I made some Portfolio transactions in the final days of July that I need to post about.  It was a trim of one stock and buys of two others – all of existing Portfolio holdings.

On the trim, I sold the most expensive shares of one of my Consumer Staples holdings.  The stock became one of my 10 smallest holdings as a result.

With regard to the buys, prior to these purchases, I’d bought some of both of these holdings in the past 3 months.  One of the buys was a fairly significant purchase, filling out a position that I established just 2 months ago.  The other was a minor addition of a stock that has fallen upon hard times.

In total, I made a net investment of close to $2.4K and added over $330 in forward income with the moves.

Here are more details for this trio of recent Portfolio moves…

 

Hershey Co. (HSY)

The rising cost of cocoa over the past two years has put a damper on HSY’s business.  Poor cocoa harvests and supply chain issues in West Africa have hurt their input costs.  Recently, HSY said they’d be raising the prices on their products as a result.

HSY hasn’t done much for me since I initiated a position back in early 2024.  It traded sideways for about 6 months before dipping a good 20% in price starting last October.

I averaged down in price over the following months while the price was lower, but with the recent uptick, I decided to unload my most expensive shares for a tiny profit.

On 7/23/25, I sold 8 shares, from two different lots, at $184.105/share.  The sale proceeds were $1,472.84 after not having to pay any SEC fee.

At my sale price, shares of HSY yielded 2.98%.  This is well above the stock’s 5-year average yield of 2.13%, and slightly above my current Portfolio yield of 2.75%.

With this sale, I realized a long-term capital gain of $8.03 and a short-term capital gain of $0.47.  The sale also resulted in a $43.84 reduction in my annual forward dividend income.

A bit over 20% of my HSY position was sold.  I now have 30.343 shares of HSY remaining in my Portfolio.  With the trim, the cost basis of my shares dropped by $1.61/share to $175.31/share.

HSY sank in my Portfolio rankings as a result of the trim.  The sale took my 15th smallest holding and transitioned it into my 6th smallest holding.  The stock is currently sitting between Altria Group (MO) and The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) now.

HSY shares look overvalued at the moment, but I like the company.  So, should HSY drop in price again, I’d consider buying the shares back at a lower price.

 

PIMCO Corporate & Income Strategy Fund (PCN)

This is a position I’ve been growing fairly quickly.  I initiated my position back in early June, added to it in mid-July, and now added again in late July.

PCN shares appear to be trading on the low end of a fair valuation range.  The fund has performed well over the long-term and the premium the fund currently has is less than usual.

On 7/30/25, I bought 265 shares of PCN at $12.62/share, for a total of $3,344.30.  The fund yielded 10.70% at my purchase price, which is almost 4x my current Portfolio yield of 2.75%.

The purchase pumped up my share total by nearly 40%, and my PCN position rose to a count of 930 shares.  My forward income jumped by a healthy $357.75.  This compensated for my recent sells of American Tower (AMT), Flowers Foods (FLO) and Hershey Co. (HSY).

With this latest purchase, my PCN cost basis barely budged.  It rose by a fraction of a penny, essentially staying at $12.62/share.

PCN was my 35th largest position at the time of this buy.  However, the addition had the fund climb 14 entire spots, to become my 21st largest position.  PCN currently trails Starbucks (SBUX) in my Portfolio rankings by a decent margin, but is a bit larger than my Texas Instruments (TXN) position.

I’m thinking the position size is good now, but I won’t completely rule out another buy.  I like the high yield and the bond exposure that I get with this fund.

 

UnitedHealth Group (UNH)

UNH has struggled in 2025, to say the least.  Its stock price has plunged due to a multitude of factors, including rising medical costs, weaker-than-expected earnings, leadership changes, and a criminal investigation related to Medicare fraud.  Earnings guidance has been pulled and investor confidence is low.  UNH is currently trading at a 52-week low.

UNH’s 5-year average yield of 1.42% has ballooned to a whopping 3.72%.  Its P/E ratio is currently 14.6, down from a 5-year average of 20.1.  Its P/E ratio is also now below that of the Healthcare sector.

However, for the 1st time since I established my UNH position, the stock is looking undervalued.  Its price is basically back to the level where I established my position in the 2nd half of 2019.

I haven’t given up on UNH yet.  Instead, I decided to average down some (since I’m underwater on this position now) and buy some shares.

On 7/31/25, I bought 2 shares of UNH at $250/share, for a total of $500.  The stock yielded 3.54% at my purchase price, which is above my current Portfolio yield.

To give you an idea of how far and how fast the stock price has fallen.  I bought a couple of shares of UNH less than 3 months ago on 5/8 at $387/share.

The purchase raised my UNH share total by nearly 6.7%.  I now own 32.028 shares.  The purchase also added $17.68 to my annual forward dividend income.

My UNH cost basis declined by a modest $3.04/share, and currently stands at $295.64/share.

Despite the buy, UNH didn’t move up in my Portfolio rankings.  It remained my 37th largest holding, sandwiched in between fund BlackRock Health Sciences Trust (BME) and Enbridge (ENB).

I could be in the market for more small additions of UNH, especially if the stock drops further.  UNH has already fallen further since my buy – about 5%… in just one day.

 

Summary

I’ve now covered my final 3 trades of July – it was one sale and two buys of existing Portfolio holdings.  It was a busy month, with 11 trades total.

Things started with a trim of HSY.  I sold my most expensive shares, and I’ll be looking to buy them back at a lower price if I can.

Next, I bought another chunk of PCN.  This closed-end fund has a distribution percentage north of 10%.  The purchase replaced the income I lost in recent sales of other positions.

Lastly, I added a couple shares of UNH.  This stock has been beaten down in 2025… so much so that I’m in the red on the position now.  Hopefully, I’m adding near the bottom.

The three purchases resulted in a net investment of $2,371.46 into my Portfolio.  My annual forward income rose by a significant $331.59, too, primarily thanks to PCN.

My HSY trim locked in a small long-term capital gain ($8.03), and an even smaller short-term capital gain ($0.47).

My cost basis in HSY and UNH was lowered a bit with the transactions, while my cost basis for PCN was essentially unchanged.

With HSY remaining in my Portfolio, and PCN & UNH already being a part of my Portfolio, the number of stocks/funds in my Portfolio remained at 58.

 

Are we looking at the start of a pullback in the stock market after a few months of nice returns?  Are you planning to take some profits at these levels, or are you prepared to buy in the event of a decline?  I look forward to your comments!