Recent Portfolio Actions

It has been too long since I updated my portfolio, so here goes:

New Buys:

3/12/2010????? Seneca Foods Corp Cl A

5/10/2010????? PPL Corp

5/10/2010????? Sempra Energy

5/10/2010????? Constellation Energy

New Sales:

5/10/2010????? Magna Intl Inc Cl A

5/10/2010????? Canadian National

Stocks removed for tax purposes:

10/15/2009????? SABESP

1/5/2010????????? SABESP

5/10/2010??????? Shoe Carnival Inc

Rebalancing Buys:

11/4/2009??????? Valero Energy Corp

12/29/2009????? Ensco International Inc

1/25/2010??????? Nam Tai Electronics

2/8/2010????????? SABESP

2/10/2010??????? National Western Life Ins

5/4/2010????????? Total ADR

5/4/2010????????? Archer Daniels Midland

5/6/2010????????? Noble Corporation

Rebalancing Sales:

10/19/2009????? Conoco Phillips

10/22/2009????? Noble Corporation

10/23/2009????? Ensco International Inc

11/5/2009??????? Dorel Inds Inc Cl B

1/4/2010????????? National Presto Inds Inc

1/5/2010????????? Magna Intl Inc Cl A

1/8/2010????????? Alliant Energy Corp

1/8/2010????????? Canadian National

3/1/2010????????? Safety Ins Group Inc

3/12/2010??????? Shoe Carnival Inc

4/13/2010??????? Oracle Corporation

4/13/2010??????? Safeway Inc

4/13/2010??????? Northrop Grumman Corp

4/14/2010??????? Shoe Carnival Inc

4/14/2010??????? SABESP

4/14/2010??????? Ensco International Inc

5/3/2010????????? Dorel Inds Inc Cl B

5/6/2010????????? Magna Intl Inc Cl A

Thoughts

1)? I try not to trade too much.? For those that are new to my writings, rebalancing buys and sells are meant to bring the positions back to target weight after they have moved 20% away from the target weight.? As it is, for seven months, I have not made a lot of trades.

2) I tried to take some cyclicality off of the table on 5/10.? I end up with more utility exposure, but less of industrials and retail.? Having the portfolio 20% or so in utilities is quite a statement.? Utilities are designed for volatile conditions, when the degree of inflation is uncertain, because utilities have inflation passthrough on rates, while they are defensive in deflation.

3) Assurant and National Western are double weights.? The rest of the portfolio is equal-weighted aside from that.? Note that National Western is quite illiquid.? Do not place market orders to buy or sell.

4) In terms of balance sheets, and industry factors, this is my most conservative portfolio ever.

5) I still don?t trust the financial sector aside from insurers here.

6) I had some runners-up in my analyses: EIX DPL VVC

7 ) I think my portfolio is cheaper and more defensive now.

8 ) I have roughly 20% in cash, which is my limit for bearishness.

Full disclosure (here is the whole portfolio): ADM AIZ ALL CB CEG COP CSC CVX D DIIB ESV GPC IBA LNT NE NOC NPK NTE NWLI ORCL PEP PPL PRE RGA SAFT SBS SCG SENEA SRE SWY TOT VLO

3/12/2010 Seneca Foods Corp Cl A
5/10/2010 PPL Corp
5/10/2010 Sempra Energy
5/10/2010 Constellation Energy

6 thoughts on “Recent Portfolio Actions

  1. Nam Tai Electronics!!! what a blast from the past. i used to trade that stock when i was in college! thanks for the memories…

  2. Thanks for the update, as a follow on, you mention you are 20% cash, do you also have a fixed income allocation or are you 80% stocks 20% cash?

  3. For what little it’s worth, there has been a collapse in the forward electric power market, while coal prices have remained stable. Some dark spreads in PJM have gone negative. Many utilities have a merchant power -unregulated- component to their earnings, and they aren’t the safe alternatives they once were.

  4. Thanks for the update David….

    I’m curious…NWLI has exposure to Haiti…Do you think that will be a factor much?

  5. NWLI has exposure everywhere — they sell policies outside the US to wealthy people in foreign countries that want to protect their net worth.

    I don’t know about Haiti, but I am not worried about it.

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