Portfolio composition:
Cash 30%
Stocks 70%:
Macy’s 
24.6% (department store chain) (purchased 1/17/2020, added 3/13/2020)
AQ Group 
20.6% (industrial company) (purchased 4/8/2020)
JM 15.5% (construction company) (purchased 4/7/2020)
Kroger 9.3% (grocery store) (purchased 12/8/2020)
The goal has been to build a portfolio of affordable and reasonably high-quality companies. Last spring, I rushed to research companies when the worsening of the COVID situation was not yet visible in their results, and using screeners was still possible. I rejected several candidates whose operational development has since been sluggish. There were many cyclical companies available, in particular. In Sweden and the United States, dividends are properly withheld, so companies from these countries were interesting. All positions are firmly in profit.
Of the companies in my portfolio, I find Macy’s the most interesting, about which I also started a thread. The company was sold at a massive discount (market cap < previous year’s operating cash flow) due to bankruptcy fears. However, the company’s resilience, management’s quick responsiveness, and the hidden value on the balance sheet saved the situation. Analysts and other market commentators were completely clueless about the situation.
AQ Group is a growth company that was for sale at the price of a value company. The company has a principle of first earning the money and then making an acquisition. I don’t even know how to calculate the value of such a firm when my required rate of return is 10%, but the company’s equity per share has grown by an average of 13.5% per year for the last 8 years, and its return on equity is 14%. Bisnode has given it an AAA credit rating, and the company’s customer base is well diversified across different industrial sectors. The company has made a positive profit every single quarter since its listing in 1994. It was accepted into the portfolio at a P/B of 1.24.
JM is exceptionally profitable for a construction company and is the only Nordic company with a Nordic Swan Ecolabel certification in construction. The company has been developing a standardization process to improve construction productivity for many years. Cyclicality and excessive housing association loans for new developments can be considered risks to its steady development.
Kroger is the newest addition to my portfolio. The company sells fresh groceries, fuel, and pharmacy products to its customers with high profitability. The defensiveness of the sector was appealing, but I consider the uncertainty about the continuation of last year’s exceptionally good development a risk. My investment rationale was a moderate P/B ratio relative to the long-term level of return on equity. However, the company’s management has a track record of effectively allocating increasing capital, which is crucial for growth, so I am not particularly concerned.