Jun 2024 - We made it!
June has been an exciting month: I finally became a house-owner and moved into our new property on June 1st. At the same time, my portfolio made its comeback, finally pushing me into the green for the year.
Moves
On June 18th I increased my position in Unity (U) at a price of $16.50 per share, lowering my average to $28.77.
Performance
My portfolio value increased by 4.96% in the month of June, over doubling the returns of the Dow Jones World Index up just 1.76% in the same period.
Dividend overview
| Name (Ticker) | Received | Amount (USD) |
| Visa (V) | Jun 4th | $5.14 |
| Microsoft (MSFT) | Jun 14th | $112.82 |
| Waste Management (WM) | Jun 24th | $3.74 |
| Total | Jun 2024 | $121.70 |
I received a total of $121.70 in dividends before taxes for June 2024, a decrease of 8.21% compared to the same month last year at $132.58.
Commentary & Review
Semiconductor Surge
In early June, NVIDA (NVDA) made history surpassing both Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) to become the number one company by market capitalization. This incredible feat pushed other semiconductor stocks into record highs, including my third largest position TSMC (TSM). Broadcom (AVGO) then followed up on June 12th to do the same, delivering an incredible double beat at earnings, with record EPS and revenue. Very much in line with NVIDA, Broadcom also announced a 10 to 1 stock split for next month, which in combination made the stock rise to all time high and into the top 10 list for the world’s most valuable companies. Since, things have corrected slightly, with both players moving a few spots down the list again.
Yet, this is what allowed my portfolio to outperform the market this month and finally grant me positive returns for the year. In the earnings call, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan shared that the VMWare integration is going really well. They are streamlining the model, having reduced over 8.000 different SKUs into just 4 core product offerings, with revenue growing 43% YoY including the acquisition and a still impressive 12% without it. Broadcom’s legacy/non-AI businesses have interestingly been going through a bit of a slump recently, but are now starting to recover, meaning we are entering a cycle where the company is firing on all cylinders. Awesome!
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Bromberg making moves
Unity’s new CEO Matthew Bromberg has been eerily quiet since he officially joined the company on May 15th. Not a peep out of him, really. But it seems, he may just be the kind of guy to take action, before he takes credit. In the middle of June he not only hired former Xbox ambassador Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb to lead the Unity community team - he also terminated Chief Marketing Officer Carol Carpenter.
The first move was enough for me to get excited, and break one of the rules I have set for myself (to only invest in profitable companies) and pick up some more shared in Unity. The reason being, that I know Larry really well, from his former position at Xbox - a brand I have followed closely, both as a long-term investor in Microsoft, but also as a game developer. He seems EXACTLY the right fit to reestablish Unity’s reputation with developers and I am so happy for it. Larry is likeable, knowledgeable, highly experienced and very much passionate. I cannot think of any better fit.
Larry’s former colleague at Xbox, Marc Whitten, who led Unity Create was let go by interim CEO Jim Whitehurst earlier in the year. In much the same fashion, Bromberg waved goodbye to CMO Carpenter. This is another VERY positive development, as Carpenter has underperformed her duties, while at the same time raking in an absolutely outrageous stock compensation package. Carpenter has stayed very anonymous during her tenure, with her only claim to fame being a controversy, involving her suggesting employees to simply “buy another apartment closer to the office” as a solution to solving logistical issues for remote workers. An employee pointing out how out of touch this comment was, was immediately fired as a result.
A huge weight lifted
During Tesla’s (TSLA) annual shareholder meeting (actually the day prior on X by Elon Musk) it was revealed that shareholders have overwhelmingly voted in favor of restoring Musk’s 2018 compensation package. This nail-biter wave of uncertainty was spawned as a Delaware judge deemed the package unfair, not too long ago - a ridiculous conclusion to a suit brought on by a private investor holding just 9 TSLA shares.
This new vote should solidify that investors where and are aware of what the package entailed, regardless of Musk’s personal ties to members of the company board. As a further reaction to this decision, shareholders also voted in favor of incorporating the company in Texas, rather than Delaware, which is usually picked for its pro-corporate policies. I guess that is one way for a state to lose a major tax payer.
As you can probably tell, I too voted in favor of both resolutions and felt much relief as things turned out okay. Both for the sake of what is right (I believe retracting compensation for a deed already done, after the fact, to be incredibly unjust), but also because I would expect and understand had Musk reacted negatively to a different conclusion. Taking no salary, while growing a company from nearly nothing into one of the largest companies in the world, to then only have your performance based compensation taken away, would have made me act out as well. I can only image what may have happened, given Musk’s mad genius-type behavior.
Watching the shareholder meeting live, it was clear that Musk was invigorated, grateful and optimistic. Among other things, he importantly shared that he has recently approved the Tesla Semi for volume production and that he expects Semi sales to finally start impacting financials positively. He mentioned that he expects “a few thousand” Tesla Bots to be working at Tesla next year and that the company can probably, eventually reach a $25 trillion valuation, powered by the bot.
As a bonus fun-fact, I had the rare chance to see a Cybertruck up-close this month, as the truck made its tour through Europe. This vehicle is WILD, and even in comparison to American trucks (which are unfathomably large to everything else in Europe) this feels more like a tank than a car.
Watch List
No changes to the Watch List this month.
My Watch List sorts stock by sector and notes are included for each one, describing my interest and reservations. The status indicates the likelihood of a position being added to my portfolio. ‘Watching’ means I just keep an eye on them, whereas ‘Top Pick’ means they are very likely to find their way into my portfolio at one point - ‘Under consideration' means somewhere in between, with notes offering some elaborating thoughts. Please note my Watch List is based on my own research and goals and is in no way a recommendation of what to buy.
| Sector | Name (Ticker) | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Healthcare | Gubra (GUBRA) | Under consideration | Hidden gem, versatile, familiar, though unprofitable |
| Merck & Co (MRK) | Watching | Casual interest, limited familiarity | |
| Medtronic (MDT) | Watching | Casual interest, limited familiarity, attractive dividend | |
| Industrials/Manufacturing | DSV (DSV) | Watching | Interesting strategic M&A expansion, great execution, automation opportunity |
| Elkem (ELK) | Top Pick | Cyclical industry, but well positioned to break out | |
| Otis (OTIS) | Top Pick | Potential dividend growth play, familiar | |
| Norsk Hydro (NHY) | Watching | Casual interest, limited familiarity, attractive dividend | |
| Lockheed Martin (LMT) | Watching | Ethical concerns, too expensive | |
| Corning (CLW) | Watching | Weakening moat, rising competition, familiar | |
| Consumer | McDonalds (MCD) | Watching | Strong brand, limited optionality |
| LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (MOH) | Under consideration | Strong leadership, performance, too expensive | |
| Coca-Cola (KO) | Under consideration | Strong brand, stable giant, too concentrated, familiar | |
| PepsiCo (PEP) | Under consideration | Strong brand, well diversified, familiar | |
| Tapestry (TPR) | Under Consideration | Interesting recent acquisition, high debt, cheap | |
| Grab (GRAB) | Watching | Great business synergies, interesting market, unprofitable | |
| DoorDash (DASH) | Watching | Automation opportunity, strong marketshare, unprofitable | |
| Energy/Utilities | Ørsted (ORSTED) | Top Pick | Strong positioning, leadership, familiar |
| NextEra energy (NEE) | Watching | Strong position, too concentrated, too expensive | |
| Enphase Energy (ENPH) | Watching | Rising star, limited familiarity | |
| Sea (SE) | Watching | Core business weakening, innovator, just turned profitable | |
| Palantir (PLTR) | Watching | Amazing tech, highly dilutive, unprofitable, opaque | |
| Meta (META) | Watching | Strong leadership and userbase, undergoing big change | |
| Mercado Libre (MELI) | Watching | Great execution, growing market, too expensive | |
| Shopify (SHOP) | Watching | Innovator, well positioned, unprofitable | |
| Xiaomi (1810) | Watching | Fast innovator, China risk, previously owned | |
| Nvidia (NVDA) | Watching | Strong brand and leadership, too expensive, previously owned | |
| Finance | Coinbase (COIN) | Under consideration | Strong brand and leadership, unprofitable, previously owned |
| BlackRock (BLK) | Under consideration | Strong execution, exposed to the economy, attractive dividend | |
| SoFi Technologies (SOFI) | Watching | Strong leadership, innovator, unprofitable | |
| NuBank (NU) | Watching | Great execution, interesting market opportunity | |
| JP Morgan Chase (JP) | Watching | Stable giant, overlapping industry with holding | |
| Manulife Financial (MFC) | Watching | Stable giant, attractive dividend, limited familiarity |
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, the opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own – always invest at your own risk.
