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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Monthly Review, September 2014

September was an interesting month as I increased DivGro's exposure by posting articles on Seeking Alpha. The increased exposure created more traffic to this site and, consequently, total page views have crossed the 100,000 mark. On average, DivGro is now getting about 500 page views per day. Unfortunately, my application for associate membership of The DIV-Net is stuck somewhere in the ether, which is a bad start to what I had hoped would be a mutually beneficial relationship. Oh well...

In September, I added MCD to DivGro, but parted ways with CHL and SNP after both companies cut their dividends. Consequently, DivGro now has 33 different holdings. With plenty of cash on hand, I'm in a good position to reach my goal of 36 holdings by year's end. At the same time, I'm quite pleased with my diversification efforts this year. DivGro has multiple holdings in most of the 10 sectors in my watch list. I'm still overweight in Energy and underweight in Consumer Discretionary and Industrials.

DivGro's dividend income in September set a new record! I received a total of $498 in dividends, compared with $179 in September 2013. That's an increase of 278%!

This month, I purchased shares of McDonald's Corp. (MCD), the third Consumer Discretionary sector stock in DivGro. As mentioned earlier, I sold all my shares of CHL and SNP, so DivGro is down to 34 different holdings. DivGro now has a market value of $111,249 and is delivering an average yield on cost of 5.06%. Projected monthly income is $383, down from $389 at the end of August.

Transactions:
  • Purchases
  • Sales
  • Dividends
    • 2014-09-02: Cash Dividend Receipt COP:  $27.74 
    • 2014-09-02: Cash Dividend Receipt AFL:  $18.50 
    • 2014-09-02: Cash Dividend Receipt INTC:  $27.00 
    • 2014-09-03: Cash Dividend Receipt WMT:  $16.32
    • 2014-09-09: Cash Dividend Receipt JNJ:  $21.00
    • 2014-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt TGT:  $20.80 
    • 2014-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt IBM:  $15.40 
    • 2014-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt CVX:  $26.75 
    • 2014-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt XOM:  $20.70 
    • 2014-09-11: Cash Dividend Receipt MSFT:  $22.40 
    • 2014-09-12: Cash Dividend Receipt VNR:  $37.80 
    • 2014-09-12: Cash Dividend Receipt WAG:  $14.85 
    • 2014-09-18: Cash Dividend Receipt SDRL:  $72.00 
    • 2014-09-23: Cash Dividend Receipt BBL:  $53.32 
    • 2014-09-30: Cash Dividend Receipt NU:  $23.55 
    • 2014-09-30: Cash Dividend Receipt TRV:  $15.95 
    • 2014-09-30: Cash Dividend Receipt DLR:  $39.84 
  • Deposits
    • 2014-09-29: OCTOBER Cash Deposit: $2,500

New Dividends and Dividend Increases:
  • The purchase of MCD added $91.80 of projected annual dividend income.
  • The sale of CHL subtracted $90.32 of projected annual dividend income.
  • The sale of SNP subtracted $107.45 of projected annual dividend income.
  • PM's dividend increase added $7.44 of projected annual dividend income.
  • MSFT's dividend increase added $9.60 of projected annual dividend income.
  • PMT's dividend increase added $9.60 of projected annual dividend income.
  • Projected annual dividend income: $4,592.38

Dividend Summary:
  • Dividend income last month: $350.54
  • Dividend income this month: $497.71
  • Total dividend income year-to-date: $2.808.41

Markets:
Aug 29, 2014
DOW: 17,098.45 S&P 500: 2,003.37 10-YR BOND: 2.34%
Sep 30, 2014
DOW: 17.042.90 S&P 500: 1,972.29 10-YR BOND: 2.51%

The markets were down in September, as volatility increased. For the month, the Dow dropped 0.33% and the S&P 500 dropped 1.58%. Once again, DivGro trailed the performance of the overall markets, dropping 2.43% in September.

Portfolio: The following spreadsheet shows the state of DivGro on September 30, 2014:


Looking Ahead: I have enough funds for three buys in October. I'll be looking to buy stocks in these sectors: Consumer Discretionary, Financials, Industrials, Materials and Utilities. Look for a post with my next quarterly review of DivGro's performance.

How did your portfolio do in September? Did you also have a record month of dividend income? 

14 comments :

  1. Nice looking month. Almost $500 of dividends and you realigned your portfolio to better reflect your investing goals by the two sold positions and the addition of MCD.

    Good to see your readership growing as well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi w2r -- thanks for your comment. I missed the $500 mark by just 2 bucks... based on the pattern of quarterly dividend payments of DivGro's holdings, I'll have to wait to December to cross the $500 mark.

      The sales were unfortunate, but necessary because I want to concentrate on dividend growth, not just dividend income.

      Take care!

      Delete
  2. Great month and thanks for sharing. Good pick-up of MCD, as it is attractively priced at the moment in my opinion. I look forward to seeing your October buys!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by, Special Agent Dividend!

      Yes, I think MCD is good value here -- with some cash on hand, I have some shopping to do!

      Delete
  3. Congrats on the record month for dividends received!

    You've done a great job building up your portfolio this year and hopefully the SA writing will add a bit more extra income for you to throw at your investments. Every bit helps, right?

    If you're looking for industrial exposure I'm liking UTX and bought some yesterday. Although if I'd have known the markets would continue sliding in October I'd have waited a bit more.

    Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Passive IncomePursuit!

      Its really nice to see dividends roll in, especially in end-of-quarter months! As far as SA writing is concerned, I'm working on two articles that I'm hoping to submit. Any income that may come from those endeavors will go to DivGro, for sure!

      I'll look into UTX -- thanks for sharing!

      Take care.

      Delete
  4. Sorry to hear about the sells of CHL and SNP, but at least you have a good stock in MCD to compensate. Although the total income went down, you have that much stronger of a portfolio. Hope you find something good to use that cash on!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I don't like selling -- and having to part ways with two holdings in one week is really bad. But I'm seeing this as an opportunity to pick up some solid replacement stocks! I'm just glad that I could close those trades with some solid gains!

      Cheers
      FerdiS

      Delete
  5. Great month you had, congrats on having a record month for dividends received. I'll have to do a dividend update for September soon. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Tawcan! Hope to see your dividend update for September, soon. These end-of-quarter months are really great for dividend income...

      Delete
  6. WOW that's great YoY. From September last year to this year, how much money have you put in? I received $176 last month for September. If I can get it over $400 next year September, I will be a happy man. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, FFdividend! Looking back at the corresponding post in 2013, I've invested $53k. This includes several "bonus" deposits, which is going to be harder to repeat now that we've bought a new house. Good luck with growing your dividend income stream in the next year!

      Cheers
      FerdiS

      Delete
    2. Thiank for the info. I don't know if I can invest 53k, but I can do 30k. :)

      Delete

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