Monthly Review, November 2013

At the end of every month, I review transactions that affected DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks. I also capture snapshots of DivGro's projected monthly income, current holdings, yield on cost, and cumulative dividends received.

In the month of November I bought shares in ACE Limited (ACE), the 19^th stock added to DivGro. Also in November, AFL announced a 5.71% dividend increase, while ETP raised its distribution by 1.26%. This share purchase and dividend adjustments increased DivGro's projected annual dividend income to $2,484, which compares with October's month-end projected annual dividend income of $2,415. With a market value of $60,712, DivGro's projected annual dividend income of $2,484 averages to a yield of 4.09%.

I received dividend payments from 5 stocks this month, boosting total dividend income for 2013 to $1,085.

Dividend Increases, November 16-30, 2013

Until recently, I've reported dividend adjustments for stocks in my watch list mid-month, every
month. I compile information for the post from a screening feature available to subscribers at Dividend.com. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to screen my entire watch list in one go, so I have to do a lot of manual work. It takes at least 2 hours to do a month's worth of announcements. To reduce the time I spend per post, I've decided to increase the frequency of my posts. In future, I'll report dividend adjustments twice monthly, mid-month and end-of-month.

Recent Buy: ACE

Nov 22, 2013: Bought 24 shares of ACE at $102.73 per share.

ACE Limited (ACE) is a holding company of the ACE Group, one of the largest multiline property and casualty insurers in the world. ACE opened its business office in Bermuda in 1985 and continues to maintain significant operations in Bermuda. ACE is now domiciled in Zurich, Switzerland. It operates in 53 countries, providing commercial and personal property and casualty insurance personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients.

ACE is a Dividend Contender with a 21-year streak of dividend increases. It pays quarterly dividends of $0.63 per share in January, April, July and October. Starting Yield on Cost is 2.45%.

Dividend Increases, Oct/Nov 2013

Mid-month every month I provide a summary of recent dividend adjustments for stocks in my watch list. I do this to keep track of yield on cost (YoC) for stocks I own, and to monitor changes that might influence my assessment of a stock's attractiveness. If a stock's dividend payment is decreased, I'll remove it from my watch list. If I happen to own shares in a stock that announces a dividend decrease, I'll consider selling my shares.

The main goal of DivGro is to generate a reliable and growing dividend income stream. Reliable income comes from stable companies that can be counted on to pay the same, or increasing, dividends over time. In order to do so consistently, these companies must grow their earnings sufficiently to afford their growing dividend payments.

Stock Analysis: PG

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Procter & Gamble Company (PG) is focused on providing branded consumer packaged goods in more than 180 countries. PG was incorporated in Ohio in 1905, having been built from a business founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. PG currently competes in 37 product categories and has five reportable segments: Beauty, Grooming, Health Care, Fabric Care and Home Care, and Baby Care and Family Care.

PG is a Dividend Champion with a long track record of 56 consecutive years of dividend increases. It pays quarterly dividends of $0.60 per share in the months of February, May, August, and November. At the current price of $82.32, PG yields 2.92%.

PG has outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 10 years, returning 117% compared with 68% for the S&P 500. PG dividend growth rate over this period was 10.8%.

7 Dividend Growth Candidates for November, 2013

Every month, I score stocks in my watch list of dividend growth stocks based on my selection criteria. I assign a star rating to each candidate out of a maximum of 7 stars and compile a dashboard of candidates, sorted by star rating.

This month, the top ten stocks are CHL, NTT, CVX, TGH, COP, RCI, INTC, MSFT, PG, and XOM. I already own shares in the highlighted stocks. CHL, NTT, and CVX are 7-star stocks. The others all earned 6 stars.

Because I'm still expanding the number of holdings in DivGro rather than adding to existing holdings, I look for 7 stocks in my dashboard that I don't own yet, for further analysis. The 7 candidates for November are: