Monthly Review, January 2013

The first month of DivGro has been rather busy. I've set up the portfolio at www.folioinvesting.com, deposited my initial investment capital, and arranged for a recurring deposit to add additional investment capital every month. I've also set up this blog, populating it with a variety of pages to track goals, transactions, dividend payments, and portfolio performance, and more. I've written six posts, three of which are Recent Buy's that will accompany all stock purchases for DivGro. Meanwhile, I've done a lot of research on dividend growth investing, using the wealth of information available on the internet and referencing similar dividend growth investment blogs as inspiration. I have much more to learn, a prospect I find exhilarating!

With this series of Monthly Review posts, I'll reflect on DivGro-related activities of the previous month and I'll provide a snapshot of portfolio performance. Here is a review of what happened in January:

Markets:

DOW: 13,860.58

S&P 500: 1,498.11

10-YR BOND: 1.99%

Transactions:

• 2013/01/02: Opening Deposit: $12,000
• 2013/01/02: JAN Deposit: $1,000
• 2013/01/08: BUY 25 CVX @ $109.68 ($90.00 Annual Income)
• 2013/01/09: Brokerage Fee: ($58.00)
• 2013/01/08: BUY 120 INTC @ $21.21 ($108.00 Annual Income)
• 2013/01/18: BUY 100 ETP @ $47.42 ($357.52 Annual Income) 
• 2013/01/29: FEB Deposit: $1,000 

New Dividends/Dividend Increases:

• The purchase of CVX increased expected dividend income for 2013 by $90.00
• The purchase of INTC increased expected dividend income for 2013 by $108.00
• The purchase of ETP increased expected dividend income for 2013 by $357.52
• Total expected dividend income for 2013 is $555.52
• Forward 12-month projected dividend income is $555.52

Dividend Received: None.

An annual brokerage fee of $58 was charged to my portfolio.

Portfolio: Following is a spreadsheet showing the DivGro's current holdings:
My portfolio currently contains 3 stocks and has a market value of $13,899.42 (including cash).  I ended the month with a small loss of -0.72%. (Notice, however, the buy dates of my stocks, so I was in cash for a good portion of January). For comparison, the S&P 500 gained 5.04% in January.

Yields: Below is a spreadsheet presenting the current yield on cost for my stocks.
Looking Ahead: I'll start collecting dividends in February. ETP will begin trading ex-distribution on February 5, 2013. A cash distribution of $0.8938 per unit will be paid on February 14, 2013. This marks the 10th quarter that ETP has paid the same dividend. INTC is going ex-dividend on February 5, 2013 and will pay a cash dividend of $0.225 per share on March 1, 2013. CVX is going ex-dividend on February 13, 2013 and will pay a cash dividend of $0.90 per share on March 11, 2013. I have enough cash to buy one more stock this month, provided I can find an attractively valued stock (I prefer to allocate at least $2500 to new buys). I'll be looking to diversify into another sector or industry. In February, I'd like to write about my non-MLP selection criteria and at least one more topic (to be determined).