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Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Monthly Review, October 2014

Every month, I review the past month's activities relating to DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks. At the same time, I update my blog's Performance page, which provides a central place for reviewing DivGro's status and performance relative to the markets and to prior months.

After selling two stocks in September due to dividend cuts, I had the luxury of having enough funds for three buys. I decided to add to my position in SDRL and I opened new positions in AVA and T. These buys increased DivGro's projected annual dividend income to $5,226. As a consequence, I've achieved one of my 2014 goals, namely to increase DivGro's projected annual dividend income to $4,800.

I'm close to achieving my other goal of reaching $3,600 in dividend income. At the end of October, dividend income totaled $3,163, so I'm only 12% away from achieving that goal.

October was exciting for other reasons, too. I published my first premium article on Seeking Alpha, became an associate member of The DIV-Net, and scored my first home run with DivGro when GD crossed the 100% profit mark!

This month, I purchased shares of Avista Corporation (AVA) and AT&T Inc. (T). DivGro now has 35 different holdings, only one position short of my goal of owning 36 different stocks by the end of 2014.

DivGro now has a market value of $115,899, which is up 4.2% from September's market value. The portfolio is delivering an average yield on cost of 5.32%. Projected monthly income is $436, up from $383 at the end of September.

Two of DivGro's holdings experienced dividend increases in October, AFL (5.41%) and ETP (2.09%). Dividend income in October totaled $355, compared with $197 in October 2013, an increase of 80%.

Transactions:
  • Purchases
  • Dividends
    • 2014-10-30: Cash Dividend Receipt PMT:$73.20
    • 2014-10-21: Cash Dividend Receipt ACE: $15.12
    • 2014-10-15: Cash Dividend Receipt VNR: $37.80
    • 2014-10-10: Cash Dividend Receipt PM: $31.00
    • 2014-10-10: Cash Dividend Receipt MO: $36.00
    • 2014-10-09: Cash Dividend Receipt CHL: $41.92
    • 2014-10-07: Cash Dividend Receipt SNP: $40.11
    • 2014-10-01: Cash Dividend Receipt PNNT: $60.20
    • 2014-10-01: Cash Dividend Receipt BAX: $19.24
  • Deposits
    • 2014-10-29: November Cash Deposit: $2,500

New Dividends and Dividend Increases:
  • The purchase of SDRL added $400.00 of projected annual dividend income.
  • The purchase of AVA added $95.25 of projected annual dividend income.
  • The purchase of T added $138.00 of projected annual dividend income.
  • AFL's dividend increase added $4 of projected annual dividend income.
  • ETP's dividend increase added $8 of projected annual dividend income.
  • Projected annual dividend income: $5,237.63

Dividend Summary:
  • Dividend income last month: $497.71
  • Dividend income this month: $355.07
  • Total dividend income year-to-date: $3.163.48

Markets:
Sep 30, 2014
DOW: 17,042.90 S&P 500: 1,972.29 10-YR BOND: 2.51%
Oct 31, 2014
DOW: 17.390.52 S&P 500: 2,001.20 10-YR BOND: 2.34%

The markets recovered in October, with the Dow gaining 2% and the S&P 500 gaining 1.46%. In comparison, DivGro increased by 1.78% in October.

Portfolio: The following spreadsheet shows the state of DivGro on October 31, 2014:


Looking Ahead: I have enough funds for a single purchase in November. I'll be looking at the sector winners in my November dashboard for a candidate. If my next purchase adds a new holding to DivGro, I'll achieve another of my 2014 goals, since that would be DivGro's 36th holding.

24 comments :

  1. Wow I thought I was doing well with a 45% improvement over last year but you went next level with an 80% improvement. Nice work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Captain! 45% is fantastic, too. As the portfolio grows, it'll be impossible to continue this type of year-over-year improvement. Nevertheless, it is nice to see and experience the growth. Good luck!

      Delete
  2. Pretty dang spectacular I'd say. Already looking at $436 monthly average going forward is tremendous. Just think, if you didn't contribute a single penny more, you're portfolio would generate enough for a $1,300 purchase each quarter, dividend increases notwithstanding. This is why DG investing can be tremendously successful, and how building your income to a point where it can start to turn over on itself is so rewarding.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! I'm starting to think about my capital contributions for next year. Given that we have a new mortgage to take care of, I'm considering reducing new cash to $2,000 per month and assuming that monthly dividend income would make up the difference to my preferred position size of $2,500 per month. I like the pace of buying one stock per month, so this would suit me fine.

      Cheers
      FerdiS

      Delete
  3. Ferdi,

    Looks like a solid month across the board. Congrats on the success with GD. I regret not buying more defense stocks back in the day, as they've all run up substantially now.

    You're firing on all cylinders. The dividend income is especially impressive. That's incoming cash flow that you don't have to work for, that will propel your portfolio all by itself.

    You're setting yourself up for a very nice 2015. Keep up the great work!

    Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jason! You're right about the defense sector. GD, LMT, NOC, and RTN have all gone up significantly the past couple of years. I'm happy that I got in on GD when I did!

      Of course the dividend income is where it is at! I'm slowly moving funds out of my other portfolios into DivGro and another (income focused) portfolio, where dividends can work for me...

      Thanks for stopping by and for your encouragement. Take care!

      Delete
  4. Looks like a really great month for you with the SA article, your first double, dividend increases, new purchases. Solid month and I'm guessing you'll blow past your $3,600 goal. 2015 will probably be a monster year for you with your regular capital contributions and then the extra $5k you'll get to invest from the dividends you receive. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Passive IncomePursuit -- yes, I'm happy with the progress I've made towards meeting or exceeding my 2014 goals. Perhaps they could have been more stretching, but I won't second guess myself 'cause they sure felt stretching when I wrote them down in December last year. I hope you're right that 2015 will be a monster year! I may have to cut back a little on new capital contributions. Regular dividend income fortunately would make up the differences. Take care, and best of luck in your journey, too!

      Delete
  5. Great job! Which stocks did you sell again? I must have missed that, or don't remember.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I sold CHL and SNP due to dividend cuts. Those were my first sells due to cuts. I'm holding on to INTC despite their dividend freeze... I'm hoping for a resumption of dividend increases from INTC soon. On the other hand, I like INTC's growth prospects, so even if the dividend increase is not forthcoming, I'll probably hang on...

      Delete
  6. Your annual dividend income is rapidly growing at this point. I look forward to seeing what you do in November. I was looking at media stocks like VIAB and TWX.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those are interesting choices. Yield is a little on the low side for my taste, though. I like 2.75% or more. P/E is nice, especially for VIAB. Good luck and thanks for visiting!

      Delete
  7. Thanks for sharing a lot of great news about DivGro. I like your graph which is headed in the right direction, up. Your passive monthly income is growing at a nice clip and as always I enjoy reading these types of updates. Just serves as added motivation. Congrats on your doubling of GD too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pleasure, DivHut -- thanks for stopping by. Seeing the graph change over time is one of my motivators. The other one is the "passive" aspect of it. No matter what I do (as long as I don't sell my shares), I'll be receiving about $436 on average every month in perpetuity. Now that's a nice thought! Stocks doubling in price is not really the goal of dividend growth investing, but I'm not going to complain!

      Delete
  8. You have a lot of great stocks in your portfolio. I'll be looking to add a few of your holdings, especially DE as soon as I can. Congratulations on the Seeking Alpha article as well. We need more dividend investors like you writing on that site. Keep up the good work!

    PS, I'm having trouble adding comments in Safari. I click publish or preview and my post just disappears. Had to move to Firefox to get it to work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Scott -- it took a while to get my first Seeking Alpha premium article written. I'm hoping to do at least one a month going forward and perhaps that will be one of my goals for 2015.

      I'm not sure what's up with Safari -- sorry about that. I have 3 browsers for various reasons: Safari, Chrome and Firefox. For blogging, I use Chrome because it seems to be most compatible with blogger (not surprisingly).

      Take care!

      Delete
  9. Growing fast. Nice month and I want to add that I enjoy your format of your update. The chart is a nice touch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting and your nice words -- I appreciate the feedback. I like including the chart as a visual reminder of what dividend growth investing is all about. Nothing beats seeing the growth!

      Delete
  10. Great month DivGro...Nice purchases and dividend income. Congrats on the increase as well! Looks like you are well on your way to your annual goal of $3,600 in dividends. And based on your project annual dividends, next year is going to be even better!

    Keep up the great work. Wishing you continued success on your journey! AFFJ

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi AFFJ -- Given that December will be a big month, I'm confident that I'll earn $3,600 in dividends for 2014. Of course, my projected annual dividend income has already gone past my 2014 goal of $4,800, so I'm happy about that.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  11. great month and y-o-y achievement! keep on sharing and motivate all of us here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, David! I'll definitely keep on sharing... I'm working on a couple of posts, one on a recent buy and another on dividend increases.

      Cheers!

      Delete
  12. I'm still catching up after my trip to Portland on posts so sorry for a late reply.

    Solid month! Congrats on hitting your 4,800 goal. I set my forward income goal a little too high this year but should hit the 10k in dividends received goal.

    Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by!

      Yes, a great month and I'm thrilled having reached the $4,800 goal. I've started to think about my 2015 goals and I'm wondering how stretching I should set them... this one seemed stretching but I've achieved it in October!

      10k in dividends would be fantastic! Good luck with that and hang in there... the forward goal will come soon enough.

      Delete

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