2020 February Dividend Income + Warren Buffett's annual letter

Two months in to the new year and the markets are experiencing some significant volatility, down over 20% from their recent highs.  It is during these volatile times, that investors seemingly appreciate their dividend income even more - as it provides an opportunity to reinvest the income into equities that appear attractively valued for the long term.  The question for many investors in the coming weeks and months is what if any companies in their portfolios will need to cut their dividends and which companies will be able to weather the storm and be able to increase the dividend in the next 12 mos?  It will be interesting to see how things develop in the next 12 months to say the least.

Recent Buy - DOW Inc (DOW), Delta (DAL), and 3M Co (MMM)

It feels like it has been forever since I made my last purchase and cash has been piling up in the meantime.  When it comes to investing, we all know that patience is most certainly a virtue one needs to exhibit on a regular basis, whether it comes to waiting for reasonable valuation to present itself or simply buying and holding a basket of investments in an attempt to delay the gratification of what a sum of dollars can buy today and instead investing that sum of money in a security and then waiting for it to exponentially grow into a greater sum of dollars over a decade or two in sum cases much longer.  Well, with the ongoing global coronavirus scare and the number of confirmed cases growing on a daily basis, Mr. Market has begun to panic and as a result has agreed to sell me some shares at much more reasonable valuations than what he was willing to do just a few months ago.  In response to Mr. Market's panic, I've put $7,500 in capital to work in the past month with the average yield of 4.0% for an additional $297 in annual dividend income. See below for the details on the latest transactions in recent weeks.

2020 January Dividend Summary

Although January 2020 ended with a volatile week of trading largely attributed to the coronavirus, no on would be able to tell based the monthly dividend receipts the PIV portfolio collected.  Take a look below for an account of the dividend transactions.

2019 December Dividend Summary

Well folks, that's a wrap for 2019.  According to Forbes, the last trading session for 2019 "...capped off a strong year for the stock market: In 2019, the S&P 500 rose by 29%, the Nasdaq by 35% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 22%. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their biggest one-year gains since 2013, while the Dow’s performance was its best since 2017." Quite a year indeed and few would complain about their portfolio's climb in valuation if they were anywhere near or above the 29% return for the S&P index, especially in light of the average annual return for the S&P since 1957 which is roughly 8%.  Without further ado, let's take a look at the dividend income for this past month as well as where the portfolio stands in terms YoY and YTD dividend trends, portfolio diversification and total value.

2019 November Dividend Summary

It has been a bit quite on the investing front as of late for the PIV portfolio.  As I have mentioned before, activity for the portfolio, particularly that of buying equity shares, has not been as frequent as I had envisioned at the beginning of the year, primarily due to valuations that on the whole appear to rather expensive despite many believing such premiums are justified given the historically low bond yields that are often seen as the alternative investment to equities.  In any event, dividends continued to trickle in during November, below is the latest summary and YoY comparison.

2019 October Dividend Summary

Market has been on a bit of a tear lately hitting new records highs in the past week.  Many of the stocks that I had been hoping to build as they hung out near their 52 week lows have seen a jump in their valuations along with the rest of the market as a whole.  Stocks like CVS, CAH, MMM and many of the banks recovered nicely and from a strictly valuation perspective, and may have plenty of more room to run in the near term.  As much as I hate to admit it, it is sometimes difficult to average up even when the current valuation of a company, although higher than what my current cost basis may be, is still below what I believe is a rough estimate of the company's intrinsic value.  CVS and DAL are probably both good examples of scenario as it relates to the PIV portfolio.  In any event, dividends continue roll in and cash in the PIV accounts is building much faster than I am choosing to invest in recent months.  See below for October's dividend summary.

Recent Buy - Goldman Sachs (GS) and 3M Inc (MMM)

Recent buys this month include include one purchases that added a new position to the portfolio, namely, Goldman Sachs.  See below for details on each of the recent purchases.

2019 September Dividend Summary

The end of the year is quickly approaching and the local weather seems to be changing just as fast.  The rate at which the weather declined from the low 90s just a few weeks ago to now averaging highs from mid 50s to low 60s this week is a bit of surprise (with the lows dropping to near freezing during the nights).  Thankfully the decline in the temps has no bearing on my portfolio value or dividend income. For the first 9 months of the year, the PIV portfolio has experienced a nearly 25% dividend income increase compared to the same period in the prior and I anticipate the portfolio will end the year at about the same rate.  Below is the monthly dividend summary for September 2019.

2019 August Dividend Summary

Here is August's dividend summary.  Life has been busy as of late and time seems to be flying by a little bit faster in recent weeks than it typically does - no matter - dividends keep rolling in.  At the start of the year I thought I just may hit the 5 digit mark for dividend this year - $10,000+, however, it doesn't look like that will happen.  The anticipated dividend growth alone would not be sufficient to meet that mark and I knew a decent amount of capital would be needed to get close, but purchases this year have much few and far between compared to previous years.  Without further ado, the August dividend summary is presented below which reflects a favorable YoY dividend income change of +28.2%.

Recent Buy - 3M (MMM), Cardinal Health (CAH), and DOW Inc (DOW)

Well, it has been nearly 3 months since I last purchased shares of any stock.  With the recent political shenanigans surrounding trade and the Fed's anticipated actions the markets have seen some greater than usual volatility.  Today was no exception as such, seized the opportunity add to some existing position in addition to a purchase I made earlier this week which resulted in a new position to the portfolio.

2019 July Dividend Summary

Another month is in the books.  For the past few months, these dividend income posts have been the only blog updates since my buy or sell activity has been nearly non-existent, but not for lack of capital.  Available cash for investing has been growing at a normal pace, however, I've been exercising some caution as I believe better opportunities will present themselves, who knows, perhaps we'll see a repeat of Q4 volatility like we did late in 2018, I would love it.  In any event, one thing that has been constant this year, despite my portfolio transactions having been less frequent than I had anticipated, is the continuing climb in YoY dividend income.  See the summary below.

2019 June Dividend Summary

The first half of 2019 is a wrap.  Overall I'm pleased with the portfolio's start to the new year and the YTD dividend income YoY performance.  See below for the details and some statistics for the mid-year review.