Recent Swap: Telia Company AB to Nordea Bank Abp and Sampo Plc

Sold my small Telia Company position of 2000 shares for 2,356 EUR per share. Recorded a loss for taxes as I considered this to be too risky position without any dividend upside given the payout ratio and debt level. Should have sold long time ago but better late than never. Bought 167 shares of Nordea Bank for 10,432 EUR per share and 20 Sampo Plc shares for 44,99 EUR per share as initial replacement.

Recent Buy: Nordea Bank Abp

Small maintenance purchase or more like a dividend reinvestment with a purchase of 20 shares of Nordea bought for 9,75 EUR per share. Nothing special here as I see significant risks in the sector globally but consider Nordea strong enough to sail through the storm. Might still nibble additional shares but likely won’t do any major moves since exposure is already on the high side.

Recent Buy: Medtronic

Like planned, addition to recently opened Medtronic position with a purchase of 20 shares bought for 79,37 USD per share. Thesis is still in place: reasonable enough valuation, suitable sector and decent yield and dividend growth. Share price has trended down for quite some time and rightfully so, but in my opinion turning the trend slowly is likely enough. There are of course risks but in risk-reward terms I consider this package good enough. Main point is increasing the exposure to the medical sector which I will likely continue in coming months. Size of Medtronic position is still open but let’s see how valuations move. I would be inclined to add on Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer as well but intention is to only reinvest dollar dividends. Therefore ammunition is somewhat limited.

Q1/2023 Results

First quarter of the year is over. In many ways it was as turbulent and those before it. War in Ukraine is still going but US threw minor banking crisis in the mix to spice things up. This didn’t hit my portfolios too badly. Main portfolio dropped -3,54% during first quarter and dividend income during quarter was solid 2486,69 EUR before taxes (converted to EUR on April 1st). This included part of the dividends paid out by Nordea which were already registered on one account during March even though actual pay date is on April. Then again BHP dividends were not registered in time.

Rest of the year appears to be quite foggy. This banking crisis is looming but to me it doesn’t appear likely be a huge hit, at least if moral impact is not considered. War in Ukraine is likely to go on for a long time but Ukraine seems well positioned and I don’t see how Russia could walk out of this with anything that could be counted as victory even by Russian standards. Finland is having elections tomorrow and chances are that we will get new government to clear up the economical mess left behind. If everything goes well, Finland might also be a NATO member as early as next week. These two have potential to enable positive loop for us but start might be painful. It remains to be seen if this would lead into more sensible taxation environment. For now I’ll probably continue adding on stocks with moderate pace. In other words I’ll not maximise purchase but will let cash to gradually build up until better opportunities come up.