Quarterly Review, Q1-2015

Given a list of fairly challenging goals for 2015, I started the year at quite a pace! In this post I'll give an overview of activities in Q1-2015, the 9^th quarterly review I've done for DivGro.

Recently, I reported on reaching several milestones, including crossing 200,000 page views on DivGro and 150,000 page views on Seeking Alpha. Since joining Seeking Alpha in September 2014, I've published 11 original articles. And, on April Fools Day, my first article for The DIV-Net was published. (No joke!)

Dividend income in Q1-2015 totaled $1,338, nearly double the amount ($673) received in Q1-2014.

This past quarter, I contributed capital funds in the amount of $27,500 to DivGro, including three regular monthly deposits of $2,500 each and two bonus deposits of $10,000 each. This allowed me to initiate several new positions and to add to existing holdings in DivGro.

I initiated positions in Starwood Property Trust (STWD), Walt Disney (DIS), T. Rowe Price (TROW), Realty Income (O), and Gap (GAP), while adding shares to existing holdings in International Business Machines (IBM), Caterpillar (CAT), Helmerich & Payne (HP) and AT&T (T).

Eight holdings announced dividend increases in Q1-2015:

• Energy Transfer Partners (ETP)
• Meredith Corp (MDP)
• PartnerRe Limited (PRE)
• Avista Corp (AVA)
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT)
• Digital Realty Trust (DLR)
• General Dynamics (GD)
• Eversource Energy (ES)

Unfortunately, Vanguard Natural Resources (VNR) announced a 44% dividend cut. While this is annoying, I'm not going to sell my units quite yet. The adjusted yield on cost is still a reasonable 5.01% and I want to find a suitable replacement first, before moving on...

The net result of the new buys and dividend adjustments is that DivGro's projected annual dividend income increased by $723 to $5,609, an increase of 14.8%!

Markets:

Dec 31, 2014	DOW: 17,823.07 S&P 500: 2.058.90 10-YR BOND: 2.17%
Mar 31, 2015	DOW: 17,776.12 S&P 500: 2,067.89 10-YR BOND: 1.93%

In the quarter ending March 2015, the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased by 0.26% while the S&P 500 increased by 0.44%. In comparison, DivGro's value decreased by 0.97% (when measured by internal rate of return (IRR) for Q1-2015).

At the end of Q1-2015, DivGro's market value of $144,150 represents a simple return of 10.2% on $130,850 invested. Of course, simple return does not take into account the timing and size of cash deposits as IRR does. DivGro's IRR since inception is 32.8%.

See my Performance page for a spreadsheet showing the state of DivGro on 31 March 2015.

Dividend Adjustments:

• New buys STWD, DIS, TROW, O, and GAP added $473.55 in projected annual dividend income.
• Additions to existing holdings IBM, CAT, HP and T added $408.15 in projected annual dividend income.
• ETP declared a new quarterly distribution of 99.5¢ per unit, increasing projected annual dividend income by $8.00. Yield on Cost (YoC) of ETP is now 8.39%.
• MDP increased its quarterly dividend to 45.75¢ per share, adding $5.50 to projected annual dividend income. YoC of INTC is 4.05%.
• PRE approved a quarterly dividend of 70¢ per share, raising YoC to 3.05%. The increase added $3.24 to projected annual dividend income.
• AVA declared a new quarterly dividend of 33¢ per share, increasing projected annual dividend income by $3.75. YoC of AVA is now 3.87%. 
• WMT announced a quarterly dividend of 49¢ per share, raising YoC to 2.60%. The increase adds $1.36 to projected annual dividend income.
• DLR declared a new quarterly dividend of 85¢ per share, increasing projected annual dividend income by $3.84. Yield on Cost (YoC) of DLR is now 6.45%.
• GD declared a new quarterly dividend of 69¢ per share, increasing projected annual dividend income by $9.80. YoC of GD is now 4.08%. 
• ES approved a quarterly dividend of 41.75¢ per share, raising YoC to 4.07%. The increase added $6.00 to projected annual dividend income.
• VNR's distribution cut removed $199.80 from projected annual dividend income. The new monthly distribution is 11.75¢ per unit, reducing YoC to 5.01%. 

Dividends Received:

• Total for Q1 of 2015: $1,337.83 (up 17.4% from $1,139.69 in Q4-2014)
• Total year-to-date: $1,337.83

Dividend Details

• 2015-01-02: Cash Dividend Receipt BAX: $19.24
• 2015-01-02: Cash Dividend Receipt PNNT: $60.20
• 2015-01-05: Cash Dividend Receipt WMT: $16.32
• 2015-01-05: Cash Dividend Receipt ACE: $15.60
• 2015-01-09: Cash Dividend Receipt PM: $31.00
• 2015-01-09: Cash Dividend Receipt MO: $39.00
• 2015-01-14: Cash Dividend Receipt VNR: $37.80
• 2015-01-15: Cash Dividend Receipt DLR: $39.84
• 2015-01-16: Cash Dividend Receipt PMT: $73.20
• 2015-02-02: Cash Dividend Receipt DE: $18.00
• 2015-02-02: Cash Dividend Receipt T: $35.25
• 2015-02-04: Return of Capital ETP: $99.50
• 2015-02-06: Cash Dividend Receipt GD: $21.70
• 2015-02-06: Return of Capital APU: $105.60
• 2015-02-13: Cash Dividend Receipt VNR: $37.80
• 2015-02-20: Cash Dividend Receipt CAT: $21.00
• 2015-02-27: Cash Dividend Receipt PRE: $18.90
• 2015-03-02: Cash Dividend Receipt AFL: $19.50
• 2015-03-02: Cash Dividend Receipt HP: $48.13
• 2015-03-02: Cash Dividend Receipt COP: $27.74
• 2015-03-02: Cash Dividend Receipt INTC: $28.80
• 2015-03-10: Cash Dividend Receipt TGT: $20.80
• 2015-03-10: Cash Dividend Receipt TGH: $35.25
• 2015-03-10: Cash Dividend Receipt IBM: $33.00
• 2015-03-10: Cash Dividend Receipt XOM: $20.70
• 2015-03-10: Cash Dividend Receipt CVX: $53.50
• 2015-03-10: Cash Dividend Receipt JNJ: $21.00
• 2015-03-12: Cash Dividend Receipt WBA: $14.85
• 2015-03-12: Cash Dividend Receipt MSFT: $24.80
• 2015-03-13: Cash Dividend Receipt MDP: $25.16
• 2015-03-13: Cash Dividend Receipt AVA: $24.75
• 2015-03-16: Cash Dividend Receipt MCD: $22.95
• 2015-03-17: Cash Dividend Receipt VNR: $21.15
• 2015-03-31: Cash Dividend Receipt BBL: $124.00
• 2015-03-31: Cash Dividend Receipt ES: $25.05
• 2015-03-31: Cash Dividend Receipt TRV: $15.95
• 2015-03-31: Cash Dividend Receipt DLR: $40.80

Goals 2015: I'm making good progress, as this chart from the March monthly review illustrates:

I'm ahead of schedule on my projected annual dividend income goal and only slightly behind pace on my dividend income goal. I've written 10 premium articles for Seeking Alpha, which puts me far ahead of schedule. On the other hand, I've got some catching up to do writing articles for The DIV-Net. And I'm essentially on track with my DivGro posts.

As far as my health goals are concerned, I've hiked 454 miles, which means I've (virtually) reached Roseburg in Oregon. To reach Seattle by the end of June, I'll have to hike a little bit more every day than I've done up to now.

My climbing goal is turning out to be relatively easy. I'm busy climbing the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, for the 12^th time – so there's only another 18 times to go before I reach my year-end goal!

I'm far behind on my weight loss goal, so I'll have to work much harder at that one!

Outlook For Q2-2015: I'll need to continue working hard on my goals for 2015. Its important to lay an early foundation, because dividend payments won't immediately kick in after I buy stocks. I'm looking forward to deploy about $9,000 in available cash. Look for upcoming posts on that!

Thanks for reading!