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A Look at President Trump’s Stock Portfolio

If you ever wondered what companies President Trump invested in, that’s no longer a mystery.

Last month, we got a different glimpse inside the Oval Office with details of investments that President Trump held prior to becoming the president. The Office of Government Ethics released a report that covers the period from January 2016 to April 2017 in a financial disclosure form.

Serving presidents typically sell their stock holdings or create a blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest. The latest financial disclosure form includes publicly traded stocks President Trump owned during that 16 month period (and from which he has since divested).

A Presidential stock portfolio

Three things stand out when looking at President Trump’s holdings:

  • He is diversified with holdings in approximately 100 different companies across eight sectors from financials to basic materials, healthcare, and industrials.
  • The President used four different brokerage firms to handle his investments.
  • The President likes dividends — almost 90 of the approximately 100 companies held paid a dividend.

That said, a very small portion of the President’s wealth was invested in individual stocks with an estimated value of $40 million based on calculations from Fortune. The largest investment was actually in Apple with holdings of $600,000 to $1.25 million. Here is a list of his top holdings as of May 2016:

Company Value of Holdings
Apple $600,000 to $1.25 million
Microsoft 300,000 to $600,000
PepsiCo $150,000 to $350,000
JPMorgan Chase $100,000 to $251,000

DATA SOURCE: FORTUNE. CHART BY AUTHOR.

Diversification

One thing all investors can take as a lesson from President Trump’s portfolio is the importance of diversification. By investing in so many different companies across a wide variety of sectors, his holdings could weather turbulence caused by market volatility, seasonality, and more:

Sector Basic Materials Consumer Goods Financial Healthcare Industrials Services Technology Utilities
Number of companies held 8 18 23 11 8 15 12 2

DATA SOURCE: GOVERNMENT FILING. CHART BY AUTHOR.

President Trump invested with four different brokerages. Perhaps not a concern for a billionaire, but there are some advantages to using multiple brokers.

For example, different brokerage firms provide different access to stock research, analysis, and other investing resources. Then, there is the matter of the SIPC, or Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which protects investors who have cash or securities at SIPC member brokerage firms. If a brokerage firm encounters financial trouble, the SIPC may step in to protect investors with a limit of $500,000, including $250,000 for cash. So if your portfolio grows to exceed this protection threshold, it may be worth considering having your portfolio divided among several brokers.

Otherwise, if you’ve ever tried to make a trade and been thwarted by a technical glitch, simply having access to another account would solve that problem as well.

Just one more thing

Going back to President Trump’s affinity for dividend payers, keep in mind that of the 10% annual return the S&P 500 has delivered on average since 1928, not all of that is from stock price appreciation. In fact, 44% of those returns came from dividends, according to Standard and Poor’s.

Overall, the disclosure form gives us an interesting glimpse into the investments of POTUS with the reminder that even a billionaire head of state follows universal tenets like keeping a diversified portfolio.

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Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. Frank DiPietro owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and PepsiCo. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Drew Limsky

Drew Limsky

Editor-in-Chief

BIOGRAPHY

Drew Limsky joined Lifestyle Media Group in August 2020 as Editor-in-Chief of South Florida Business & Wealth. His first issue of SFBW, October 2020, heralded a reimagined structure, with new content categories and a slew of fresh visual themes. “As sort of a cross between Forbes and Robb Report, with a dash of GQ and Vogue,” Limsky says, “SFBW reflects South Florida’s increasingly sophisticated and dynamic business and cultural landscape.”

Limsky, an avid traveler, swimmer and film buff who holds a law degree and Ph.D. from New York University, likes to say, “I’m a doctor, but I can’t operate—except on your brand.” He wrote his dissertation on the nonfiction work of Joan Didion. Prior to that, Limsky received his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from Emory University and earned his M.A. in literature at American University in connection with a Masters Scholar Award fellowship.

Limsky came to SFBW at the apex of a storied career in journalism and publishing that includes six previous lead editorial roles, including for some of the world’s best-known brands. He served as global editor-in-chief of Lexus magazine, founding editor-in-chief of custom lifestyle magazines for Cadillac and Holland America Line, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Modern Luxury Interiors South Florida. He also was the executive editor for B2B magazines for Acura and Honda Financial Services, and he served as travel editor for Conde Nast. Magazines under Limsky’s editorship have garnered more than 75 industry awards.

He has also written for many of the country’s top newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, USA Today, Worth, Robb Report, Afar, Time Out New York, National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal, Ritz-Carlton, Elite Traveler, Florida Design, Metropolis and Architectural Digest Mexico. His other clients have included Four Seasons, Acqualina Resort & Residences, Yahoo!, American Airlines, Wynn, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran. As an adjunct assistant professor, Limsky has taught journalism, film and creative writing at the City University of New York, Pace University, American University and other colleges.