The first week of March has passed and I’ve already got a couple of purchases under my belt. Prices can move quickly in the stock market, so I made my move.
It’s been getting a bit more volatile in the stock market, too, and some lower prices were presented to me in short order. I’d been wanting to add to both of these existing Portfolio positions, so I didn’t wait around for lower prices.
I started by adding to my smallest Portfolio position. I then followed that up by buying more shares in a position that I added to just last month.
That’s more money invested in my Portfolio… gotta keep it growing!
One stock exists in the Industrials sector where I’m already overweight, while the other stock resides in the Information Technology sector where I’m grossly underweight. I approached a total investment amount of $1.3K, with the majority going into the sector that I’m always looking to increase my weighting in.
Both stocks yield less than my Portfolio average, thus the added forward dividend income from the two buys was fairly small.
Let’s check out the details for this pair of recent Portfolio purchases…
FedEx (FDX)
This purchase of some FDX shares was my first since I established my position back in September 2022. When I bought back in 2022 at $153.50, FDX shares looked severely undervalued. Shares are no longer that inexpensive, but I found them slightly undervalued recently after their pullback from $300 to $250.
On 3/4/25, I bought 2 shares of FDX at $249.50/share, for a total of $499.00. The stock yielded 2.21% at my purchase price, which is roughly half a percentage point below my current Portfolio yield.
The purchase raised my share total by 13.65%, and my FDX position has now grown to become 16.651 shares. My forward dividend income climbed by a fairly small $11.04, but I’ll take it.
With the addition, my FDX cost basis rose by a significant $11.01/share to $168.90/share.
As you may know, I’m trying to grow my smallest positions to the point where they have at least a 0.5% weighting in my Portfolio. This addition helped me get there. FDX was my smallest position at the time of this buy, but it isn’t any longer. It leapfrogged my newest holding, Flowers Foods (FLO). However, it more closely trails a pair of my REITs, NNN REIT (NNN) and American Tower (AMT), in my Portfolio ranks.
I’ll look to add more FDX as I can. Right now, I’ll target a price below $230.
Microsoft (MSFT)
After adding a share of MSFT about a month ago at $408.84, the stock has gotten even cheaper. I still can’t say MSFT has gotten into an undervalued state, or even a fair value state, but it dropped another 5% over the month… enough to make me want to add again.
On 3/7/25, I bought another 2 shares of MSFT at $389.95/share, for a total of $779.90. The stock yielded 0.85% at my purchase price. This is only about 1/3 my overall Portfolio yield.
The purchase boosted my MSFT share total by 10.24%. I now own 21.538 shares of the company. Given MSFT’s low yield, the purchase added only $6.64 to my annual forward dividend income.
My MSFT cost basis rose by a whopping $16.92/share, and now stands at $224.63/share.
The addition allowed MSFT to rise a couple of spots in my value rankings, from #38 to #36. MSFT now sits just behind CVS Health (CVS) and just ahead of General Dynamics (GD).
I will look to add more MSFT shares to my existing position. I’ve set a target price of $370.
Summary
The month of March started off with some activity in my dividend Portfolio. I executed a couple of buys, adding to two existing positions.
I began by adding a couple of shares to my FDX position (~39% of my investment), which grew this position just enough so that it’s no longer my smallest holding. I then followed that up with a couple of shares of MSFT (~61% of my investment).
The purchases resulted in an investment of $1,278.90 into my Portfolio. However, my annual forward dividend income rose by a lackluster $17.68 due to the relatively low yields of both stocks, especially MSFT. The effective yield of the pair of transactions was 1.38%.
My cost basis in each stock rose by more than $10/share. I’ve netted good unrealized capital gains on both of these stocks, so any new additions result in a noticeable increase to my cost basis.
With both FDX & MSFT already being a part of my Portfolio, the number of stocks in my Portfolio remained at 58.
With most stock prices on the decline in March, have any of them dipped enough to get your attention? Has it prompted you to add any shares? Do you like FDX or MSFT at current levels? I look forward to your comments!