It’s been a rough week on Wall Street, even with Friday’s bounce. We’ve been busy during this volatility, making a series of moves to “high-grade” our portfolio for the current environment. “When we get something like this, what we have to do is find some money, put it to work in the good stocks, maybe even sacrifice some that aren’t good. This is that moment,” Jim Cramer said during Friday’s “Morning Meeting.” Given all the shuffling we’ve done this week, we wanted to recap all of our trades in one place for Club members. Hopefully, this is helpful in understanding our broader view on the market right now. Bottom line Our theme of the week was “high-grading.” That is, we’re strategically trying to add exposure to our high-quality, defensive names while lightening up on stocks that aren’t ideal for the present situation. It’s not about leaving the market all together. It’s about selling certain stocks to buy the stocks of companies that are doing much better and are attractively priced. Jim also talked about high-grading in a special video Friday afternoon. Monday We made three moves Monday, as the market sat at oversold conditions and got worse. The S & P 500 tumbled 3.2% that day and at one point hit its lowest level in over a year. We bought 50 more shares of Disney (DIS) shortly after the open. Around midday, we bought 25 more shares of Constellation Brands (STZ), which we started a position in last week . Finally, we bought 50 more shares of Microsoft (MSFT), after also buying 50 shares during the preceding session. The purchases allowed us to add back shares of the tech giant at lower levels than when we sold 125 shares in early April . The first two purchases — of Disney and Constellation Brands — were all about gradually putting money to work given the widespread selling in the market. We wanted to use the cash to buy profitable, quality companies at fair valuations. With Microsoft, it made sense to buy back more of what we sold weeks ago since the stock had fallen more than 12% in that stretch. We had trimmed our position on April 5 and April 6, thinking tech stocks would come under additional pressure given new hawkish Federal Reserve commentary, and we were right. Tuesday We made a pair of purchases Tuesday, as the market remained oversold and whipsawed between gains and losses during the session. We scooped up 200 more shares of Coterra Energy (CTRA) We also bought 25 more shares of Facebook parent Meta Platforms (FB) It was a timely moment to buy Coterra because a day earlier, the stock tumbled 10% as energy investors worried about the impact of Covid lockdowns in China and global economic growth more generally. That gave us a chance to expand our exposure to a high-quality oil and gas company that’s returning lots of cash to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. Meta Platforms fits the bill of what we mean about high grading the portfolio. While the stock has struggled this year, it’s very cheap on a historical basis, and the company buys back billions of dollars of stock each quarter. Wednesday We made only one move Wednesday. We added 25 shares of Qualcomm (QCOM). Given the broader oversold conditions, we were looking for opportunities to add to our positions in companies that recently reported strong earnings. We found that in Qualcomm and wanted to pounce. The stock was trading at less than 11 times forward earnings — it still is, as of this writing Friday — which means it’s attractively valued. Plus, Qualcomm pays a dividend and buys back its own stock. Thursday Thursday was a busy day for the Club. We had to make difficult, but necessary, adjustments to high grade the portfolio. We sold 75 more shares of Boeing (BA), then purchased 30 more shares of Procter & Gamble (PG). We exited Boeing completely and used some of the money to buy 40 shares of Constellation Brands. We sold 150 shares of PayPal (PYPL). Our position in Boeing had run its course. We no longer trusted management’s ability to right the ship and in this choppy market, we needed to add to our positions in names we believe in instead of sticking around in this stock. That led us to P & G and Constellation Brands, both of which bolster the defensive positioning we’ve been seeking since early April . These are reasonably priced, high-quality companies that improve our portfolio. Both are relatively new additions — our first buys of P & G and Constellation were April 7 and May 5 , respectively — and we wanted bigger positions. Our trim of PayPal, which we’ve been sour on for months, was done to raise cash that can be deployed into better stocks. “What we did was sacrifice bad for good, and that’s what a good portfolio manager does and that’s what we’re trying to teach,” Cramer said during the “Morning Meeting.” Friday We haven’t bought or sold anything Friday, but we did upgrade our rating on Apple (AAPL). We now view the iPhone maker as a buy at its current levels, so we’re rating it a 1 . It had been rated a 2, meaning we’d wait for a pullback to buy, since April 11 when we trimmed our Apple position at roughly $166 per share because the holding got to be too big as a percentage of our portfolio. One other development Friday we wanted to mention: Reuters reported that Boeing submitted incomplete certification documents to U.S. regulators for its 787 jet, citing two sources familiar with the situation. This is yet another example of Boeing management suggesting things were going well, only for information suggesting the opposite to emerge later on. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long MSFT, CTRA, DIS, FB, PYPL, STZ, PG and QCOM. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
