My current financial holdings
I’m not obligated by the SEC to declare what my holdings are, but I do enjoy doing it from time to time, just to track publicly how I am doing. I freely admit my losers when I have them, and try and state my winners ahead of time, so that I am on the record in favor of a stock BEFORE it runs up. It’s been a while since I’ve posted about stocks at all so I’ll just jump right in.
- I swapped Mastercard for Visa
- I bought into Freeport McMoran
- I bought into Permian Basin Trust
- I bought into AT&T
- I added to my position in GE
- I added to my position in Altria
- I still hold Emerson Electric
- I still hold Sirius XM
- I sold out of Walmart
- I sold out of Johnson and Johnson
Ok, let’s start from the top. My decision to swap Mastercard for Visa has so far been neutral. Mastercard is down a lot since I bought it, but since buying Visa, they are both up about the same percentage. My thinking on this is that Visa has a lot more of the debit card market than Mastercard, while Mastercard is has more market share internationally. The debate on whether the US or the rest of world (ROW) will recover first rages on, but right now I feel more comfortable with Visa.
I picked up both Freeport and Permian based on the “reflation trade,” that the dollar will weaken and the cost of commodities will rise. Freeport is a mining company of copper and gold, and Permian is an oil and natural gas trust that pays out a hefty monthly dividend. All of these holdings are in my Roth IRA, so the dividends are tax free gains. If oil and metals increase in price, these stocks should follow. If they stay in the range they are in now, the dividends make these a decent play anyway. Both are these are up over 10% since I bought them.
AT&T is just a pure dividend play. It’s the highest or second highest dividend yield on the Dow, and it’s also in my Roth IRA making those dividends tax free. At today’s price it is a 6.84% yield. Why invest in corporate bonds or treasuries when the equity pays that much?
GE and Altria have been in my portfolio for years. I originally bought Altria way back when it was still Phillip Morris and Kraft was still part of the company. Much like a lot of my holdings in this portfolio, Altria is about the dividend. As of today’s its a 7.4% dividend, higher than AT&T but not in the Dow. At $17 and change, I just don’t see much downside for it, so why not take that yield? I added to GE because I think the company will become the bellwether it used to be, and my time horizon on this stock is long. Their industrial businesses are in great position, so if they can get their GE Financial division in order, there is nothing to stop them from moving higher. I realize that is a big if.
I still hold Emerson, even though it has not been a great performer. I just have a hard time selling it, because at these current prices in the low $30s, I would want to be a buyer. It is similar to GE, minus the financials, and it is still in a great cash position and continues to add to its dividend. The yield is much smaller than other holdings at 3.9%, but it also has a lot more room to run and get back to the $50s or $60s where it traded at not long ago.
Sirius XM is my long shot speculative play. I have written about the company, and I think that they have a lot of potential, but there are two huge obstacles for them. First, they have to get out from all of their very high interest debt, and second they have to continue to execute their plan of growing subscribers. Whether it is through the auto industry, or the internet and portable devices, they need to see more and more subscriber growth.
I sold both Walmart and Johnson and Johnson for reasonable profits (between 5 and 10% gains) for the amount of time that I held them. J&J is actually looking more appealing lately, but I like my holdings now, and won’t be jumping back to J&J any time soon.