DivGro is now DivGro 2.0!

DivGro moved to another platform and is now DivGro 2.0!

Please enjoy complimentary access to all the content on DivGro 2.0 until I formally launch it! You can sign up for free and join more than 1,090 existing members!

All content will be complimentary until the formal launch of DivGro 2.0. This includes my monthly newsletter and articles like
 How to Assess Dividend Quality and The Chowder Ruleand a live spreadsheet of my DivGro Portfolio.

Read more About DivGro 2.0 ...

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Bonus Deposit, January 2015

On Wednesday, January 21, I deposited $10,000 cash into my DivGro portfolio. The bonus deposit is in addition to my regularly scheduled deposits of $2,500 per month.

This is the sixth bonus deposit I've made since starting DivGro. Its been a while since my last bonus deposit in March 2014 ($5,000) and even longer since my previous $10,000 bonus deposit (December 2013).

I prefer to allocate about $2,500 to new buys. Since that is exactly the amount of my regular monthly deposits, normally I have enough cash available to buy one stock per month. However, I've set some fairly aggressive goals for 2015. To reach those goals, I'll need to take some extraordinary action!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Recent Buy: IBM

Jan 27, 2015: Bought 16 shares of IBM at $154.04 per share.

16 shares of IBM adds $70.40 to DivGro's projected annual dividend income, raising the total to $4,956.10. One of my goals for 2015 is to increase DivGro's projected annual dividend income to $7,500. I have a long way to go...

To see why I added shares to my IBM holding, please read this article at Seeking Alpha.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Dividend Increases, January 2-16, 2015

I have a watch list of dividend growth stocks that I monitor for dividend increase announcements. The watch list contains a subset of David Fish's CCC list and my DivGro holdings. I monitor dividend increases to identify dividend growth candidates worthy of consideration. Companies that increase dividends regularly show confidence in their future earnings growth potential.

In the first few weeks of 2015, the following stocks in my watch list announced dividend increases. None of these are DivGro holdings.  The table is sorted by last column, %Increase, and dividends are annualized:

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Annual Review, 2014

I created DivGro in January 2013 to generate a reliable and growing dividend income stream. The act of keeping track of DivGro in a public forum has helped me become a better dividend growth investor. A lot of what I've learned has come from research, but the most interesting aspect of blogging certainly is the interaction with like-minded investors. So, I want to say Thank You! to all who have encouraged me and have commented on my posts. Please continue to do so!

In the past two weeks, I've written a monthly review and a quarterly review. In this post I'll be reviewing DivGro's performance in 2014 – my second annual review.  I'd like to do this by looking at the portfolio's overall performance as measured by rate of return, dividend income, dividend growth, and yield on cost (YoC). Also, I'd like to look at the performance of stocks I've owned for at least one year. Finally, I'll list some of DivGro's 2014 highlights.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

10 Dividend Growth Stocks for January 2015

Includes: AVA • BBL • CAT • DOV • DOW • HP • IBM • JNJ • MO • PM • STWD • T • TAL • TGH • TUP 

David Fish's CCC list is a wonderful resource for dividend growth investors. The list is updated every month and contains all U.S.-listed stocks that have raised their dividends for at least five consecutive years. I use a series of filters, presented in a previous article in this series, to reduce the CCC list to a more manageable number of candidates. Out of 611 stocks in the latest list (12/31/14), 49 stocks made the cut.

I ranked these stocks using a proprietary ranking system and assigned a star-rating to each stock (out of a maximum of 7 stars).

To see the top ten stocks and the ten sector winners, please read this article at Seeking Alpha

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Financials Dominate my Watch List

Of all the pages on my blog, I change my Watch List page most frequently. The reason is my watch list of dividend growth stocks is dynamic and I update it at least once a month. The watch list contains all of DivGro's holdings, as well as a subset of David Fish's CCC stocks. It is organized by sector using GICS sector names.

Dividend growth stocks in the Financials sector dominate the CCC list and also my watch list. In the CCC list, there are 176 Financials sector stocks compared with only 8 Telecommunication Services sector stocks. For this reason, I prefer a proportional sector allocation. Every month, I calculate sector targets matching the proportional number of stocks of sectors in my watch list.

This year, I'm planning to increase the number of holdings in DivGro from 36 to 42. I'll continue to use my sector targets to bias new purchases to sectors that are under-represented. Furthermore, I plan to continue my monthly series of 10 Dividend Growth Stocks in which I rank candidates overall and by sector.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Quarterly Review, Q4-2014

This Saturday will be two years since my first post on this blog. Its been a wonderful journey and I've learned a lot about dividend growth investing and the benefits of blogging about something you're passionate about.

The past quarter, the 8th for DivGro, has been quite illuminating. After joining Seeking Alpha in September, the increased exposure created more traffic for DivGro and helped generate some passive income through Google Adsense. Additionally, I wrote three premium articles for Seeking Alpha, which earned some additional income. My plan is to deposit this money into my DivGro account.

In my previous quarterly review, I reported that DivGro's page views had crossed the 100,000 mark. Well, I'm happy to report that DivGro's page views have now crossed the 150,000 mark. That's 50,000 page views in about three months at an average of about 555 page views per day.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Monthly Review, December 2014

As we enter this new year, I'd like to review DivGro's performance in 2014. Before posting my quarterly and annual reviews, let me first take care of December's monthly review. As always, I'm updating my blog's Performance page so readers can review DivGro's status and performance relative to the markets and to prior months.

On the last day of 2014, DivGro's market value was $118,213, down slightly from November's month-end market value. The portfolio is delivering an average yield on cost (YoC) of 4.6%. Projected monthly income is $407, up from $398 at the end of November.

Subscribe to Portfolio Insight and Save!

Use my affiliate link to sign up for a free 14-day, no-obligation trial of Portfolio Insight. No credit card required. If you decide to subscribe during the trial period, you'll receive a 20% discount on the first year's annual subscription price of $330. Please note the 20% affiliate discount does not apply to the monthly rate.