I’ve tweaked the Portfolio over the past couple of trading days…. 2 buys and 2 sells. One of the sells was outlined my most recent Portfolio Thoughts posts. Here are the transaction details…
VFC
On 8/3/17, I sold 50 of my 129.39 shares at $63.18/sh, for a total of $3,158.93.
I had averaged down over the past year as VFC dropped in price. Once the recent price recovery drove the price past by original buy point for those 50 shares, I decided to take them off the table, leaving me with the lower cost basis shares. The sale resulted in a small Long-Term Capital Gain (LTCG) of $26.53, and a reduction of $84.00 in annual forward dividend income.
QCOM
On 8/3/17, I purchased 60 additional shares at $52.8999/sh, for a total of $3,173.99.
This position is now at 185.73 shares, a little more than I want, despite my desire to increase my percentage of Information Technology holdings. I’m thinking I’ll have these shares replace the 60 QCOM shares I bought back in June 2015 at $65.53/sh. I’m hoping the stock price creeps up over the course of the next 3 months. If it does, I’ll probably sell the shares from June 2015, either with a gain if it moves up far enough, or at a loss if need be, harvesting the loss for tax purposes. This purchase results in $136.80 in annual forward dividend income.
CAH
On 8/3/17, I purchased 30 additional shares at $68.70, for a total of $2,061.00.
This position is now at 91.417 shares. CAH reported earnings this week and had a decent nosedive. I decided to average down a bit, adding about 50% more shares to the position. This purchase results in $55.49 in annual forward dividend income.
AL
On 8/4/17, I sold 100 of my 405.618 shares at $41.7621/sh, for a total of $4,176.11.
This was a possible transaction that I’d discussed in the most recent Portfolio Thoughts post. AL was my largest position in the Portfolio before the sale, and actually still is even after the sale, but not by such a wide margin now. With the run-up in price just prior to, and just after their earnings release, I was able to reach the target price of $41+ I was looking for, and thus decided to trim the position. The 100 shares I sold were from a purchase back in Dec. 2013. The sale resulted in a LTCG of $1,075.11, and a reduction of $30.00 in annual forward dividend income.
Summary
The net result of all this activity is an additional $78.29 in the annual forward dividend income, as well as roughly $2100 more in the cash account… now to find an opportunity in which to deploy it.
Any thoughts on these transactions? Do you like how they impact the Portfolio? What are you looking to buy/sell?
nice reshuffling ED! I’m looking to take advantage in the downturn in Cardinal Health myself and think this is a great window to average down my initial cost basis. Congrats on finding a way to add $78 in income. Cheers!
Bert
Bert, looks like CAH would become one your larger positions in your Regular account should you decide to add more shares. I’ll be keeping an eye on your portfolio updates.
By the way, congrats on your recent marriage and new home purchase… exciting times!
Hi ED,
Why sell VFC or even QCOM for that matter?
I would never sell a dividend aristocrat unless it cuts its dividend or stops growing dividend (i.e. loses aristocrat status). I haven’t read rest of your blog, so don’t know your investment strategy but since your blog title has ‘Dividends’ in it, therefore I assumed your primary goal is to earn and grow dividends for income?
I look forward to reading rest of your blog to better understand your strategy.
All the best,
Mr. ATM
Hi Mr. ATM, thanks for visiting the site and commenting. I’m still long VFC, but just wanted to trim the position a bit. The net impact of the recent transactions did result in an increase in my forward dividend income, so the portfolio dividends are growing. That said, I can be more mindful of selling a dividend aristocrat.
Interesting moves. I would have stayed long VFC. It’s a winner long term and should do well if the dollar remains weak or gets weaker. We’ll see how that pans out. Like the CAH and QCOM buy. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks DivHut, always good you get your thoughts.
I am not sure why you made the VFC move? I get what you did, but why not let it go long term?
Hi, Evan. Thanks for stopping in and commenting. I was happy with the original position size I had in VFC (50 shares). However, as VFC began to decline in price, I decided to average down, and my position grew to over 125 shares. With the subsequent price recovery I trimmed the position by selling the original 50 shares for a small gain, bringing me closer to my original position size. I ended up with ~75 shares at a lower average cost – still a bigger position than I started with. I plan to use the VFC sale proceeds to add to an existing portfolio position that I think may be currently undervalued, or introduce a new holding to the portfolio. Hopefully, it will be something with prospects that are as good or better than those of VFC.
Nice gain on the AL stock. I like the VFC sale in exchange for QCOM. I think both are good stocks, but QCOM should see faster price appreciation. Best of luck.