In January, I was busy posting about last year’s and this year’s goals, my 2024 dividend raise summary, and my usual dividend income and portfolio thoughts.  Thus, I didn’t have time to get to reporting on my Portfolio transactions.  So, everything from January got queued up and now I’ve got some catch up to do.

That’s where this post come in.  I’m here to detail all the moves I made in January.  Then I’ll be all caught up.

In total, I made 7 transactions, involving 6 different holdings.  The transactions were a mix of buys (5) and sells (2).  The purchases were of existing holdings… nothing new.  The pair of sales were comprised of one trim and one elimination.

The moves were fairly spread out across the month, but the majority ended up being executed on the same day about 2 weeks ago.

I ended up making a net withdrawal from my Portfolio when accounting for all 7 transactions.  Nonetheless, there was a decent increase in my forward dividend income, which I’ll summarize for you at the end.

Since I have a good handful of transactions to cover, I’ll try to be brief with each.  Anyway, here they are… the details for my latest Portfolio transactions.

 

NNN REIT (NNN)

As you may have known from reading my Portfolio Thoughts posts, I had NNN on my watchlist for a small share addition.  I was looking to increase the size of one of my smallest holdings, and do it while lowering my cost basis at the same time.  I was targeting 10 shares, in order to reach a 100-share position.

On 1/7/25, I bought 10 shares of NNN at $38.90/share, for a total of $389.00.  This was the lowest price I’ve purchased NNN shares at.

The stock yielded 5.96% at my purchase price, easily more than double my current Portfolio yield of 2.61%.  This yield is also above NNN’s 5-year average yield of 5.09%.

My NNN share total increased by roughly 11% with this purchase, and my share total now stands at 100.506 shares.  My annual forward dividend income rose by $23.20 with the buy.

This purchase also resulted in my cost basis dropping by $0.25/share, to $41.14/share.

With the addition, NNN went from my 2nd smallest position to my 4th smallest position, moving up a couple of spots in my value rankings.  NNN currently trails fellow REIT VICI Properties (VICI) by a decent amount in my rankings, but is narrowly ahead of another REIT, American Tower (AMT).

NNN still hasn’t reached a 0.5% weighting in my Portfolio.  So, I’ll plan to add more shares, especially if I can pick them up below the $38.90 price I just paid.

 

Hershey Co. (HSY)

HSY is a position I started early last year.  After establishing the position, I made 3 smaller additional buys during the year as the price declined.  As we kick off 2025, HSY has continued to drift lower in price as the company is grappling with higher commodity costs (namely cocoa) and changing consumer trends.  While earnings will likely decline again in 2025, I’m betting on earnings growth rising once again in the years after.

As was the case with NNN, the lower price of HSY offered an opportunity to build out one of my smaller positions while also lowering my cost basis.

On 1/7/25, I bought 3 shares of HSY at $166.00/share, for a total of $498.00.  The stock yielded 3.30% at that purchase price.

On 1/15/25, I bought another 3 shares of HSY, this time at $150.66/share, for a total of $451.98.  The stock yielded 3.64% at that price.

So, between the two buys, I added 6 shares at an average cost of $158.33/share, at an average yield of 3.46%.  The 5-year average yield of HSY is 2.10%.

My HSY position grew by 18.9%, leaving my new share total at 37.735 shares.  Each HSY purchase added $16.44 in forward dividend income, so that’s $32.88 in total.

As for my cost basis, that came down rather nicely.  The two buys lowered my cost basis by $4.30/share, to $181.12/share.

Despite the additions, HSY is still a bottom 10 stock in my Portfolio.  It’s currently my 9th smallest holding, just below Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), but ahead of Altria Group (MO).

I’m well underwater in my HSY position right now, but I still like the investment.  Look for me to continue averaging down, especially with the stock trading around its 52-week low.

 

CVS Health (CVS)

I’ve mentioned selling some or all of my CVS position in my Portfolio Thoughts over the past few months.

With CVS facing growing regulatory and political scrutiny of its pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) business, Medicare challenges, and sluggish pharmacy and retail sales weighing on earnings, there are many current headwinds.  Early last month, Simply Safe Dividends also lowered their Dividend Safety score for CVS from Safe (70) to Borderline (60) given the company’s current environment.  CVS also froze their dividend rather than offer up an annual raise.

Given this, and with the recent uptick in the share price (bouncing off a 52-week low), I decided it was a good time to unload a few shares.

While I’m not excited about realizing a loss with the shares I sold, I know I’ll be able to offset the loss with eventual gains I’ll book.  It also gave me a chance to reinvest the sale proceeds into a stock that I suspect will fare better going forward (more on that later).

On 1/23/25, I sold 25 shares at $53.40/share.  The sale proceeds were $1,334.96 after the $0.04 SEC fee.

At my sale price, shares of CVS yielded 4.98%.  This approaches double my current Portfolio yield of 2.61%.

I sold the 25 shares that I bought just over 1 year ago (back on 1/17/24) at $77.34/share.  So, I took a good haircut on this lot.

With this sale, I realized a long-term capital loss of $598.54.  The sale also resulted in a $66.50 reduction in annual forward dividend income.

I still have 127.72 shares of CVS which have a cost basis of $64.06/share.  So, my remaining position is in the red, too.  With analysts expecting earnings to rebound with double-digit growth starting next year, I may sit tight with my remaining shares and see what transpires.  Of course, I could just as easily sell my shares and move on, as I’m not happy about the frozen dividend and declining dividend safety.

Even after the trim, CVS is still my 39th largest holding.  It’s just smaller than my Eastman Chemical (EMN) position, but just larger than my Lockheed Martin (LMT) position.

 

OGE Energy (OGE)

This stock has looked overvalued to me after a sweet run-up in 2024.  Its sub-2% (and dwindling) dividend growth over each of the past three years got my attention, too.

On 1/23/25, I sold all 148.467 shares at $43.10/share.  The sale proceeds were $6,398.75 after the $0.18 SEC fee.

At my sale price, shares of OGE yielded 3.91%.  It had been over 2 years since the yield dipped as low.  Yet, this yield was still well over 1 percentage point above my current Portfolio yield.

With this sale, I realized a long-term capital gain of $1,121.71 and a short-term capital gain of $343.33.  The sale also resulted in a hefty $250.17 reduction in annual forward dividend income.

Since my initial OGE purchase back in April 2021 until this final sale, I calculate my annualized return for OGE to be 13.99%.  That’s a nice annual return, especially for a Utility stock.

OGE was a solid investment, and I’d invest in OGE again.  However, the valuation would have to improve and I’d want to see the return of better dividend growth.

As for what I did with the OGE sale proceeds, I basically kept them in the Utility sector (as you’ll see momentarily).  The majority of the sale proceeds went into the next two holdings I’ll discuss.  One provides some better earnings growth (and much better dividend growth), while the other delivers over double the yield.

 

NextEra Energy (NEE)

I last bought some shares of NEE close to one year ago.  It was trading in the mid $50s back then after a one-year decline from about $90.  While NEE has long looked overvalued, the price pull back over the past couple of years has made the stock more reasonably priced.

Earnings growth for NEE is expected to be in the upper-single digits over the next 2 years, and I expect dividend growth (for the next two announcements) to come in around 10%.  The first of those announcements should be later this month.

On 1/23/25, I bought 15 shares of NEE at $68.95/share, for a total of $1,034.25.  The stock yielded 2.99% at my purchase price, which tops my current Portfolio yield.  This yield is also handily above NEE’s 5-year average yield of 2.24%.

My NEE share total rose by 14.6% with this purchase, and my share total now stands at 117.774 shares.  My annual forward dividend income advanced by $30.90 with the share addition.

This purchase had my cost basis rising ever so slightly, by $0.21/share, to $67.45/share.

NEE moved up 3 spots in my Portfolio rankings.  It’s now my 35th largest position.  NEE is sandwiched in my rankings between General Dynamics (GD) and Comcast (CMCSA).

I’m willing to add more NEE shares to my Portfolio.  If I can pick up shares below $67, that would be awesome.

 

DNP Select Income Fund (DNP)

DNP is a diversified closed-end fund (CEF) that I initiated a position in just last month (500 shares).  It was the first CEF I’ve added to my Portfolio.

The fund consists of equity and fixed-income securities of companies primarily in the public utilities industry (about two-thirds of the fund), with the remainder essentially being Energy and Communication Services investments.

Since the sale proceeds I got came from a Utilities stock (OGE), adding more DNP keeps most of my investment in that sector.

DNP is a monthly payer, similar in that regard to my Realty Income (O) and Main Street Capital (MAIN) investments.  The high yield DNP offers provides a substantial boost to my forward dividend income, as you’ll see.

On 1/23/25, I added another 500 shares of DNP at $9.23/share, for a total of $4,615.00.  The stock yielded 8.45% at my purchase price, close to 6 percentage points above my current Portfolio yield of 2.61%.

My DNP share total nearly doubled with this buy.  It now stands at 1,003.548 shares.  The purchase added a whopping $390.00 to my annual forward income.  I will see the impact of this purchase with my next distribution payment from DNP, which comes later this month.

As a result of this latest buy, DNP jumped up noticeably in my Portfolio rankings, and settled in the 28th spot.  It sits a good amount behind Nike (NKE), but is just ahead of Omnicom Group (OMC).

Thanks to its high yield, my DNP position should grow quickly if I reinvest the dividends (which I’m currently doing).  Thus, I don’t think I’ll be adding more shares of DNP in the short-term.  I do have my eyes on a couple other CEFs though.  However, I’m waiting for a better discount to Net Asset Value (NAV) before I dare to establish a position.

 

Summary

I was busy making Portfolio moves in January, but this post is the first time I’ve had a chance to share those moves and their transaction details.

All totaled, there were 7 transactions, with 6 different holdings involved.  I made 5 buys (all existing holdings) and 2 sells (a trim and a purge).  Nothing new entered my Portfolio, but one stock did make an exit, OGE Energy (OGE).

The transactions resulted in a net withdrawal from my Portfolio of $745.48.  Thus, I’ve got some additional buying to do in order to stay fully invested.

On the other hand, my annual forward dividend income rose by $160.31, despite the net withdrawal.  I like it!

With the two sales, I recorded a total long-term capital gain of $523.17 and a total short-term capital gain of $343.33.  I ended my OGE investment with a 13.99% annualized return over the 3 years & 9 months I was invested.

With OGE being eliminated from my Portfolio, the number of holdings in my Portfolio declined by one to 58.

 

Did you buy or sell any stocks/funds in January?  If so, was the transaction part of the portfolio plan you have for 2025?  I look forward to your comments!