Added Real Estate Sector To My Watch List

I maintain a dynamic watch list of dividend growth stocks and update it monthly when David Fish updates the CCC stocks. My watch list contains a subset of the CCC stocks, which I obtain by applying a series of filters to the CCC stocks. Included in the watch list are all my DivGro holdings, some of which are not in the CCC list.

My watch list is organized by sector based on the GICS sector names. GICS is a 4-tiered, hierarchical classification system. It consists of 10 sectors, 24 industry groups, 67 industries, and 156 sub-industries. Each company is assigned a single GICS classification at the sub-industry level according to its principal business activity.

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.

My Dynamic Watch List

I maintain a watch list of dividend growth stocks that I update at least once a month, sometimes more frequently. It contains all of DivGro's holdings, as well as a subset of David Fish's CCC stocks. Currently, there are 183 stocks in the watch list. The watch list is organized by sector using GICS sector names.

I reference the watch list every month when compiling a dashboard of the best dividend growth stocks. September's dashboard has HP, XOM, and PMT in the top spots. I use the dashboard to compile a list of candidates, one per sector, for further research. Until DivGro is nicely diversified by sector, I'll continue to bias my purchases to sectors that are under-represented.

My New Watch List of Dividend Growth Stocks

Of all the pages on my blog, I tinker with my Watch List page most. The list contains tickers of candidate dividend growth stocks, organized by sector. It is a subset of Dave Fish's CCC stocks (Dividend Champions, Contenders, and Challengers), plus a small selection of non-CCC dividend paying stocks.

My goal with this post is to reconstruct my watch list by using a similar approach to the one I use every month to identify 10 candidate stocks. Additionally, I want to figure out what sector-balanced really means. I don't think it means having the same number of stocks in each sector.

7 Dividend Growth Candidates for December, 2013

I've just updated my watch list of dividend growth stocks. To evaluate candidates in my watch list, I score them based on selection criteria and assign a star rating to each candidate out of a maximum of 7 stars.

This month, the top ten stocks are CHL, INTC, NTT, CVX, BBL, COP, LMT, RCI, MSFT and IBM. I already own shares in the highlighted stocks. CHL, INTC, NTT, and CVX are 7-star stocks. The others are 6-star stocks.

Because I'm still expanding the number of holdings in DivGro rather than adding to existing holdings, I look for 7 stocks that I don't own yet, for further analysis. The 7 candidates for December are:

7 Dividend Growth Candidates for November, 2013

Every month, I score stocks in my watch list of dividend growth stocks based on my selection criteria. I assign a star rating to each candidate out of a maximum of 7 stars and compile a dashboard of candidates, sorted by star rating.

This month, the top ten stocks are CHL, NTT, CVX, TGH, COP, RCI, INTC, MSFT, PG, and XOM. I already own shares in the highlighted stocks. CHL, NTT, and CVX are 7-star stocks. The others all earned 6 stars.

Because I'm still expanding the number of holdings in DivGro rather than adding to existing holdings, I look for 7 stocks in my dashboard that I don't own yet, for further analysis. The 7 candidates for November are:

7 Dividend Growth Candidates for October, 2013

I keep a watch list of dividend growth stocks as candidates for DivGro. It contains tickers of companies with continuous streaks of dividend increases, the so-called CCC stocks (Champions, Contenders, and Challengers) maintained by Dave Fish, as well as a few other dividend payers that pay (but do not raise) dividends regularly.

The watch list is organized by sector and by yield. Every month, I update the watch list to reflect any additions or deletions of CCC stocks. I also adjust for changes in dividend yield, which happen when stock prices or dividend payments change.

This month, two watch list stocks were affected. I deleted DX after its recent dividend decrease, and I moved PNNT to the non-CCC list following its deletion for Dave Fish's CCC stocks. Note that I recently bought shares of PNNT for DivGro.

Every month, I score stocks in my watch list based on my selection criteria. I assign a star rating to each candidate out of a maximum of 7 stars and compile a dashboard of candidates, sorted by star rating. This month, the top ten stocks are CHL, INTC, NTT, CVX, XOM, SNP, RCI, COP, MSFT, and PG.

I already own shares in the highlighted stocks. To diversify my portfolio, I choose 7 stocks from my dashboard that I don't own yet, for further analysis. The 7 candidates for October are:

7 Dividend Growth Candidates for September, 2013

Once a month I score stocks in my watch list based on several selection criteria. I assign star ratings out of a maximum of 7 stars and compile a dashboard of the best candidates. This month, the ten stocks at the top of the list are CHL, INTC, NTT, MSFT, PNNT, SNP, DCM, COP, SXL and BHP. The first 4 earned 7 stars; the rest earned 6 stars each.

I already own shares of the highlighted stocks. In order to diversify my portfolio, I look further down the list and select 7 candidates for further analysis. The 7 candidates for September are:

Fruits of my Labor Day Labor

As a dividend growth investor, I find Dave Fish's list of Dividend Champions invaluable. The accompanying spreadsheet provides extensive financial data of companies with long track records of consecutive years of dividend increases. I use the spreadsheet as a basis for compiling a watch list of dividend growth stocks as well as when writing monthly posts identifying dividend growth stock candidates worth consideration. 

This weekend, while reviewing changes to the spreadsheet, a recent change listed in the Revisions tab of the spreadsheet caught my eye: 

7 Dividend Growth Candidates for August, 2013

Every month I score stocks in my watch list based on selection criteria, assigning a star rating to each candidate out of a maximum of 7 stars. I then compile a dashboard of candidates, sorted by star rating. The basis for this analysis is Dave Fish's list of US Dividend Champions, which he publishes at the beginning of every month. I also use stock ratings from several other sources, including MorningStar,  The Motley Fool, S&P Capital IQ, Thomson Reuters, and Zacks.

The ten stocks at the top of my August list are NTT, MSFT, INTC, CHL, NSC, PRE, TRV, CB, AFL, and COP. I already own shares of the highlighted stocks in DivGro. In order to diversify my portfolio, I select 7 candidates from the list that I don't own yet, for further analysis. 

7 Dividend Growth Candidates for July, 2013

Last month I started a new series of posts in which I'm identifying candidates for DivGro. I score stocks in my watch list of dividend growth stocks based on my selection criteria, assigning a star rating to each candidate out of a maximum of 7 stars.  I then compile a dashboard of candidates, sorted by star rating.

Due to my 2-week vacation this month, I'm rather late with this post. I analyze data in Dave Fish's list of US Dividend Champions, which he publishes at the beginning of every month. Rather than using data that are 3 weeks old, I've spent some time to update the data before doing my analysis.

7 Dividend Growth Candidates for June, 2013

One of the most useful resources for dividend growth investors is Dave Fish's list of US Dividend Champions, which provides financial data of companies with 25 or more straight years of dividend increases in spreadsheet form. Also provided are data of companies that have increased their dividends for 10-24 straight years (Contenders) and companies that have increased their dividends for 5-9 straight years (Challengers).

I use Dave Fish's spreadsheet and my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for DivGro. I use my selection criteria to score each candidate and to assign an overall star rating for each candidate, out of a maximum of 7 stars. I then compile a dashboard of all the candidates, sorted by star rating.