Recent Buy - Phillips 66 (PSX) and Bayer AG (BAYRY)

Phillips 66 (PSX) valuation has come down quite a bit in, coinciding of course, withe the fall in the price of crude oil.  This company is a cash flow generating machine that nearly prints money despite the volatility in the oil market.  What makes it an even better company is that management very shareholder oriented; consistently raises dividends and buys back stock.  See below for details on the purchase of PSX and BAYRY.

Recent Buy - Cardinal Health, Inc (CAH), Kraft Heinz Co (KHC), and Bayer AG (BAYRY)

Today with the market further it's decline as of late I initiated a new position in, Cardinal Health, Inc. (CAH), which has increased its annual distributions each year for over two decades.  In addition, I bolstered my equity weight in two existing positions, KHC and BAYRY, which I have been buying frequently as of late.  See below for details on the transactions.

Recent Buy - Broadcom Inc (AVGO) and General Mills Inc (GIS)

We've all witnessed the volatility of the market in recent months and in particular, the wild swings within the technology sector.  Broadcom Inc.(AVGO) has not been immune to these swings and despite what many would agree was a fairly good earnings report for Q4 and full fiscal year 2018, the after hours spike was tempered Friday afternoon as the general negative market sentiment as of late weighed heavily on nearly all stocks.  AVGO is a new position for the portfolio and while adding this position, I also picked up some additional share of General Mills Inc. (GIS).  General Mills, along with what seems all other consumer staple stocks, remains out of favor on wall street despite rapidly approaching a 5.0% dividend yield and 10% FCF yield.  Take a look below for details of the purchase and a few of the metrics that are considered prior to purchase.

2018 November Dividend Summary

Favorable trends continue for November's dividend summary with an earlier than anticipated dividend payment received from a new position that was just added recently.  Through November 2018, YTD dividend receipts are up 54% compared to same period for 2017 (excludes special dividend from NGG in 2017).  Rate increases in 2018 amount to 6.5% and reinvested dividends combined with investment of additional capital accounts for an increase 47.5%.  See below for a breakout of the monthly dividend income.

Recent Buy - Kraft Heinz Co (KHC) and Bayer AG (BAYRY)

I know what your thinking, "c'mon mix it up a little bit, same 'ol, same 'ol."  While I don't blame anyone for thinking that, I can't promise the companies I've been actively purchasing will change anytime soon.  KHC and BAYRY are two positions I have been adding to quite frequently it seems as of late.  KHC may not be an aggressive growth stock with a corresponding high dividend growth rate, but it does remain a cash cow with a yield getting closer to 5% week by week it seems as overall market valuation continues to decline.

With respect to BAYRY, nothing has changed with my rather strong conviction concerning what I believe to be a rather significant price discrepancy between Mr. Market's perceived risk associated with the company versus the potential long term reward with owning the stock.  My plan to continue to make purchases of BAYRY remains in tact so long as the valuation remains at unusually depressed levels.

2018 October Dividend Summary

October, the first month of Q4, is a wrap. As this post goes live, it is nearly half way thru November and just over a week away from the Thanksgiving holiday.  October's dividend summary brings bittersweet reflection and analysis.  To start, the bitter part is the impact of the dividend reduction GE announced in late 2017 (which at the time announced was a 50% cut) is now showing up as an unfavorable rate variance in my dividend summary (initial purchase was made in the later half of 2017 and prior to commencing this blog) and what is worse is that this will continue for the next year so long as GE remains a part of my portfolio due to another dividend rate cut announced here from $0.12 a quarter to $0.01 - a 92% cut, ouch! I am holding my position for now and will continue to keep a close eye on it.  It is far from a DGI opportunity at this point and, if anything, may be a speculative play or valuation play at some point (may be worth mentioning that the new CEO, H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., recently purchased 225,000 shares at $9.73 on 11/1/2018).  Today's closing price was $7.99/sh 😣.  If there is anything sweet to be salvaged from this month's summary, it is that despite the rate cut in GE's stock, YoY dividend income in October is up 41.5% over last year.  See below for additional details.

Recent Buy - Leggett & Platt Inc (LEG)

I must admit I was pretty excited when I checked the market this past week and saw that Leggett & Platt (LEG) was trading down > 7% after their earnings release.  Apparently, Mr. Market not too happy to hear management revise guidance lower for 2018.  The latest earnings presentation for Q3 2018 can be seen here and corresponding press release can be read here. Despite the revised EPS guidance for the current year, the company's decline in valuation leaves investors paying a Forward P/E ratio of less than 15x, which is a very reasonable valuation for this industrial company that is also very shareholder oriented.  See below for additional details on this purchase.

Recent Buy - Bayer AG (BAYRY)

Part of my routine each morning is to open the Yahoo! Finance application on my phone and see what the market is up to.  On Tuesday morning, it was clear heading into the market open that the market would open in negative territory based on where the DOW futures where trading leading into the open.  One stock on my watch list stood out like a sore thumb and it is a current holding of mine, namely, Bayer AG.  Within the first few hours the stock had fallen > 8.5% which brought it back down to similar levels as when I first picked up shares not too long ago.  As the week progressed, the valuation continue to decline with the rest of the market and I continued to buy.  See below for the details on this most recent purchases.

Recent Buy - Delta Air Lines (DAL)

I realized things got interesting Wednesday afternoon when I checked in on the markets and saw that they were in midst of a precipitous decline for the day.  I keep a lengthy list of stocks on my watch list and whether the markets panic for one day or weeks on end, I have always made sure to have a pile of cash handy to take advantage of perceived price discrepancies.  From this watch list, I always have an even shorter list of stocks that are presently in or are nearing a valuation range where I would be willing to initiate a new position (or add to an existing position) should the right price present itself.  I think this is a pretty typical characteristic of any self directed long term investor.  Well, on Wednesday, the stock I decided to pull the trigger on was DAL.  The stock has retreated back to the low $50s and I have decided the value offered for the price provides and adequate margin of safety.  See below for the details of the purchase, some metrics, and additional commentary.

Recent Buy - J.M. Smucker Co (SJM)

Recently made my first purchase for this month.  I've had a handful of companies on my shortlist of potentials buys and most of them are companies I have a current position in, such as J.M. Smucker.  This company is back down near their 52 week lows and the industry as a whole is out of favor with Wall Street.  SJM along with GIS have made some acquisitions recently to spur some growth and questions remain surrounding the price paid versus value received. See below for the details of the purchase along with some additional notes regarding valuation and purchase.

2018 September Dividend Summary

The third quarter of the calendar year is now in the books and companies will soon begin to report the latest quarter of earnings.  As many well know, September is one of the big 4 months of the year that tends to tally a large sum of dividend receipts and there is no exception with my experience.  See below for the monthly along with the YoY variance allocation between rate and volume - netting an increase of 34.6% increase in dividends.

Recent Buy - Bayer AG (BAYRY)

I've had Bayer (BAYRY) on a watch list I have listing many companies that I would consider owning at reasonable valuations.  Those who follow the markets will know that Bayer has captured some headlines in recent years.  First, the company announced some time back that it would be acquiring Monsanto and the $63 billion transaction was completed in recently weeks.  However, just before the transaction was closed, the company found itself in the headlines again as result of California court awarding a plaintiff $289 million who had sued Monsanto, claiming that the company's herbicide had helped cause the plaintiff's cancer.  What's more, Bayer recently revised its guidance for 2018 downward by about (~7%), which results in a forward P/E multiple of 12.7 (resulting in an earnings yield of 7.87%).  With all this relatively bad news, one may think "what the heck are you doing investing your precious capital in this company?".  Well, in short, I think the long terms benefits greatly outweigh the near term risks.  I'll have additional commentary below, but before I get there, let's take a look at some of the basic metrics I typically review in consideration of a stock purchase.

2018 August Dividend Summary

Although summer is not quite officially over, the month of August is and that leaves us with four month to go to close out the remainder of the year.  With just eight months of dividend income in 2018, I have reaped 48% more in dividend income YTD than what I received by this same point last year in 2017.  Take a look below and view the results for August 2018.

Recent Buy - Kraft Heinz Co (KHC)

Earlier this week I added to my KHC position, nearly doubling its size.  I initially bought 50 shares back in April and have wanted to further grow the size of this position but have been patiently waiting for the price to retreat below $60.  Shortly after their earnings release, I thought that my opportunity might not come again as speculation arose that KHC might be a potential suiter for an acquisition of Campbell's Soup Co (CPB), which I also happen to own.  This speculation combined with the KHC beating analysts' expectations for Q2 earnings led to a one day jump in price, amounting to an +9% increase in stock price on August 3rd.  However, as the past few weeks have shown, this valuation jump did not last.  Details on the purchase along with the updated valuation metrics can be seen below. 

2018 July Dividend Summary

July is in the books and the month of August is just flying right by.  Of course, the fact that my wife and I took the kids on a camping trip down to California last week to camp with my wife's side of the family down in Malibu, CA likely contributes to the feeling of how time seems to be passing quite fast as of late.  We camped at a state campground called Leo Carrillo State Beach and had a great time.  We try to get down there every year, but have missed this venture that past couple of years.  Now that I am back home and back to our routine trying to catch up in some respects.  I feel like I have been inactive on the investing front, but I did make two separate purchases of AT&T (T) last month, but it feels like it has been longer than a few short weeks.  Nonetheless, the dividends have continued to roll in and which of course is satisfying to see.  Below the summary for July along with the YoY comparison.

Recent Buy - AT&T (T) [second purchase in July 2018]

Just a short post here to mention that I added a few more shares to my AT&T position earlier this week.

Purchased:  34 shares x $31.029 = $1,054.99 (+ $4.95 commission fee)

Dividend Income: $2.00 sh/annually x 34 shares = $68.00 in additional dividend income

Comments: This latest purchase brings my total share count in T to 194 shares which equates to a investment value of $6,018 with annual dividend income of $388. My last purchase of T was just over a week ago.

Recent Buy - AT&T (T)

It been over a month since my last stock purchase, which can be found here.  The indexes have been approaching their record highs hit shortly after the first of the year, however, some stock valuations are still hanging out near their 52 week lows.  One such stock is AT&T (T) and today I've decide to add to my position.  Take a look below for the details on the purchase along with some additional commentary.

2018 June Dividend Summary

These late spring, early summer months go by way too fast!  We have now passed the midway point of the year as well as the recent summer solstice.  Without further ado, I'll get into this past months dividend income summary.  Anyone who tracks there dividend income activity throughout the year knows well that the month of June is one of the big 4 months when it comes to dividends and this is no exception for my portfolio.  As I mentioned last month, I fully expected to hit the 4 digit mark in June, which I did.  However, my dividend income for June 2018 was -1.5% lower than this same period last year - wait what!?  Yep, that's right, lower - but there is a reason for it and I'll explain below.

Recent Buy - PPL Corporation (PPL)

Well, I could no longer resist the appealing valuation of PPL Corp.  I actually have to give credit to Jason Fieber over at Mr. Free at 33 for bringing this company to my attention in recent months and I said as much in a comment on his blog shortly after my limit order executed. Initially, I had considered selling my position in NGG when it was trading at > $58/sh to finance this, but with the retreat in NGG's valuation I've decided to hold on to NGG and purchase PPL using a cash balance I have accumulated.  See details of the purchase along with some additional commentary below.

2018 May Dividend Summary

We are now nearly mid way through the year and the month of may has rung up another substantial YoY increase in dividend income - a YoY increase of 102.1% to be exact.  Take a look below to see which companies contributed to my monthly dividend income.

Recent Buy - Campbell Soup Co (CPB)

Alright folks, what does one do when an equity holding of theirs falls by > 20% in a matter of days despite maintaining a high conviction of the company's ability to overcome short terms headwinds? Buy more of course!  Well, that is just what I have done.  Today I increased my position in CPB by 50%.  The company's current valuation is ridiculously low based on adj EPS and/or operating cash flow, especially in light of where many of the indexes are currently trading.  Below are the details of the purchase as well as some additional commentary regarding recent events for CPB.

Recent Sell - Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. (OHI)

Last summer I decided to make the plunge and purchase one of the most popular REITs among retail dividend growth investors, OHI.  Well, not quite a year later and I've regretted the decision nearly as soon I made the decision to buy it.  Now that prices have recovered to levels close to where I initially purchased, I have decided to sell my relatively small position to allocate the capital elsewhere with much less industry (SNFs and ALFs) and regulatory risk.  There are a select few REITs that I currently own (LAMR, KIM, WPC, and CLDT) and would rather be invested in either of them rather then be exposed to the risk and rewards currently associated with OHI relative to current valuations.  The funds received in connection with this sell are held in a Roth IRA account and so the capital will likely be allocated towards purchasing additional share of KHC and/or WPC where my equity positions in both of those companies also reside.  Below are the details of the OHI transaction including the gain and loss calculations.

2018 April Dividend Summary

April dividends saw a decent jump YoY, a 54% jump to be exact.  Viewing the summary below, you can see there were 4 new companies added to the portfolio in the last 12 months that were remitting any dividend payments my way: CPB, GE, KMB, and KIM.  The addition of these four companies accounted for bulk of the YoY difference.  There is one company that I no longer own, that is BNS my small position shortly before starting this blog.  See below for the full details.

Recent Buy - AT&T (T)

Today I picked up some additional shares of AT&T which has been trading about 10% below my cost basis.  There remains some uncertainly about the future prospects of the company in regards to its Time Warner acquisition that is pending approval from the courts.  In addition, it recently came to light that the company has had a business relationship with one of President Trump's former lawyers which some on Wall Street may find concerning. Below are details of the purchase:
 

Recent Buy - The Kraft Heinz Co (KHC), Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB), and Campbell Soup Co (CPB)

In my previous post on Friday discusses a couple of positions I sold, which you can read more about here.  The proceeds from the equity positions sold was used to purchase 3 separate stocks on the same day: KHC, KMB, and CPB.  Of the three, KHC is new position for the PIV portfolio.  I have included details on each of the purchases below.

Recent Sell - Compass Minerals International (CMP) and Telefonica (TEF)

Today unexpectedly became an active day in the market for me.  I have the Yahoo Finance app installed on my phone and I typically will open up the app and take a look at my watchlist that I set up within the app in additional to the Google sheets file I have here on my blog.  When I opened the app I noticed many consumer staples were taking a hit; more on this in my next post.

Recent Buy - The Procter & Gamble Company (PG)

Made another purchase of PG that tacked on an additional 22 shares to the previous 42 I've acquired in recent months.

Purchased: 22 shares x $78.28 = $1,722.16 (+$4.95 commission)

Dividend Income: Increases forward annual dividend income by $63.11 ($2.87/sh annually; paid quarterly in Feb, May, Aug, and Nov)

Comments: Other than the purchase price, not much else has changed since my initial purchase last month.  As such, I'll refer you to the initial purchase here where additional metrics and the company profile can be found.  Forward dividend yield is 3.66% based on the company's recent announcement that can be found here; dividend increased by 4%.  With this recent purchase, PG now accounts for roughly 2% of my portfolio which I am comfortable with at current valuation.

2018 March Dividend Summary

Spring has arrived and the month of March has come to a close.  As I referenced in the February summary, March was a another month with significant changes in dividend income YoY.  This year I received $986.60 in dividends compared to last year's total of $427.97, a 76.6% increase.  Similar to the months the January and February, the significant changes in dividend income were largely driven by changes in holdings within my portfolio.  In early 2017 I deployed quite a bit of cash that I had generated from selling some ETFs, non-dividend paying stocks, as well as some idle cash I had built up in my retirement account.  Below are some details as well as some additional commentary on the dividend income for the month.

Recent Buy - Kimberly-Clark Corp (KMB)

While traveling with my son for baseball tournament this past Friday, I was surprised to open the Yahoo Finance app on my phone to see that KMB was trading around $106 and subsequently closed on Friday at 104.74.  I quickly put in a small limit order to pick 5 additional shares.

Purchased: 5 shares x $106.30 = $531.50 (+$0 commission)

Dividend Income: $20.00 ($4.00/sh annually; paid quarterly in Jan, Apr, Jul, and Oct)

Comments: I initiated a position in KMB earlier this month when the price was $111.50.  The purchase was made just before the ex-dividend date so I captured a $1 for each of the 25 shares I purchased at the time.  Other than the price, many of the metrics remain unchanged from earlier this month, which you can view here.  Forward dividend yield is 3.7% and my recent purchase price was nearly five percent cheaper than my entry point earlier this month.

Recent Buy - The Procter & Gamble Company (PG)

Made another purchase of PG that tacked on an additional 10 shares to the previous 32 I bought towards the end of February last month.

Purchased: 10 shares x $76.47 = $764.70 (+$4.95 commission)

Dividend Income: Increases forward annual dividend income by $27.60 ($2.76/sh annually; paid quarterly in Feb, May, Aug, and Nov)

Comments: Other than the purchase price, not much else has changed since my initial purchase last month.  As such, I'll refer you to that post here where additional metrics and the company profile can be found.  Current dividend yield is 3.58% and PG is expected to announce a dividend increase within the next few weeks.  If prices continue to hover below < $80 with all else remaining fairly constant, I will continue making purchases of PG.