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Sunday, October 25, 2015

Monthly Review: September 2015

After spending 6 wonderful weeks with my parents, including an amazing cruise to Alaska on the Norwegian Jewel, I'm slowly catching up on my DivGro admin. Once again, my monthly review post is quite late – and less than a week away from needing to write another monthly review!

Compounding matters, I've been quite busy at work and things won't improve on that front until at least April Fool's day 2016! Fortunately, I love my work and wouldn't want to change what I'm doing at all! So, I'll just have to squeeze some time out of my leisure time to keep up with this blog!

Look for my Q3-2015 quarterly review in the next few days... first though, here's September's review.

Dividend income in September was solid, but not quite as high as in June. Projected monthly dividend income increased nicely, though:


September Highlights

The stock market continued its downward trend in September, though with less volatility than in August. The downturn in August and September has created some excellent buying opportunities and I'm looking forward to deploying more funds in October and beyond!

For DivGro, dividend income increased to $764 from $560 received in August. In September 2014, dividend income was $498, which means a solid year over year increase of 53%!

I bought 34 shares of Philip Morris International Inc (NYSE:PM) and 35 shares of ExxonMobil Corp (NYSE:XOM), in the process adding $241 to projected annual dividend income (PADI). Adding the effect of dividend increases, DivGro's PADI increased by $274 to $6,956, approaching my goal of $7,500 by year's end.

Transactions:
  • Purchases
    • Dividends
      • 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt CMI: $18.53
      • 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt HP: $48.13
      • 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt AFL: $19.50
      • 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt COP: $28.12
      • 2015-09-01: Cash Dividend Receipt INTC: $28.80
      • 2015-09-08: Cash Dividend Receipt WMT: $16.66
      • 2015-09-08: Cash Dividend Receipt JNJ: $22.50
      • 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt CVX: $18.07
      • 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt IBM: $39.00
      • 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt XOM: $21.90
      • 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt MSFT: $24.80
      • 2015-09-10: Cash Dividend Receipt TGT: $22.40
      • 2015-09-11: Cash Dividend Receipt WBA: $15.84
      • 2015-09-11: Cash Dividend Receipt RS: $16.00
      • 2015-09-14: Cash Dividend Receipt VNR: $21.15
      • 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt STAG: $16.10
      • 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt MCD: $22.95
      • 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt AVA: $24.75
      • 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt MDP: $25.16
      • 2015-09-15: Cash Dividend Receipt O: $100.00
    • Deposits
      • 2015-09-29: October Cash Deposit: $2,500.00

    Changes in Projected Annual Dividend Income:
    • The purchase of 34 PM shares added $138.72.
    • The purchase of 35 XOM shares added $102.30.
    • MSFT's dividend increase added $16.00.
    • PM's dividend increase added $2.48.
    • O's dividend increase added $0.60.
    • MO's dividend increase added $13.50.
    • Projected annual dividend income (30 September 2015): $6,955.97.

    Dividend Summary:
    • Dividend income last month: $560.39
    • Dividend income this month: $763.92
    • Total dividend income year-to-date: $4,863.21

    Markets:
    Aug 31, 2015
    DOW: 16,528.03S&P 500: 1,972.1810-YR BOND: 2.20%
    Sep 30, 2015
    DOW: 16,284.70S&P 500: 1,920.0310-YR BOND: 2.06%

    In September, the Dow dropped 1.47% and the S&P 500 dropped 2.64%. In comparison, DivGro dropped 4.41%. My portfolio is overweight in Energy stocks and, consequently, DivGro's performance continues to lag the wider markets by a fair amount...

    Portfolio: click on the triangle to see a snapshot of DivGro's state on 30 September 2015.


    Goals Progress: Below is a chart showing the progress I'm making on my 2015 goals. I'm happy to report that I reached my goal of climbing the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, 30 times! That's the equivalent of 4,890 floors. At the current pace, I can probably reach 6,520 floors, or 40 times up and down, before year's end.

    I'm ahead of pace on 3 of my other goals. I've written 34 premium articles for Seeking Alpha, so I should reach the goal of 36 SA premium articles int the month of October. Most importantly, though, I'm ahead of schedule on my PADI goal, as well as my goal of earning $6,000 in dividend income in 2015.

    I'm behind schedule on 4 of goals, though 2 or 3 of them are still doable. As far as losing three stone is concerned, it is highly unlikely that I'll reach that goal in 2015. The wonderful cruise we took to Alaska has taken its toll: I'm now only 1% along the way to losing 3 stone. This is turning out to be a big fail! I'm going to try my best to at least lose on of those stones...

    September Posts

    I wrote only 5 articles in September, linked here in order of popularity by page views:
    1. 8 Dividend Increases, August 16 To September 4, 2015 – no dividend raises for DivGro holdings
    2. Recent Buy: Apple Inc – bought two lots of AAPL stocks for an average yield on cost (YoC) of 1.74%
    3. Recent Buy: Philip Morris International – added to my PM holding, securing a 5.02% YoC
    4. Monthly Review: August 2015 – projected monthly dividend income increased to $557
    5. 7 Dividend Increases, September 7 To September 18, 2015 DivGro holdings MSFT, PM, and O announced dividend increases!
    Looking Ahead: I have enough funds for at least 2 buys. I will probably look to add to current holdings, rather than opening new positions.

    I've updated my Performance page with the latest results. It provides a central place for reviewing DivGro's status and performance relative to the markets and to prior months.

    Thanks for reading and take care, everybody!

    8 comments :

    1. Solid month for divvys to roll in. I see a few names in common between our September portfolios. Nice PM buy. Was a good time to add not long ago. Seems to have climbed back up since its recent low. Thanks for sharing.

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Thanks for reading and commenting, DivHut. I think my timing with the PM buy was pretty good -- shortly after I bought more shares, the share price went up. Best of luck with your portfolio!

        Delete
    2. Nice progress and nice graph FerdiS! I am about half your PADI ($3,775), but already passed my goal so will stretch it a bit next year. I am also heavy Energy and there is nothing wrong with that. My last buy was RDS.B and they ain't going out of business anytime soon. I am happy to collect my near 7% while we wait for the future.

      Can a DGI investor ever beat the market when the goal is to buy solid well run companies at extreme discounts? I don't even bother to track the DOW or S&P. Just curious on your thoughts on that.

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. Thanks, Mike! Congratulations on passing your goal so early-on... there's still a couple of months to go!

        Although I track the DOW and S&P, I'm no longer too concerned about how DivGro performs, relatively speaking. It is more important for me to grow my dividend income stream. Some great opportunities out there now since the August and September market drops!

        Cheers
        FerdiS

        Delete
      2. Mike,

        I still think there is a place for monitoring the DOW or S&P. ModernCents takes an active approach to acquiring and defending its dividend portfolio. What we demonstrate is the use of options to protect either a portion or the entire portfolio. But, we do this based on the movement of the S&P. So, broadly speaking yes, we think its still important to track the S&P even as a dividend investor.

        Delete
      3. I've toyed with the idea of combining my interest in options (defensive) and dividend investing, but have not yet acted on it. Maybe one of these days!

        Delete
    3. Great job FerdiS! I think one of the wonderful things about DGI is that you can step away for a bit and still see positive results whenever you come back. Nice buys of PM and XOM. I wanted to add to my XOM stake but didn't have capital. Now the share price has come back too much to be as interesting.

      ReplyDelete
      Replies
      1. You're absolutely right -- once you get the dividend machine going, it doesn't need your constant attention! The same definitely is not true for swing or trend trading (or worse, day trading)...

        It seems like my timing on PM and XOM was good. Both have sprinted higher nicely. I wouldn't buy more shares at these levels, either.

        Take care!

        Delete

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