companies around the world right now.
This got me the chance to pick up some shares with a dividend yield at around 3.5%. I will gladly buy some more, but the price climbed really fast with almost 25% since I bought in.
On one hand that is a quick 25% gain, but on the other I would like to add to my position. If there is anything I have learned is that I need to be patient. So far happy I managed to add this company to my portfolio. It has been on my Watchlist for a long time.
Plans For The Month
There is an earnings season coming up, but honestly it is of little interest to me. Most of the things around earnings are known already – it is going to be a disaster for a lot of companies. For anyone expecting stocks to drop on this presumption, I don’t think that will be the case.
Guidance on certain companies might be interesting, but overall the earnings this quarter are more or less a write-off, at least for big part of the companies out there. After all the whole world is at a standstill and even production has been halted for a lot of products around.
What I am mostly interested though is how is Italy going to cope with the virus. They are one of the first major western countries to be hit and this will give us a good insight of the full scope of the virus.
Yes, the first one was China, but it is hard to believe any number that gets out of there, and also the measures they took cannot be taken at any western country, atleast not to the same extent.
So far the virus has been devastating for the entire world, but I really hope we are starting to see some light in the end of the tunnel in Italy. They are a week or two ahead of most western countries and their situation is a bit like watching in the future.
Conclusion
March has definitely been a horrible month for the whole world, everything completely changing just in the span of a couple of weeks. As for my portfolio – it gave me a chance to take a deeper look and make some changes. I have a lot more work to do, but there is plenty of time for that now.
As for myself – I will try and publish a separate article about My Journey for the last couple of months. I have not updated on that in a while and now might be a good time to do it.
Last, but not least at all- hope you are all well and hope you are conscious about the people around you. Don’t forget about the doctors that risk their lives on the line every day for us. The least we can do is practice social distancing for a while.
Thank you all for reading and don’t forget to wash your hands.
Full Disclosure : I am/ we are long AAPL, UN, T, PFE, ABBV, CAT, RDS.B, VFEM,MCD CSCO, QCOM, ATVI
Additional Disclosure : This article is meant to identify an idea for further research and analysis and should not be taken as a recommendation to invest. It does not provide individualised advice or recommendations for any specific reader. Also note that I may not cover all relevant risks related to the ideas presented in the article.
Readers should conduct their own due diligence and carefully consider their own investing objectives, risk tolerance, time horizon, tax situation, liquidity needs and concentration levels. I am not a financial advisor and this article is for educational and personal accountability reasons only.