Diversification from an ESPP?

[Palantir_Use]

I have been a member of an ESPP for several years now, which means that I hold almost 600 shares (599 to be exact) in the company for which I work, held in an E*trade account in the US. This amounts to roughly $13k.

Selling some or all of the stock, and bringing the cash into the country would be expensive (with respect to both the currency differences, and the cost of actually transferring the money) and I'm not convinced it makes a lot of sense to do this.

However, should I consider selling some of these shares, and using the funds to purchase other shares in the US, in a different market segment (pharma instead of IT, as an example) ??

 

[ClubMan]

Unless you already have a well diversified portfolio it could be risky putting both eggs (i.e. your job and some of your money) into a single basket (your employer). The way I have always approached this is to ask myself if I had the ESPP money would I be buying shares in my employer anyway. Usually the answer was no so I tended to sell immediately and use the money for other purposes. In my case this meant bringing it back home but equally you could keep it in the US and invest elsewhere. Ultimately there is no easy answer as what is appropriate really depends on your specific circumstances.