I’m happy to report that my Portfolio fared better this month compared to last month.  Of course, the stock market really would have been off the rails if July ended up worse than June.

In any case, my Portfolio seems to have settled down after a rocky June and managed a small move to the upside in July.  I’ll take it!

Helping my Portfolio rise up this month was my largest holding.  It’s always helpful to have your Portfolio leader show the way, and that happened for me this month.

I’ll be detailing the percentage move for my top stock and several other gainers when I list my best percentage movers for the month.  I give time to my downside movers by listing my worst percentage movers, too… it’s only fair, I guess.

As the month came to a close, my Top 10 had 4 stocks hold steady in their ranking… the most I’ve had stay put in quite some time.  However, my Portfolio did manage to see one stock move up six spots in the rankings… so stay tuned for that.  You’ll probably also be interested in the one stock that made its way back into my Top 10.

I don’t seem to be making much headway in bringing my sector allocations into my preferred ranges, but it’s not for lack of trying.  Obviously, I can’t predict the market and which sectors will rise or fall in any given month/quarter/year, so it’s a bit of a moving target.  However, I’ll be letting you know in which sectors I made progress or fell further behind.

My watchlist will get its usual update as well.  One of my purchases and one of my trims this past month came from my watchlist.  It’s nice to have some desired stocks and their price targets at the ready.  The market can certainly move quickly and having those thoughts developed and the stock list handy allow for quick action if desired.

Let’s wait no longer… my Portfolio Thoughts for July 2022 follow.

 

Price Movement

Note – my price changes cover closing prices from 6/24/22 to 7/22/22.

After taking a shellacking in June, my Portfolio returned to more normal performance in July.

My ratio of stocks with price gains compared to price declines finished slightly better than 1:1.  Of my 58 holdings, 31 moved higher in price, while 27 moved lower.  That’s a much more tolerable ratio than I witnessed in June.

For July, here were the stocks with the biggest moves to the upside and downside…

 

Of my 31 stocks that rose in price, 1 actually powered higher by more than 20%, and another 2 posted a gain better than 10% (the usual threshold I monitor for).  Another 13 recorded a gain of at least 5%.  It wasn’t the most impressive month for my gainers, but considering the beating my Portfolio took last month this feels like a win.

The top gainers in July were:

• Qualcomm (QCOM), rocketing higher 22.86%
• Nexstar Media Group (NXST), surging 11.14%
• Main Street Capital (MAIN), popping 10.30%
• VICI Properties (VICI), rising 9.04%
• Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), advancing 8.20%

QCOM shined for me this past month.  The stock rose more than double the 2nd best performer for the month, which was NXST.

That NXST gain helped the stock move up significantly in my Top 10 rankings, as you’ll soon see.

The pop from MAIN felt a bit strange, as the stock usually doesn’t grace my top performer list.

Two technology holdings making the top performers list sticks out this month.  Most of my other technology names posted positive returns, too.

 

Of my 27 stocks that fell in price, only 1 of them declined more than 10%.  Not as good as zero stocks, but acceptable.  Another 7 stocks retreated more than 5%.  Yes, there was some red, but as you can see, the damage was rather limited.

My worst decliners this month were…

• Verizon (VZ), sinking 12.77%
• Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), falling 7.61%
• Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), dropping 7.18%
• Air Products & Chemicals (APD), retreating 6.95%
• Fastenal (FAST), sagging 6.63%

For the 2nd straight month, that’s stocks from 5 different sectors topping my decliners list.  Hmmm.

Portfolio newcomer VZ led my decliners.  I guess I should have waited longer to add to my position!

BMY fell quite a bit in July after it managed to post a positive return during last month’s destruction.  Could this be a contrarian in my midst?

That’s now 4 straight months of declines for WBA.  I’d consider adding more, but I feel like my WBA position is full.

 

Top 10 Review

Despite a positive month in my Portfolio overall, my Top 10 had more stocks slip in the rankings, or hold steady in the rankings, than move up.  This was somewhat unexpected to say the least.

Of the two stocks that moved higher, one was my biggest mover of the month (up or down), and the other moved its way into the Top 10.

Here are the details…

 

 

Qualcomm (QCOM) only solidified its grip on the #1 spot after destroying expectations in July with significant gains.  I love seeing my top stock move up the most during the month.

Remaining in the #2 spot was RPM International (RPM).  A good performance in July (+5.51%) allowed RPM to open up some breathing room between it and the stocks behind it in the rankings.

Also holding steady, this time at #3, was AbbVie (ABBV).  However, ABBV is in danger of sliding down the rankings if it posts another negative performance like it did in July (-2.54%).

So, no movement in the top 3 positions thus far.  However, that’s about to change as we continue down the list.

At the #4 spot we have Nexstar Media Group (NXST).  This stock rose 6 spots up my rankings in July.  After holding the #10 spot last month, a strong performance (+11.14%) powered it up the rankings.

Slipping one spot to #5 was Procter & Gamble (PG).  PG posted a slightly negative return (-0.92%) for the month, which was its 3rd monthly decline in a row.

Also falling one spot, to the #6 position, was Pepsico (PEP).  PEP actually had a positive month (+2.09%), but it needed a little more if it was going to overtake PG in the rankings.

My last stock to maintain its position from the previous month was Visa (V), which claimed the #7 spot once again.  V had a good month, posting a solid return (+3.99%).  Generally though, the stock seems to be moving sideways, as it finished its 6th straight month in the $205-$220 range.

At #8 is this month’s lone newcomer to the Top 10… Lowe’s Companies (LOW).  After notching a solid performance (+6.97%) in July, LOW was able to return of the Top 10 after a short 1-month absence.

Dropping three spots to settle in the #9 position was Union Pacific (UNP).  The month was only marginally negative (-1.10%), but that couldn’t prevent UNP from sliding down the rankings.  This was UNP’s 4th straight month of finishing with a lower price.

Lastly, I had Aflac (AFL) claiming the #10 spot after giving up two spots in the rankings.  The drop came despite only a small negative performance (-0.91%) this past month.  This was also the 4th straight month of declines for AFL.

It was Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) that exited my Top 10.  JNJ sank three spots in the rankings and now sits at #12.  The poor performance for JNJ in July (-5.58%) tripped up the stock.

Lurking just outside my Top 10 is Broadcom (AVGO), which was in my Top 10 as recently as a couple of months ago.

 

From the table above, my Top 10 holdings now comprise 36.68% of my Portfolio value.  This is an increase of 1.29% compared to last month.  Performances from QCOM and NXST accounted for the majority of the gains.

As for the dividend weighting of my Top 10, this ended the month at 30.57%, which is a decrease of 0.32% compared to last month.  This is primarily due to the lower dividend weighting of LOW (entering the Top 10) relative to JNJ (exiting the Top 10), coupled with slightly lower dividend weightings for the other Top 10 holdings since they didn’t realize any share gains (due to purchases) or dividend raises this month.

 

Weightings

 

In general, for the Sector Diversification, I target being within +/-3 percentage points of the sector weightings of the S&P 500.  For the SuperSector Diversification, I target being within +/-5 percentage points.

The “Weight Diff.” column shows which sectors sit outside my preferred weighting ranges.  If I’m overweight a sector, it’s shaded green.  If I’m underweight a sector, it’s shaded red.  If I’m within my target weighting range, then no shading exists.

Of the six sectors outside of my preferred weighting ranges, five of them got closer to being in range over the course of the last month.  Only my weighting difference in Materials got worse… and not by much.

The nice performance from QCOM this month, along with my added share of Microsoft (MSFT), helped me improve the weighting in my most underweight sector – Information Technology.

Addressing my overweight Industrials sector weighting and my underweight Information Technology sector weighting remain high on my list in the last few months of the year as they were bonus goals of mine in 2022.

As always, I’ll keep all these weightings in mind as I continue to adjust my Portfolio, and my watchlist.

 

Watch List

As I peruse my watchlist this month, many stocks remain in place.  However, a few of the Technology names got more expensive in July.

Still, there’s plenty to choose from.  I can’t say any one stock sticks out more than the rest.  So, I’ll keep my eyes peeled and try to add one or more stocks trading at a good value.

 

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

While still trading at decent values, I’m a bit less enamored with Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) and Texas Instruments (TXN), as they’ve each run up in price this past month.  Of the two, I’m leaning more towards adding a few shares of SWKS.  Preferably it will trade below $100 again.

Staying in the Technology sector, I’d like to add more MSFT.  I did add a single share in July, but it’ll take much more than that to get my position to where I’d like to see it.  If I can add more shares below my last purchase price of $256 I’d consider it.

I’d like to add to my Medtronic (MDT) position should it dip under $89.  Right now it seems to be slowly trending up and away from that level.

Another smaller position of mine that I’m looking to add to is Pinnacle West Capital (PNW).  I’d like to add some shares below $70, which isn’t a big decline from current price.

T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) still interest me.  Neither has moved much from the levels of last month.  TROW below $115 and JPM below $112 would be nice.

Comcast (CMCSA) and Cummins (CMI) have moved higher since I was eyeballing them last month.  Thus, their radar signal is becoming weaker for me.

Once again, should I need immediate cash for a large purchase of one of the stocks above, I’d look to trim/sell my 3M Co. (MMM) and Gentex (GNTX) positions to raise cash.  I sold some of my GNTX shares about 1 week ago, but have yet to re-deploy all the proceeds.

 

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

FedEx (FDX), Corning (GLW) and Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) are still are my radar, but I’m holding out for lower prices…. $200, $30 and $12 respectively.

Best Buy (BBY) has piqued my interest recently.  I’d be looking to initiate a position south of $70.

McCormick (MKC) below $80 is an option for me, too.  This is a stock I’ve wanted to add to my Portfolio for a while.

 

Thoughts?

What do you make of the market action thus far in 2022?  Feel like we’ve seen the bottom yet?  Please share your thoughts!