May 2024 - Recalling Uninspiring Events
May has been chaotic, with my attention dedicated to our upcoming move in June. For this reason I am posting this update with a month-long delay, and will attempt my best to recall major events.
Moves
No active moves were made this month.
Performance
My portfolio value increased by 0.60% in the month of May, underperforming the Dow Jones World Index up 1.90% in the same period.
Dividend overview
| Name (Ticker) | Received | Amount (USD) |
| Costco (COST) | May 13th | $3.46 |
| AbbVie (ABBV) | May 16th | $15.34 |
| Total | May 2024 | $18.80 |
I received a total of $18.80 in dividends before taxes for May 2024, a decrease of 74.03% compared to the same month last year at $72.39.
Commentary & Review
Unity’s uninspiring earnings report
As always, I was excited to tune into the earnings call for one of my largest (and yet worst performing) stocks, namely Unity (U). The first disappointment was swift; New CEO Matthew Bromberg would not joining the call, as he does not officially step into his duties until May 15th (a week later). Instead the call would be lead by interim CEO Jim Whitehurst.
He did however, dedicate a few minutes to hype up Bromberg, explaining his expertise and strategic vision. He also underlined how “he would not be going anywhere” and that he is looking forward to their partnership. He remains confident that Unity is able to hit its short term targets. CFO Visoso joined in here, highlighting the companies ability to meet expectations in spite of restructuring expenses. Acceleration in the second half of the year is expected - which I certainly hope is true, given the near stagnant state of the company right now.
It was explained that during former leadership, Unity had been working in two different dataset silos between Grow and Create. Integrating these two pools are now a major focus. Vast competitor to Grow, AppLovin (APP) was once again brought up on a Unity earnings call, with Whitehurst highlighting the need for someone to compete with them in this lucrative market. Oh how different the world could have been if AppLovin had managed to merge with Unity… The interesting thing about that is, that I likely would not have stayed in the stock in this scenario. AppLovin’s reason for success (which did not exist back then) is its AI model AXON 2.0, which I frankly do not understand how works. I remain skeptical of their ability to compete with Unity in the long-term, although in all of this mess, they have able to leverage the weakness of its competitor to a large degree.
Finally, it was mentioned that general communication with customers have turned much more positive. Unity have flipped the script under Whitehurst and is focused on offering value and working with clients, rather than simply demanding more for doing the same. This comment certainly did not put management in a better light.
Both the report and the call was this time, quite the disappointment for me. Worst of all, it was downright uninspiring and can be summarized to nothing of substance, but with the expectations of promising results in the near-future…
Since this call/report, the stock has tumbled to all time lows.
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The great PC-reset
Microsoft (MSFT) held a press-exclusive event on May 20th, the day prior to its BUILD developer conference. As expected, the company unveiled its new line of PCs (with OEM partners too).
This lineup is called “Copilot+ PCs” and finally pose serious competition to Apple’s (AAPL) M-line. True all day battery (20 hours+), 80-90% performance over the last generation, outperforming the M3 Macbook Air. Qualcomm (QCOM) is leading the charge here with its ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite, but both Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) will offer their own, within long.
Microsoft also pushed a slew of new software features along this new hardware. Most interestingly the new improved Prism emulation layer, which makes x86-based apps perform close to native ARM developed ones. Later, at BUILD we saw Unity 6 running natively on ARM however, so it seems we can be hopeful for great native support this time around. Finally. Windows on Arm is competitive for the first time. Microsoft also showed off Cocreator, a new feature in paint, which combines text-to-image AI with your own creative input for some really awesome results.
And as you may now already, Microsoft also made a big deal out of a feature called Recall… which has now been recalled. This is all very meta, I know. This otherwise quite incredible feature, has been pulled from software previews, due to privacy concerns, even though all the data it logs (to offer the user an ability to find anything they have interacted with previously) is running locally.
This development ended up turning this otherwise exciting event into bit of a lackluster presentation. Another uninspiring moment. Thankfully, it seems early reviews of the Copilot+ PC lineup are still massively positive, driven by hardware innovation. Thanks, Qualcomm, I owe you one!
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.
