Expired Options (August 2019)

The main options expiration day for August was Friday, 16 August.  I had a few options slated for expiration on that day and this short article explains what happened.

When options expire, I no longer have any associated obligations. The options premium collected become free and clear, also known as secured. Since I started options trading to boost DivGro's dividend income, I've secured options income totaling $29,404.

I usually write monthly options update articles summarizing options trades and also to keep track of options income. These updates serve as a status report on open options and potential obligations. In contrast, this article covers expirations.

Dividend Increases: August 19-23, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements and a summary of ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

I like monitoring dividend increases because I consider stocks with regular dividend increases to be candidates for further analysis.

One of this week's dividend increases is a double-digit percentage increase!

Dividend Increases: August 12-16, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements and a summary of ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

Companies that regularly increase their dividends show confidence in the potential growth of future earnings. I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis.

Two of this week's dividend increases are double-digit percentage increases!

High-Quality Dividend Stocks

I've been using a slightly modified version of David Van Knapp's quality scoring system to assess the quality of dividend growth [DG] stocks.

The quality scoring system employs five widely used quality indicators from independent sources and assigns 0-5 points to each quality indicator, for a maximum of 25 points. I call the total score a stock's quality score.

It occurred to me that I could use the quality scoring system to find high-quality stocks. I simply screen for stocks that match predetermined levels for each quality indicator. This article presents a ranked list of 36 stocks with quality scores of 24-25.

Dividend Increases: August 5-9, 2019

This article series provides a weekly summary of dividend increase announcements and a summary of ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

One way to identify dividend growth stocks for further analysis is to monitor dividend increases. I like monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list. Companies that regularly raise dividends show confidence in the potential growth of future earnings.

Three of this week's dividend increases are double-digit percentage increases!

Recent Sells (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of my article on recent sells.

I've been using a slightly modified version of David Van Knapp's quality scoring system to assess the quality of my DivGro stocks. The system is simple and does a great job identifying high-quality stocks, and also lower quality positions that may be candidates for the chopping block.

In Part 1 of this article, I discussed four lower quality positions and decided to close one of them, EPR Properties (EPR). In Part 2, I'm covering three additional lower quality stocks and my decision to close out two of them.

Recent Sells (Part 1)

Lately, I've been using David Van Knapp's quality scoring system presented in this article on high-quality, high yield DG stocks. I love the simplicity of the system and it appears to do a remarkable job identifying high-quality stocks. Also, there appears to be a positive correlation between quality scores and my recent ranking of the top holdings of dividend ETFs (presented here and here).

So I decided to rank the dividend growth [DG] stocks in my DivGro portfolio by quality score with the objective to identify and potentially close weaker positions. The results of this ranking can be found here.

Seven of my DG stocks got quality scores below 15. For reference, only DG stocks with quality scores of 15 and above are considered to be high-quality stocks.

Home Run Number 19

More than a year has passed since I last celebrated a home run.

Recall that I use the term home run to identify a stock in my portfolio that crosses the 100% mark in total returns.

My last home run was Apple (AAPL), which became the first $1T publicly-traded company shortly after it became my eighteenth home run stock.

This article presents my 19^th home run stock, a list of previous home runs, and shortlist of home run contenders.

Dividend Increases: July 29-August 2, 2019 (Part 2: Remaining Sectors)

Companies that regularly increase their dividends show confidence in the potential growth of future earnings. I monitor dividend increases to identify candidates for further analysis.

Part 1 of this article covered dividend increases announced for stocks in the Industrials, Materials, and Financials Sectors.

This is Part 2, which covers the remaining sectors.

Dividend Increases: July 29-August 2, 2019 (Part 1: Industrials, Materials, And Financials Sectors)

I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis. Companies that regularly increase their dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential.

In this two-part article, I provide a summary of recent dividend increases. Part 1 covers dividend increases announced for stocks in the Industrials, Materials, and Financials sectors. Part 2 will cover dividend increases from stocks in the remaining sectors.

Monthly Review of DivGro: July 2019

Welcome to another monthly review of DivGro, my portfolio of dividend growth stocks. My goal with these reviews is to share updates of my portfolio and to detail the dividends I received during the month. Additionally, I look at how the month's activities have impacted DivGro's projected annual dividend income (PADI).

In July, I added shares to four existing positions. Eight DivGro stocks announced dividend increases in July. The net result of these changes is that PADI increased by about 2.4% in July. Year over year, PADI increased by 17.9%.

As for dividend income, in July I received dividends totaling $1,556 from 23 stocks in my portfolio, a year over year increase of about 26%. So far in 2019, I've collected $14,626 in dividends or about 58% of my 2019 goal of $25,200.

Options Update: July 2019

Welcome to another options update article!

I write these monthly updates to summarize options trades and to keep track of options income. Each update also serves as a status report on open options and the obligations I potentially have.

My monthly target for options income in 2019 is $1,750. I'm happy to report that July's total exceeded my monthly target, although I'm still a little behind the pace needed to collect $21,000 in options income this year.

This month I'm reporting several expirations, as well as a multitude of income-generating trades.

Dividend Increases: July 22-26, 2019 (Part 3: Remaining Sectors)

I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis. Companies that regularly increase their dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential.

Last week, 30 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases. Part 1 covered stocks in the Utilities and Energy sectors, while Part 2 covered the Financials sectors. This is Part 3, which covers the remaining sectors.