Time for another update on some recent Portfolio transactions.  Considering I only made one transaction all of last month, I’d say I’m off to a promising start in July.

I made a pair of transactions late last week, both of which were small buys.  Both stocks are existing holdings in my Portfolio, so I’m bolstering the two positions.  Coincidentally, each stock established a presence in my Portfolio in 2021.

The first stock I added to for the first time in about 18 months.  The second stock I added to for the third time this year.

The first stock resides in the Healthcare sector, which is one of largest sectors in my Portfolio.  The second stock resides the Utilities sector, which is one of the smallest sectors in my Portfolio.

Let’s get some more details on these two purchases…

 

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY)

I initiated a position in BMY in June, 2021.  I built out the position with four additional purchases over the remaining part of that year.  Since then, I’ve just held those shares and reinvested my dividends.

Over the course of the two years I’ve held the stock, the price has gone down, then up, and now has come back down.  I can’t say the stock price has made much progress in that time – essentially it’s just been trading sideways.

Earnings growth has been in the low single-digits since the end of 2021, and the 2-year forecast calls for more of the same.  However, growth has been positive, so you’d think the stock price would follow.

As it stands, the stock seems to get slightly less expensive as the months pass.  The P/E ratio was around 8 at the time of this purchase, the lowest I’ve seen it trading for over the past 20 years.  If growth can turn around, I would expect good things would happen to my returns.

On 7/7/23, I bought 6 shares of BMY at $62.90, for a total of $377.40.  The stock was yielding 3.62% at that price, which is more than 3/4 of a percentage point above my current Portfolio average of 2.84%.

My BMY position grew by roughly 6.4%, while the number of shares I own rose to 100.015 shares.  The purchase lowered my cost basis to $64.46/share.

One reason I added 6 shares was to reach the 100 share level, allowing me to write covered call options should I choose to.

My Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income increased by $13.68 with the purchase.

Adding further to BMY is a possibility, but I may hold out for a dip below $60 since I feel like I don’t really need to keep adding to my Healthcare sector holdings.

BMY is currently my 37th largest position out of 60 stocks.  BMY slightly trails Altria Group (MO) in my value rankings, but it has a decent lead over Eastman Chemical (EMN).

 

NextEra Energy (NEE)

I’ve held NEE for a few months longer than I’ve held BMY.  I started my NEE position back in February, 2021.  I added a couple of times early in 2023, too.

The stock has traded at elevated valuations for the past 6+ years, so it had a high valuation when I initiated my position.  When I bought, I didn’t mind if the stock traded sideways for a while as long as the double-digit dividend growth continued.  That’s exactly how things have played out over the past 2.5 years.

While the stock price has had some ups and downs along the way, it’s essentially where it started for me when I first bought.  However, earnings have continued to grow over the past couple of years and thus the valuation is looking better.

During my initial purchase, the stock sported a P/E ratio over 31.  Now, the P/E ratio has come down to less than 24, even though the price is nearly the same.  I’d still consider the valuation to be a bit high, but I felt like building out my position at this time was worthwhile.

On 7/7/23, I bought 10 shares of NEE at $71.95, for a total of $719.50.  The stock was yielding 2.57% at that price, or about 1/4 percentage point below my current Portfolio yield.

My NEE position grew almost 28% with the purchase.  The number of shares I own climbed to 45.986 shares.

This was my lowest purchase price for any of my NEE buys.  The purchase lowered my cost basis to $73.05/share.

My Portfolio’s annual forward dividend income increased by $18.70 as a result of the purchase.

Boosting my position in this high dividend growth Utility stock has been on my radar, so I was glad to get something done.

Should NEE trade below $70 then I’d consider adding more shares.  Despite this recent add, NEE remains the smallest of my three Utilities positions.

NEE is still my 10th smallest Portfolio position.  In my Portfolio rankings it trails FedEx (FDX) by a decent margin, but sits slightly ahead of VICI Properties (VICI).

 

With both BMY and NEE being existing holdings, the number of stocks in my Portfolio remained at 60.

 

Summary

I made a pair of purchases late last week, my first Portfolio transactions in July.  The purchase amounts were small, and one stock (NEE) got almost twice the investment of the other (BMY).

I added 10 shares of NEE and 6 shares of BMY.  I was able to slightly lower my cost basis in each stock with its purchase.

The two purchases resulted in a total investment of $1,096.90 into my Portfolio.  My forward dividend income rose by decent $32.38 with the two buys.

I’m willing to continue building both positions should their prices decline further.  We’ll see how things shake out in that regard.

 

Do you have BMY or NEE in your portfolio?  If you had to choose either stock at this time, which would it be, and why?  Please share in the comments!