Investments

Today I exited my positions on Bristol-Myers Squibb, Medtronic and Pfizer. This was probably just a short term move brought to you by Agent Orange. I record some losses with all of these but significant (in tax sense) only with Pfizer. That shall offset some of recorded gains earlier this year from the sale of Apple Hospitality and EPR Properties. More relevant aspect is short term breather from the proposed pharma tariffs as none of these positions had any margin of safety from additional tariff impacts. Such tariffs sound unbelievably stupid but that’s the main reason for taking this seriously. Then again curve ball with calling of potential tariffs is equally likely outcome and something that likely would cause these stocks to trade significanly higher in the short term. Let’see what’s the situation a week from now as Easter weekend is coming up and perhaps Trump has way too much time for social media.

Summary of sales:

• Bristol-Myers Squibb: 100 shares for 47,95 USD per share
• Medtronic: 40 shares for 82,90 USD per share
• Prizer: 200 shares for 22,38 USD per share

See: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/trump-says-us-pharma-tariffs-coming-not-too-distant-future-2025-04-14/

Tariff madness move time as I sold my initial General Mills position of 20 shares for 56,27 USD per share. Reason being twofold: this was tiny initial position which I really don’t feel comfortable increasing anytime soon and this was pretty much tax neutral way to increase cash reserves. Cash will likely be redeployed quite soon but either to non USD positions or possibly hedged USD positions. Might make similar moves with Medtronic (hasn’t really moved) and Pfizer (some losses to offset taxes).

Well… I said I would round up my Nordea Bank position to even 3000 shares so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by this. Tariff insanities are kicking in and I’m probably way too early mover but I bought additional 300 shares in 10,99-11,00 EUR range. Now let’s just see how low we eventually go with this and with the whole market. Probably waiting couple months or election terms would have been better option but it is what it is. I’ll consider these as an early dividend reinvestment of incoming dividends from the likes of Sampo and Mandatum.

Early reinvestment of Fortum’s dividends (trades ex dividend today) with a purchase of additional 100 shares of Nordea Bank for 11,65 EUR per share. Nothing special here since I’ll likely round up my Nordea position into 3000 shares during the spring/summer. Seems reasonably priced, they are actively buying back shares and prone to benefit from the potential reneissance of Europe incl. potentially elevated interest rates.

Dividend (or more like paid interest) reinvestment time with Lassila & Tikanoja Oyj. Stock has been going down after ex dividend date so I’ll continue bying in small blocks. This time small block equalled 20 shares bought for 8,35 EUR per share. Same thesis as before: potential bottoming, defensive sector and potential for turnaround in valuation AND operative execution.

Defensive allocations continued with a purchase of additional 90 shares of Lassila & Tikanoja at 8,53 EUR per share. This is also slightly speculative turn around play as L&T might finally be bottoming out. Operatively speaking there’s hell of a lot to improve but potential is there. Given the past performance it’s easy to be doubtful, therefore I’ll build this position slowly and probably aim for somewhat modest position of about 500 shares. While observing this turn around theory unfold, this acts as a solid dividend income play due to the relatively high yield and defensive sector it operates on.

I decided to redeploy some of the USD dollars received from recent sales and bought 500 shares of Iberdrola SA for 14,42 EUR per share. Reasoning being strategic but limited shift from US and USD exposure to Europe. Iberdrola should fit the bill just fine as it operates in preferred energy segments while providing some geographical diversification. It does have exposure to US markets as well which has pros and cons: renewables are not necessarily loved by the current administration but on the other hand this softens the level of reduced US exposure.

Not sure if this was accident or not but I ended up buying back recently sold Lockheed Martin shares. I’m not totally sure if this was a wise move to make but let’s see how this goes. I recently sold 30 shares for 470,53 USD per share and now bought back 40 shares for 424,34 USD per share. Not much has changed as Agent Orange is the main risk for everything. I’ll keep this one on a tight leash and make another french exit if needed.

Nordea had ex dividend date today so I bought additional 400 shares for 11,975 EUR per share as a partial early dividend re-investment and partial re-deployment of USD from recent sale of few US stocks. I might buy additional 400 shares if there’s a significant drop during Q2 and Q3. Nordea is not exceptionally cheap but solid company with generous dividend supported by buybacks. Dividend growth is likely miniscule but probably next year will bring increase of couple of cents per share. Hopefully Europe will benefit from general reallocation of investments while interest rates remain at high enough level for Nordea to benefit of increased activity from re-arming Europe.

Third stop loss kicked in and executed my exit from EPR Properties. In other words, I sold all 120 shares for 51,20 USD per share. For now this shall be good enough risk management in case US triggers a proper recession. I really don’t see how that could be avoided with tariff instanies, flirting with annexing parts of Canada and/or Greenaland, reducing workforce especially in agriculture, bullying Mexico and Ukraine, measles outbreaks due to not so modern view on vacciness and so on. Adding Russia and China on top of that… in fact I would be tempted to go full in cash, take a break and then realign strategy into more passive mode while potentially switching broker. Said list of ongoing insanitites and portfolio still trading relatively close to all time high valuation sounds really bad but generally holding and postponing taxes would be better choice.