It’s been about 5 weeks since I made my last set of Portfolio transactions. That streak is over now though.
Things were a little hectic in the market, so I kind of sat on the sidelines over the past month. But the time was right for a couple of Portfolio adjustments.
I started with a trim and put most of the sale proceeds back to work in one existing Portfolio stock and one existing closed-end fund (CEF). There was a little cash left over though. I’ll save that money for my next investment.
The trim involved one of my smallest holdings… now it’s my smallest. The two buys made a pair of my mid-range Portfolio holdings just a little bigger.
In the end, I didn’t end up actually investing any money, but I was still able to add a little forward dividend income thanks to the higher yields of the items I bought relative to the one I sold.
Let’s take a look at the details for my latest Portfolio transactions…
American Tower (AMT)
Over the past two years, AMT has been moving up and down in price in the $170 to $230 range. I’ve bought a few times after my initial investment back in Feb. 2023 (at $212.17/share), always at lower prices, but the stock hasn’t really gone anywhere. I believe higher interest rates have put a damper on growth.
AMT has posted a decent recovery in price over the past quarter after a big dip during the latter part of 2024 and into early 2025. With the bounce, I decided to unload my most expensive shares, feeling like I could get them back at a lower price in the coming months. We’ll see.
On 4/24/25, I sold my most expensive 7 shares of AMT at $214.35/share. The sale proceeds were $1,500.41 after the $0.04 SEC fee.
At my sale price, shares of AMT yielded 3.17%. This about a quarter percentage point above my current Portfolio yield of 2.91%.
With this sale, I realized a small long-term capital gain of $15.21. My annual forward dividend income dropped by $47.60, too.
About 33% of my AMT position was sold. I only have 14.188 shares of AMT left, which have a cost basis of $182.26/share.
The sale has made AMT my smallest Portfolio position, and allowed it to dip below my minimum 0.5% Portfolio weighting threshold. Hopefully, I get a chance to buy back some AMT shares at a lower price over the next year, before business growth resumes. I’ll target shares at a price below my current cost basis… something in the $170s would be nice.
BlackRock Health Sciences Trust (BME)
I initiated a position in this CEF only 6 weeks ago. Shortly after that, during the stock market malaise in April, the fund quickly dropped about 6%-7%. I thought the CEF was a good value when I bought, so the current price is even better.
So, in order to average down my cost basis some, I added a few shares at the lower price.
On 4/24/25, I bought 20 shares of BME at $36.45/share, for a total cost of $729.00. The CEF yielded 8.63% at my purchase price. This is nearly 3x my current Portfolio yield.
My BME share total rose by almost 10% with this purchase, and my share total now stands at 221.349 shares. My annual forward dividend income increased by a healthy $62.91 thanks to the fund’s high yield.
As noted, the purchase lowered my cost basis. It decreased by a relatively minor $0.19/share, to $38.37/share.
BME rose four spots in my Portfolio rankings as a result of my buy. It’s now my 35th largest position out of 59 holdings. It sits behind General Dynamics (GD), but is ahead of Omnicom Group (OMC).
I wouldn’t mind buying more shares of BME while it stays at current levels. If I invested about $1.5K more, it would come very close to equaling the size of the other CEF in my Portfolio, DNP Select Income Fund (DNP).
NextEra Energy (NEE)
My 2nd addition was a stock that I’ve added to consistently since I established my position at the start of 2021. My latest buy was actually my 10th addition to the stock since it entered my Portfolio.
NEE is beginning to enter a reasonable valuation range, after years of overvaluation. Earnings growth in the high-single digits is expected over the next couple of years. Dividend growth will most likely follow that.
So with growth still anticipated, the stock trading near a 52-week low, and NEE now trading with a P/E ratio below that of the Utilities sector, I decided to add more shares and keep my position growing.
On 4/25/25, I bought 10 shares of NEE at $65.50/share, for a total cost of $655.00. The stock yielded 3.46% at my purchase price, which is roughly a half percentage point above my current Portfolio yield, and a bit higher than the AMT shares I sold. It’s also more than 1 percentage point above NEE’s 5-yr. average yield of 2.27%.
My NEE share total climbed by 8.43% with this purchase, and my share total has settled at 128.683 shares. My annual forward dividend income climbed by $22.66 with the share addition.
This purchase also lowered my cost basis a bit. It slipped by $0.16/share, to $67.34/share.
NEE moved up five spots in my Portfolio rankings thanks to my purchase. It became my 32nd largest position. NEE is now tightly sandwiched in between Amgen (AMGN) and Microsoft (MSFT).
I still wish to make NEE a bigger part of my Portfolio, so I’ll look to add more shares. I’ll certainly do that if they head lower in price, or even if they continue to trade below $66.
Summary
After a lot of Portfolio activity in Q1, I’d been quiet in April. However, last week I managed to execute a small number of trades. In all, I made 3 moves – 1 trim, and 2 additions to existing Portfolio holdings.
The sale was a trim of AMT. I sold my most expensive shares, hoping AMT will dip in price a bit in the near future, with the possibility of buying back the shares at a lower price.
I used the AMT sale proceeds to enhance my position in a couple of mid-sized Portfolio holdings in fund BME and stock NEE.
The transactions resulted in a net withdrawal from my Portfolio of $116.41. However, my forward dividend income increased by $37.96 due to the yields of BME and NEE being higher than that of AMT – much higher in the case of BME.
With the AMT sale, I realized a small long-term capital gain of $15.21. Since it was a gain, I don’t have to worry about any wash-sale for the upcoming reinvested dividend, or if I buy back the shares within the next month.
With AMT being just a trim, and the buys being of stocks already in my Portfolio, the number of holdings in my Portfolio held steady at 59.
Do you own any of the stocks/funds involved in my transactions? If not, what holdings have you traded recently? I look forward to your comments!