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
Recent Buy: Lassila & Tikanoja Oyj
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.
Recent Buy: Iberdrola SA
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.
Recent Buy: Lockheed Martin
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.
Recent Buy: Nordea Bank AB
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.
Recent Sell: EPR Properties
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.
Recent Sell: Lockheed Martin
Another stop loss kicked in and I sold all 30 shares of Lockheed Martin for 470.53 USD per share. Not exactly something I would have liked to do but I will sit on the sidelines for a while. It remains to be seen if I can convince myself to buy these back anytime soon while Trump is in the office. Solid company but too many uncertainties. Locked in some solid profits, missed the top and might miss some gains going forward. Story of my life but at least it does not sound like a tragedy.