September was fairly quiet as far as my Portfolio was concerned.  There was little transaction activity, there were no stocks joining or exiting my Portfolio, and there were no big market swings to move my Portfolio value significantly.

As for transactions, I had one buy, helping to maintain any small amount of purchase momentum I might have had.  No sales though.  The one purchase was to build up a rather recent Portfolio addition.

My Portfolio value did recover some after a down August thanks to the market’s push higher from early to mid-September.  Later in the month, the market drifted lower, but not enough to wipe out early month gains.

Looking over my top holdings, I can’t say there was much movement.  If fact the top 5 remained the same.  However, the group from 6-10 saw some movement with Air Lease (AL) and Union Pacific (UNP) trading places.  Nike (NKE) managed to crack the top 10, too.  This was notable not only because NKE did this on the back of a strong earnings report, but because it pushed Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) out of my top 10 for the first time ever.

 

 

What follows is my standard fare for a Portfolio Thoughts post: a recap of my recent Portfolio transactions, price movement for my Portfolio stocks, and what might be on my watchlist.  Let’s get to it…

 

Transactions

As noted earlier, there’s not much to disclose this month on the transaction front.  However, I was able to make one purchase.  I doubled the small position I established in UnitedHealth Group (UNH) in late August.

This is a position I hope to build up in the near future, as I think the financial metrics for UNH are very appealing.  Even though I just doubled my position, over time I can still see tripling it from here.

The purchase details can be found in the following post from earlier in the month:

Recent Buy – UNH

The lone transaction resulted in an investment of $1,376.14, and it added $25.92 to my forward dividend income.

As a result of purchasing an existing Portfolio holding, the number of stocks in my Portfolio remained at 47.

 

Price Movement

Note – my price changes cover closing prices from 8/27 to 9/27.

I’m glad to report that my Portfolio value moved higher this past month.  I had lots of contributors helping my Portfolio in this regard.  My Portfolio saw a 3.7-to-1 ratio of stocks with price gains compared to price declines.  Thus, for the 47 holdings, 37 moved higher, while 10 moved lower.

Of the 37 stocks that moved higher, 7 moved up over 10%, while another 13 stocks climbed better than 5%.  That’s certainly some positive momentum!

Leading the pack of gainers this month was Eastman Chemical (EMN) at 19.07%.  This was a nice recovery from the hefty drop EMN experienced the prior month.  I was glad I was able to add some shares during the recent dip.  This month’s EMN gain easily outpaced the increase from my next best contributor, which was Abbvie (ABBV), rising 13.98%.  It was great to see ABBV trend up, as it’s been a rough 2019 for the stock thus far.

Rounding out the top 5 gainers for this past month were NKE with a 12.53% increase, Zions Bancorp (ZION) with a 12.33% climb, and Caterpillar (CAT) which rose 11.65%.  These were healthy gains from a diverse group of stocks.

Now for the bad news, which isn’t so bad if I say so myself.  Of the 10 stocks that moved lower this month, only 1 was down more than 10%, and only another 2 declined more than 5%.  Not much resistance to the overall upward movement in my Portfolio.  I’ll take it!

Leading this small group of decliners was Altria (MO), which dropped 11.31% this past month.  The negative news for MO does not seem to abate.  We’ll have to see if MO can hold up in the face of all the negativity and find a bottom.  Since MO already has a decent dividend weighting in my Portfolio, I haven’t been adding during the drift lower.

My next largest decliners were Starbucks (SBUX), which fell 8.03%, and Crown Castle International (CCI), which dropped 5.61%.  The SBUX decline is a decent pullback after a solid climb higher since the start of the year.  The same could be said about CCI, as it also has risen nicely in 2019 (along with many other REITs) and a pullback was probably warranted.

Only 2 other Portfolio stocks managed to fall more than 2% (UNH fell 3.44% and Visa (V) dipped 2.46%).  So needless to say, not much damage was inflicted by the handful of Portfolio decliners this month.

 

Watch List

I’m mostly looking internally for stocks to purchase.  I’m hoping to build up a few of my smaller positions over time.

Cash for any purchases remains limited, so I expect purchases will be small if they do occur.

Within my Portfolio, here are some stocks that I’m watching for possible additions…

I’m still watching JNJ and waiting for a drop below $126, where the yield will top 3%.  While this isn’t one of my smaller holdings, I’d like to get JNJ back into my top 10.

3M Co. (MMM) is another possibility.  MMM has crept higher in price over the past month, but it’s still well below my average price, and thus a purchase would lower my cost basis.  A price below $160 looks appealing to me.

Still on my radar from last month, too, are UNH and CAT.  Both positions are less than 2 months old, but I can see both residing in my Portfolio for years to come.  Another purchase of UNH is at the forefront of my mind.

As for non-Portfolio stocks that I’m watching…

Boeing (BA) and FedEx (FDX) are still on my radar.  BA has climbed quite a bit recently… perhaps not being in the headlines as often has helped in that regard.  FDX had a disappointing earnings report this past month and continues to sit near 52-week lows.  I’m content to wait on the FDX sidelines for now.

Throwing out a few stock tickers that I could see adding to my Portfolio over the long-term: ADP, DIS, SYY, MSFT & WM.  I’ll be looking for price declines before I get too interested in these names.

 

Thoughts?

Do you think the markets can hold onto 2019’s gains over the last quarter?  Will we be stuck in a trading range until a new U.S./China trade agreement is established?  Please share your thoughts!