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Pandemic Portfolio: Update #18

This is an update to a series. See Starting a Portfolio from Scratch to learn how it started.

Sometimes, it’s all about dividends and profits…

Over the past month, there hasn’t been a huge amount of action in the Pandemic Portfolio outside of profit-taking in Digital Realty Trust (DLR) and some dividend collection.

When the Federal Reserve acknowledged inflation, the price of gold tanked so hard that Barrick Gold (GOLD) flipped from a +6% profit over the past year to drop a whopping -12% and now sits at -6% for the past year. That’s how the yellow metal crumbles sometimes, I guess.

Let’s take a look at what happened in the portfolio’s positions and where I plan to go from here…

Barrick Gold (GOLD): Dividend Payout

Current Price: $20.89
Per-Share Cost: $22.43 (-0.971% since last update)
Profit/Loss: -6.87%
Allocation: 6.013%* (-0.261% since last update)
Next Buy Target: $20.70

Barrick Gold (GOLD) paid out its quarterly dividend of $0.23/shr on Wednesday,  June 15, amounting to an annual yield of a beefy 4.098% as of its $22.45 closing price. Since Barrick isn’t headquartered in the United States, it isn’t eligible for Dividend Reinvestment Programs (DRiPs) through my brokerage.

Even still, taking the dividend as cash lowered my per-share -0.971% from $22.65 to $22.43. From here, my next buy target is $20.70.

Costco (COST): Strategy Update

Current Price: $394.51
Per-Share Cost: $314.14 (Unchanged since last update)
Profit/Loss: +25.58%
Allocation: 5.244%* (+0.231% since last update)
Next Buy Target: $315.60

Costco (COST) rallied to new all-time highs over the course of the past month as the government gets ready to send child-support stimulus checks to families throughout the United States (and where do you think they’ll probably spend those checks). 

While I’ve definitely appreciated Costco’s performance, my next buy target of $315.60 is still much, much further away from its current levels as it surprised me with a lack of resilience not too long ago, dropping from similar levels to below $310 in a matter of weeks.

Crown Castle (CCI): Strategy Update

Current Price: $196.53
Per-Share Cost: $152.65 (Unchanged since last update)
Profit/Loss: +28.75%
Allocation: 6.196%* (+0.237% since last update)
Next Buy Target: $157.95

Crown Castle (CCI) has performed very well over the past year as the activist investors have made decisions which benefited everyone – the employees, the customers, and the shareholders. 

While I do have a lot of faith in CCI for the long term, my buy target is much lower than the current levels at $157.95 since CCI is already the biggest position in my portfolio and doesn’t need much help unless its much cheaper.

Digital Realty Trust (DLR): Profit-Taking

Current Price: $152.51
Per-Share Cost: $125.40 (-3.129% since last update)
Profit/Loss: +21.38%
Allocation: 5.735%* (-0.665% since last update)
Next Buy Target: $132.35

Digital Realty Trust (DLR) saw quite the bull rally early in June, leading me to take profits on Thursday, June 10 when DLR became incredibly overbought with a sell order that filled at $162.72.

The sale lowered my per-share cost -3.129% from $129.45 to $125.40. From here, I have no plans to make any additional sales and my next buy target is $132.35, a point of significant support in previous selloffs.

As of this update, DLR closed at $152.51, down -6.27% from where I sold.

Microsoft (MSFT): Dividend Reinvestment

Current Price: $265.02
Per-Share Cost: $199.41 (-0.220% since last update)
Profit/Loss: +32.90%
Allocation: 5.166%* (+0.314% since last update)
Next Buy Target: $243.20

Microsoft paid out its quarterly dividend of $0.56/shr on Friday, June 11. Its $2.24/shr annually works out to a yield of 0.869% annually as of its Friday closing price of $257.89. As always, I have my portfolio set to automatically reinvest any eligible dividend, so the new shares lowered my per-share cost -0.220% from $199.85 to $199.41.

Pepsico (PEP): Strategy Update

Current Price: $146.45
Per-Share Cost: $126.15 (Unchanged since last update)
Profit/Loss: +16.06%
Allocation: 4.144%* (-0.039% since last update)
Next Buy Target: $132.20

Pepsico (PEP) came under selling pressure since the last update as investors rotated back out of value stocks and into growth stocks once more. Pepsico seems to very much be trading in a range from the high-$120s to the high-$140s, so I’ll patiently wait for it to pull back down to $132.20 once more before replacing shares I sold at higher levels in the last update.

UnitedHealth (UNH): Strategy Update

Current Price: $404.95
Per-Share Cost: $305.60 (Unchanged since last update)
Profit/Loss: +32.51%
Allocation: 3.752%* (-0.061% since last update)
Next Buy Target: $323.55

UnitedHealth (UNH) didn’t do much since the last update, remaining relatively flat for the past month. While it has performed very well over the course of the past year, I’m still keeping my low $323.55 price target as UnitedHealth and the healthcare sector, in general, has a tendency to sell off significantly when news works against it.

Waste Management (WM): Dividend Reinvestment

Current Price: $139.11
Per-Share Cost: $111.84 (-0.418% since last update)
Profit/Loss: +24.38%
Allocation: 2.575%* (+0.349% since last update)
Next Buy Target: $130.55

Waste Management (WM) paid out its quarterly dividend of $0.575/share on June 21, working out to an annual yield of 1.6579% at its $138.73 closing price. As always, I had the dividends reinvested which lowered my per-share cost -0.418% from $112.31 to $111.84.

From here, my price target to add more to the position is $130.75.