DivGro's High and Low Performers in 2018

On this last day of 2018, I wanted to review DivGro's best and worst performers of the year. Unlike last year, when DivGro contained lots of winners, this year is a mixed bag.

Of the 49 positions I owned throughout the year, 18 are trading up and 31 are trading down. With more positions down than up, it is unsurprising that these positions are down 5.6%, on average.

The largest losses are from Ford Motor (F), down 39.6% since January 2018, and Altria Group (MO), down 30.2% since January 2018. On the other hand, Netflix (NFLX) returned 33.1% this year, and Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI) returned 28.1% in 2018.

Summary Of Dividend Increases In 2018

I like monitoring dividend increases for a selection of stocks in the CCC list because I consider such stocks to be worthy candidates for further analysis. The following screens determine the selection:

     • Dividend Yield ≥ 1.0%
     • Market cap ≥ $1 billion
     • No stocks that are being acquired
     • No Over-The-Counter or Pink Sheet stocks

This article provides a summary of 2018's dividend increases, as summarized in my weekly Dividend Increases articles. In preparing for this article, I excluded dividend increases of stocks not in the latest available CCC list (dated 11/30/18) and those that no longer pass the above screens.

10 Dividend Growth Stocks For December 2018

With my monthly 10 Dividend Growth Stocks series, I rank a subset of CCC stocks and present the 10 top-ranked stocks for further research.

In the October edition, I debuted a new ranking system. The ranking system assigns letter grades to stocks relative to their performance among sector peers. Having a sector-oriented ranking system avoids the problems associated with ranking unlike stocks.

This month I decided to rank CCC stocks in one of the defensive sectors, Consumer Staples. Given the increase in market volatility since October, perhaps it is prudent to start considering defensive stocks. Defensive stocks tend to outperform the broader market during market downturns.

New Additions to My Portfolio (Part 2)

In Part 2 of this article I'm covering three more additions to DivGro. These are stocks in the Financials and Information Technology sectors.

Part 1 presented two new positions in the Materials sector, Air Products and Chemicals (APD) and International Paper (IP); and one new position in the Energy sector, Chevron (CVX).

On Monday, the stock market dropped to a 20-month low on the worst Christmas Eve trading day ever! But things certainly got turned around on Boxing Day! As mentioned in Part 1, I've been operating under the assumption that the bulls would keep the bears at bay for another year or so. We'll see how it goes...

New Additions to My Portfolio (Part 1)

The stock market dropped to a 20-month low on the worst Christmas Eve trading day ever! Continued turmoil in Washington is rattling financial markets, and the S&P 500 is on the brink of a bear market.

Given this context, it is weird to be reporting new buys for my portfolio. But I've been positioning DivGro for increased volatility and in anticipation of this long-running bull market coming to an end. I have to confess that I've been operating under the assumption that the bulls would keep the bears at bay for another year or so. We'll see how it goes...

This article reports on six recent buys, all new positions in my portfolio. Part 1 covers additions in the Materials and Energy sectors, while Part 2 will cover additions in the Financials and Information Technology sectors.

Dividend Increases: December 17-21, 2018

I like monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks because I consider such stocks to be candidates for further analysis. Companies that regularly raise dividends show confidence in the potential growth of future earnings.

In the last week, five companies I track announced dividend increases, including one of the stocks I own.

Four of the five increases are double-digit percentage increases!

Recent Sells to Harvest Tax Losses (Part 3)

Part 3 of my article on harvesting tax losses covers three more recent sells. I'm trimming these stocks rather because I'm hoping to buy back shares in 2019 to retain the dividends and to lower my average cost basis.

Part 1 covered Ford (F), while Part 2 covered recent sells on Gilead Sciences (GILD), KB Home (KBH), and Nvidia (NVDA). I trimmed GILD, but closed KBH and NVDA because I'm no longer  interested in owning those stocks.

In the conclusion of this article, I'll provide a summary of all the trades reported in this article.

Recent Sells to Harvest Tax Losses (Part 2)

Today I'm presenting Part 2 of a three-part article on recent sell transactions to harvest tax losses. With one of the sells presented today, I'm trimming two-thirds of a losing position with the view to reestablishing the position next year. Two additional sells are closing trades because I have no desire to hold onto these positions.

Part 1 presented a recent sell of Ford (F) in which I significantly trimmed my losing position. I hope to buy back shares next year before F goes ex-dividend, but I'll need to wait 31 days to avoid breaking the wash-sale rule.  F's next ex-dividend date should be near the end of January, so I'll have a window of about a week to buy back shares.

See Part 3 of this article for the final tax-loss harvesting sells.

Recent Sells to Harvest Tax Losses (Part 1)

 In year's past, I've sold stocks in late November or into December to offset capital gains, so limiting my tax liability. The strategy is not without problems, but I like having an excuse to clean house.

So far in 2018, I've earned about $15,000 in capital gains from sold stocks and an additional $6,000 from closed options trades. To lighten my 2018 tax burden, I decided to realize some offsetting losses by trimming and even closing several losing positions.

Part 1 of this article presents a recent sell in which I'm trimming a losing position. I hope to buy back shares next year before the ex-dividend date and to establish a lower cost basis. I'll need to wait 31 days to avoid breaking the so-called wash-sale rule.

Part 2 and Part 3 will cover additional sells. Most of these are similar in that I'm hoping to reestablish my positions next year. But I'm also closing one position altogether.

13 Dividend Increases: December 10-14, 2018

Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch is one way to identify candidates for further analysis. Companies that regularly increase their dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential.

This past week, 13 companies announced dividend increases, including three of the stocks I own.

Five of these increases are double-digit percentage increases!

Goals for 2019

I believe in setting stretching but achievable goals.

It is not very useful to entertain goals that are easy to achieve. Such goals are not inspiring and they don't require special effort. And achieving an easy goal won't give you a special sense of accomplishment.

On the other hand, setting goals that are unachievable or impossibly hard is not useful either. Doing so just sets you up for failure.

Stretching goals demand extra effort and focus. They require commitment, patience, and constant monitoring. Sometimes, when progress is not sufficient, they require a course correction.

In this article, I'm presenting my goals for 2019.

28 Dividend Increases: December 3-7, 2018 (Part 3: Remaining Sectors)

One way to identify dividend growth stocks for further analysis is to monitor dividend increases. Companies can only increase their dividends regularly and sustainably if they grow earnings sufficiently.

Last week, 28 companies declared dividend increases, including 2 of my DivGro holdings. I already covered dividend increases of stocks in the Real Estate, Health Care, and Industrial sectors. Today I'm covering dividend increases of stocks in the remaining sectors.

In this list of the 11 stocks, no fewer than six stocks announced double-digit percentage increases. And the top increase is a spectacular 51%! To learn about these increases, read on...

28 Dividend Increases: December 3-7, 2018 (Part 2: Health Care And Industrials Sectors)

Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch is one way to identify candidates for further analysis. Companies can only raise their dividends regularly and sustainably if they grow earnings sufficiently.

In the last week, 28 companies declared dividend increases, including 2 of my DivGro holdings. Part 1 of this article presented dividend increases for stocks in the Real Estate sector. This is Part 2, which covers the Health Care and Industrials sectors. See Part 3 for dividend increases of stocks in the remaining sectors.

Four of the 9 stocks covered in Part 2 announced double-digit percentage increases and the top increase is an impressive 21%!

28 Dividend Increases: December 3-7, 2018 (Part 1: Real Estate Sector)

I like monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks because I consider such stocks to be candidates for further analysis. Companies that regularly raise their dividend payments show confidence in future earnings growth potential.

In the past week, 28 companies declared dividend increases.
Part 1 covers dividend increases in the Real Estate sector. See Part 2 and Part 3 for dividend increases in the other sectors.

None of the Real Estate sector stocks announced double-digit percentage increases, but the year-over-year increase of one of the stocks is 20%! This happens when a company increases its dividend more than once a year.

Monthly Review of DivGro: November 2018

I write monthly reviews of my portfolio of dividend growth stocks, DivGro, to detail any transactions and to summarize the dividends I received during the month. I also summarize the changes to DivGro's projected annual dividend income (PADI).

In November I received dividends totaling $1,811 from 21 stocks in my portfolio, a year over year increase of 80%. So far in 2018, I've collected $17,591 in dividends or about 98% of my 2018 goal of $18,000.

This month I reduced the size of one of my riskier but higher yielding positions. I opened two new positions and added shares to four existing positions. Five DivGro stocks announced dividend increases in November.

The net result of these changes is that PADI increased by about 1.3% in November. Year over year, PADI increased by 41.6%.

My Dividend Growth Stock Selection Criteria

By Sneha Shah of Greenworldinvestor

Dividends are preferred by investors as they provide actual solid cash rewards for holding a particular stock. What is even more exciting is to see these dividends grow year on year. While it seems very easy, a lot of research is involved in selecting the stocks for creating a successful dividend growth portfolio.

Dividend growth investing is both an art and a science and your portfolio needs a lot of patience and attention in order to grow.

Here are the five most important factors to consider before selecting your dividend growth stocks.

Options Update: November 2018

DivGro's focus continues to be dividend growth investing, and most of my articles discuss the management of my dividend growth portfolio. But I also do options trades, so I write monthly options updates to keep track my options income.

Each update serves as a status report on the open options and obligations I have. I also report new trades and provide a running tally of DivGro's options income to date.

I added options trading to DivGro to leverage the equity in my portfolio and to generate extra income. Options trading allows me to buy more dividend growth stocks that otherwise would have been possible.

I mostly sell puts on stocks I would like to own and covered calls on stocks I already own. Occasionally, I execute more speculative options trades, too, such as bull put spreads and other combo trades.

8 Dividend Increases: November 26-30, 2018

Companies that regularly increase dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential. Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list helps me identify candidates for further analysis.

This past week, eight companies announced dividend increases, including one of the stocks I own.

Two of these increases are double-digit percentage increases!