Bought back recently sold Pfizer shares and then some. Tariff saga continues but there are at least minor hints of reversal in some areas. We haven’t seen any pharma specific insanities on top of the normal ones. Considering all this – and the fact that Pfizer reported somewhat decent results today – I decided to buy 400 shares for 22,70 USD per share. This doubles my original position but risks are still there: Trump might trump any trade and long term positioning of Pfizer has plenty of risks. Let’s see how this eventually plays out.
Month: April 2025
Recent Buy: Lassila & Tikanoja Oyj
Another small maintenance purchase of 40 Lassila & Tikanoja shares at 8,66 EUR per share. Nothing new here as I’m slowly nibbling on L&T due to the defensive nature of the sector it operates on combined with potential bottoming out. They are planning on separating into two independent listed companies. That in itself is a risk but likely causes short term moves on the share price around the time of separation especially if resulting share prices force funds etc. to dump shares. It could provide better entry point but let’s see how it goes. Most likely I’ll just keep on adding in small chunks until then.
Recent Sell: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Medtronic & Pfizer
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
Recent Sell: General Mills Inc.
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).
Recent Buy: Nordea Bank Abp
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.
Recent Buy: Nordea Bank Abp
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.
Recent Buy: Lassila & Tikanoja Oyj
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.
Q1/2025 Results
First quarter has passed and what a shit show it was once again. Geopolitical mess is getting even more messy as war in Ukraine lingers on with US and EU being on opposite sides. On top of this US tariffs are supposedly kicking in tomorrow with a so called “liberation day”. Let’s see which one is liberated: people or their money from them. Considering all this it’s remarkable that my portfolio is still hovering so close to all time high valuation. This is probably a testament for having well diversified and somewhat defensive allocation which also translates into a portfolio which has missed biggest gains in tech. Only positive side in all this is the fact that Europe is more unified, and in many ways this is a make it or break it moment for Europe. In the end nations and (pseudo) federations can only be unified based on two factors: highly homogenous populations and/or external threats. Now Europe has two significant external threats in Russia and – to a large degree – USA. That should do it as truly homogenous population we don’t have. So far so good since investements are picking up and hopefully Europe will really be rearmed while Germany brings itself into this century. My plan is to slowly reduce US allocation by directing USD dividends into European stocks. I might sell some US positions if things start to look too bad and if I for once manage to panic in time but this is not the main plan going forward.
Q1 results as such were extremely good given the circumstances. Main portofolio value increased by 7,29% while first quarted dividend income was 4711,18 EUR (before taxes, converted to EUR at the time of writing). Even March brought a drop of just -1,57% in main portfolio value. This is way too good for said circumstances but I’ll take it for now.
See: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/31/business/liberation-day-announcement-trump/index.html