Portfolio Update for February 2025

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This will be a relatively short post, just to update on the transactions for the month.

For the month of February, it remains a rather volatile month.  The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January has once again risen year over year and even month over month.  This showed how sticky inflation is going to be moving forward, and has thus caused the 10 year treasury yield to spike up above 4.5% once again.  This has been unkind to many REITs, which experienced continual decline in prices, some going even lower than the Covid times.  

Nothing much this month, except my regrets from the sale of Palantir last month.  It was definitely painful to watch its price rocketing through USD 100 to above USD 120, but I can only console myself with my reasons for selling at that time.  The sale proceeds were diverted to Microsoft and Google, and also 2 new ETFs, namely Vanguard Value Index Fund ETF (VTV) and iShares China Large-Cap ETF (FXI).  Microsoft and Google are not doing too well this month, due to earning results.  Even though both companies have once again reaped in record profits, but the revenue segment from Microsoft's Azure and Google's Cloud systems have both missed expectations, causing their share price to decline massively.  This is worsen by their commitment to pour in more money into AI, despite the challenge from the cheaper and seemingly more efficient DeepSeek.  I am not a techy guy, but I believe in the business acumen of both CEO of Microsoft and Google, and I believe they can continue to bring the company to greater heights in time to come, regardless the challenges.  

I have discussed my reasons to invest in VTV ETF instead of just injecting into VOO ETF in my January update.  The new investment this month is purchase of FXI ETF.  The reason for me to do so is partially due to fear of missing out (FOMO), as I see how Chinese technology firms and banks are doing better and better.  As such, with limited funds and preferring a small exposure, I initiated a small position in FXT ETF to catch the uptrend.   So far it has been performing well, but since it is a small position, I am not too worried about its volatility and will just leave it in my portfolio.  However in the near term, the US markets may be facing somewhat of a correction, and that is evident in the plunge in market values for my US Growth Portfolio, especially in the last week of February due to all the uncertainties arising from the sudden announcement of tariffs.

Closer to home, I have my fair share of good news and earnings report after the disheartening results from the REITs in my portfolio last month.  Both CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) and ParkwayLife REIT (PWLR) have reported a decent set of earnings and their distributions per unit (DPU) are considered stable under current macroeconomic environment.  However, as both REITs had already paid part of their dividends in advance in 2024, therefore the total dividends I will collect for the first quarter of 2025 will decline slightly compared to a year ago.  Details of the dividends received for the quarter will be posted next month.  

On the other side, the non-REITs have announced a set of spectacular results.  Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) was the first to release their results.  As expected, they have announced another quarter of good earnings and dividends per share (DPS) increased to 60 cents this quarter, and shareholders can look forward to a DPS of 75 cents in the next 4 quarters.  Next was United Overseas Bank (UOB), whose DPS increased to 92 cents, with special dividends of 25 cents, bringing the total dividends to SGD 1.17.  Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), however, disappointed slightly with a slight decline in DPS to 41 cents from 42 cents in the prior year.  The bright note lies with the special dividend of 16 cents, bringing the total DPS to 57 cents, which did not impress investors, leading to a 2.2% decline in share prices.

Besides the banks, both Hong Leong Finance (HLF) and Singapore Technologies Engineering (STE) have also announced a good set of results, and both companies have increased the dividends payable by 1 cent year on year.   ComfortDelgro (CDG) has also announced good results and increased its dividends by 0.5 cents year on year.  However, the dividends from the non-REITs will only be payable in the second quarter of 2025, so I will have to wait a bit for that.  The total amount of dividends receivable in the first quarter will be announced in the quarterly update next month.

For this month, I injected approximately SGD 3.7K capital into the portfolio, and I used the proceeds from the sale of shares to buy the following shares:

SGX:    ComfortDelgro

             Development Bank of Singapore

             Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation

US:       FXI ETF

             Google-C

On the other hand, I have sold the following shares:

SGX:    Mapletree Industrial Trust

Total Portfolio Value has declined slightly by approximately 0.4% to around SGD 637K including capital injection, indicating a retreat in the markets after 4 months of uptrend.  I am pleased that despite the fall, overall market value of my portfolio remains above 600K, signaling its stability and sustainability above the SGD 600K mark.  After all the rebalancing and with the end of the release of results by the companies in the first quarter, I am happy with my current portfolio allocation, and will just hold on to the portfolio to generate more dividends.  When opportunity arises, I will reinvest part of the dividends to compound my portfolio, with a smaller portion stashed away into a high yield savings account to prepare for my Barista FIRE journey.  For now, just looking forward to receiving the dividends in cash in upcoming month!

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