Jenny Harrington, CEO of Gilman Hill Asset Management, is selling shares of Chevron and buying shares of Pioneer Natural Resources as part of her dividend-focused strategy. Harrington said on CNBC’s “Mid-Time Report” that while Chevron is improving its performance, its dividend yield has fallen below the dividend yield target in its portfolio. she is 5% or higher. Energy stocks are paying a 3.6% dividend yield, while Pioneer has an 11.8% dividend yield, according to FactSet. The investor began narrowing her position about a year ago, initially buying Pioneer stock instead of Chevron for new accounts that were using her company’s dividend income strategy. At the end of last year, she sold Chevron shares that were in her tax-free and personal retirement accounts. The move allows those investors to reap substantial returns — as Chevron’s shares rise nearly 53% in 2022 — without capital gains tax. She said the proceeds from the sale have been reallocated to Pioneer. Harrington sold Chevron’s shares in taxable accounts in early 2023, giving her the rest of the year to recoup those capital gains. She is in the process of replacing those positions with Pioneer. “To me, this is not a statement about the energy market as a whole,” Harrington said. “It’s a statement about maintaining the portfolio’s dividend yield. So I swapped the 3% yield for the 11% yield.” Harrington added that although Pioneer has a variable yield, given current oil prices and how the company pays dividends, she feels comfortable with her trade. Joe Terranova, a senior executive at Virtus Investment Partners, who has stated that he personally owns shares of Pioneer, praised Harrington’s tactics. “It’s a great strategy,” he said. “That’s exactly what investors should be looking at right now.” Natural gas and energy prices have fallen this year from their peak in 2022. Terranova noted that investors are generally “overweight” in energy and that the current price drop may not reversible unless there is a supply shock. Harrington disagrees with Terranova’s assessment, saying that the price “could be here for the rest of the year and these companies will mint.” “They have capital discipline — they have money coming in — and they are paying,” she said.