Investments

Yet another addition to existing Diageo position with a purchase of 10 shares for 99,99 USD per share. There are multiple factors pushing Diageo down, none of which are very relevant in the long term. Very reasonable valuation made me pull the trigger once more. Almost bought more REITs as well but I’ll try to control myself to see how the sector moves when FED actually makes the rate decision.

Minor compensation for the closed Deere position with a purchase of 120 shares of VEREIT for 8,29 USD per share. Most of the upcoming rate hike should be already priced in but there might still be a minor correction in REIT sector when FED actually pulls the trigger. There are still some risks from the ARCP fiasco but in general the new management has done terrific job to turn the company around.

These things don’t usually play out well for me but I decided to sell out my position on Deere Company today. They beat the expectations with a significant margin and the stock shot up 10 percent. My original cost basis was around 84 USD and today I sold all 45 shares for 101,25 USD per share. During my ownership in the company I received 175,20 USD as dividends.

Now I don’t typically like to sell any of the companies I still believe in. With the current valuation however I feel that there’s a good chance that I can buy back the shares for much less within the next couple of weeks or months. I’m not totally sure if I’ll do that but it’s an option if the price drops enough. I really don’t like to speculate but I can accept it for the cyclical positions and especially for cyclicals which seems to get overvalued.

See: http://seekingalpha.com/news/3226623-deere-soars-big-fq4-beat

This was a free trade as my broker had a campaign for S&P 500 companies. This was also the day of the US elections which ended with a mild surprise as Donald Trump won the presidential seat. I expected stocks to take a nose dive but instead got a lesson on the difficulties in predicting any short term movements in the market. Realty Income Corporation however has been going down for a while now so I decided to buy 6 shares for 56,62 USD per share. Once again I dumped my existing USD position on a free trade to avoid currency exchange fees as well.

First of all, minor addition to Telia Company AB with a purchase of 100 shares for 3,832 EUR per share. Nothing special here, just a minor addition to what I believe to be a reasonably priced company with a strong dividend.

Then there’s yet another new position in the form of Yara International ASA. Entry position consists of 50 shares bought for 292,00 NOK per share. I’ve been thinking about a position on fertilizers for a while now to complement other cyclical positions. I consider it to be a segment which will benefit from multiple mega trends going forwards. It’s also a sector which most likely will see some consolidation, some of it already in progress. Yara operates in the major league within the sector and the overall cycle phase appears to be near enough to the bottom.

Link: Yara Investor Relations

Telenor dropped below my average price before reporting quarterly results. As I didn’t anticipate any significant changes going forward, I decided to buy additional 80 shares for 133,40 NOK per share. My position in telecom sector is mainly based on the assumption that the sector will continue to grow due to IoT, connected cars and other similar drivers and on rather bold assumption that regulation will effectively block disruptive competition. I also believe that eventually there will be some consolidation taking place but in reality I can not predict the companies involved in such action.

It remains to be seen if my short term thesis was correct. Eventually the results can be found from here: http://www.telenor.com/investors/reports/2016/telenor-groups-results-for-the-3rd-quarter-2016/

This is a company I’ve had my eye on since last July. It dropped heavily after negative Q2 report but there was something strange about those results and communication in general. One possible reason could very well be the management stock options as described in detail here (only in Finnish though): http://nallensijoitusblogi.blogspot.fi/2016/07/Betssonoptio-ohjelmaostopaikka.html. I don’t know if that’s really the case. If it is, it could be considered to be illegal or at least less than ethical but for a risky vice stock position I don’t mind positioning myself right between illegal and unethical. It does however present a very strong incentive for the management to work on the stock price going forward. This is the main motivation for a purchase of 230 shares for 88 SEK per share. I’ve been also looking for a secondary SEK position and increase in vice holdings so this fits for that as well.

Unusually small purchase of 8 shares of Coca-Cola for 43,81 USD per share. Coca-Cola wasn’t really in my buying range but since my broker had free trades for selected companies, I decided to dump my existing USD position on it. This way I avoided even the currency exchange fees so it truly was a free trade.

Implementation of slightly tweaked strategy for the rest of the year by selling my position in Raisio Plc. Position consisted of 350 shares now sold at 4,00 EUR per share which translates to a minor loss as well. This decision was motivated firstly by the intent to reduce my investment debt and secondly by the overall performance of the company. There’s not much to complain really but there has been some negative news going forward and since I never was willing to build a full position on the company, the logical step was to eliminate the whole position. Overall trading volume was also a minor issue. I do like my positions dull and boring but Raisio was too much of it and it has been like that since the 90’s.

Small addition to existing position with a purchase of 180 shares for 4,03 EUR per share. Next candidate is Olvi Plc if the price drops enough during Q4. Alternatively I’m considering to reduce the debt load a little bit.