Tag: Investing

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Dividend Stocks Dividends

Dividend Portfolio: 4/29/2022 Week in Review

Welcome back to Dividend Dollars and our weekly review! And boy what ANOTHER rough week it was!

The S&P is down 3.3% for the week. The NASDAQ is down 3.9%, Russel is down 3.2%, and the Dow Jones is down 2.5%.

This week the market continued to feel economic pressure and also a spattering of poorly received earnings reports. Concerns about the tightening Fed policy in a low growth, high inflation environment continued to drive stocks down.

This week Apple (AAPL) alerted investors of looming higher costs due to supply chain issues for Q3. Amazon’s (AMZN) guidance Q2 revenue below expectations. Intel (INTC) also provided lower Q2 guidance during their earnings call. Overall, earnings was mixed with large losers in Teladoc (TDOC) and Tesla (TSLA) and with Meta (FB) being one of the stand out winners.

In terms of economic data releases, the Advance GDP report showed indicators of stagflation, regardless of historically low unemployment levels. Real GDP had decrease larger decreases than expected at 1.4% year over year. The GDP Chain Deflator increased by 8%. The PCE Price index jumped 0.9% for the month and 6.6% year over year.

Overall, a mixed earnings season and continued concern about recession and rising rates weighed markets down significantly this month, making this April one of the worst performing months in recent years. The Nasdaq Composite had its worst month since 2008 with a decrease of nearly 13.3%. The S&P lost 8.8%.

Thing’s were rough this month, and my portfolio was not immune from it! However, we added more than our regular deposit amount to our portfolio will continue to add while things are down. The best part about being a dividend investor is that performance is not the end-all be-all. It is nice to have capital gains, but we are in this to build income. While stocks stay down, we get to buy that income at a discount! And boy did we make some buys this week. Let’s dive into it.

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $8,428 into the account, the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $8,457.03. That’s a gain of mere gain of $29.03 for a total return of 0.34%. The account is down $251.25 for the week which is a 2.89% loss. In the last six weeks our portfolio has fallen from the highs of roughly 8% of gains!

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down -7.26% whereas our portfolio has an overall return of 0.34%! It’s tough seeing the portfolio come down from highs just a few weeks ago, but it is good that we are still beating the market.

We added $268 in cash to the account this week. The stock purchases made with this will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week.

This week our annual dividend income decreased by $17. The reason for this decrease is that I sold my position in UWM Corporation (UWMC) this week. It was a high yield and very risky position that I was using to experiment with selling covered calls. I was not doing a great job with the calls and my position was also down over 30% when I sold. I realized that this position was not in line with my investing style of building a portfolio of strong, established, dividend paying stocks. Therefore, I sold the position, took the loss, and rolled that money over into other positions which you will see in the trade break down below.

For my portfolio, it’s dividend yield may be just slightly higher than what you will see in other portfolios, however that is strategic per my time horizon. I am in my 20s and am just starting off this investment journey, so a higher dividend yield gives me greater cash flow now to reinvest which helps me realize the benefits of compounding sooner.

Our beta usually hovers right around the mid 0.6s which is good, especially in times of uneasiness. It means my portfolio won’t dip as much as the rest of the market on red days, however, it does go the other way around and I won’t have as much green on the good days. Therefore, it is good to watch your beta in terms of cyclicity. View the chart above to see the performance of my portfolio versus the S&P 500, notice how my portfolio’s green days are not as substantial as the S&P’s but neither are my red days, that is beta at work. My beta so far has led to better returns than the market since beginning this portfolio, however, on rally weeks I underperform. In order to combat that, I have started adding to a levered position to raise my beta. I would like to see it in the 0.8s.

Dividends

This week we received five dividends. $0.74 from McCormick (MKC), $2.25 from XYLD, $1.35 from Comcast (CMCSA, click here to read the article I wrote on their quarterly earnings call), $2.34 from EOG Resources (EOG), and $4.55 from Altria (MO).

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically. All dividends were reinvested.

Dividends received for 2022: $105.23

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $128.15

Trades

Below is a breakdown of my trades this week.

As noted above, we closed our UWMC position and used those funds to invest in many other down positions on Wednesday

  • April 25th
    • ETRACS 2x ETN (SMHB) – added 1 share at $9.80
    • Cummins (CMI) – added 0.15 shares at $193.33
    • Starbucks (SBUX) – added 0.25 shares at $77.40
    • 3M (MMM) – added 0.15 shares at $146.93
    • McCormick (MKC) – added 0.007229 shares at $102.37 ($0.74 dividend reinvested)
  • April 26th
    • UWM Corporation (UWMC) – sold all 155.957117 shares at $3.57
    • ETRACS 2x ETN (SMHB) – added 4 share at $10.07
    • XYLD – added 1 share  at $47.44
    • AT&T (T) – added 10 shares at $19.37
    • 3M (MMM) – added 1 share at $143.36
    • Starbucks (SBUX) – added 0.25 shares at $76.48
    • Intel (INTC) – added 2 shares at $46.08
    • Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure (AY) – added 1 share at $30.89
    • XYLD – added 0.04772 shares at $47.15 ($2.25 dividend reinvested)
  • April 27th
    • Texas Instruments (TXN) – added 0.25 shares at $163.76
    • Comcast (CMCSA) – added 0.031513 shares at $42.84 ($1.35 dividend reinvested)
    • SCHD – added 0.129289 shares at $77.35 (recurring investment)
    • XYLD – added 0.210275 shares at $47.56 (recurring investment)
  • April 28th
    • Comcast (CMCSA) – added 1 share at $40.89
  • April 29th
    • Intel (INTC) – added 1 share at $44.10
    • Realty Income (O) – added 0.1 shares at $71.00

Summary

That is it for the update this week. Let’s kill it next week. Stay patient and be ready to buy income producing assets at a discount!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on twitter and Instagram using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week and stay safe!

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio Stock Market

Dividend Portfolio: 4/14/2022 Week in Review

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Welcome back to Dividend Dollars and our weekly review! And boy what a week it was! We made some adjustments to our energy holdings and crossed our first $100 in dividends!

We lost a day of trading this week due to Good Friday. Having the day off was a good ending to a bad week! The S&P lost 2.1%, Nasdaq 2.6%, the Dow was down 0.8%, with Russell making the only gain of 0.5%.

The information technology, health care, financials, and communication services sectors were the S&P’s biggest losers. Downward movement in the information technology and communication sectors were linked to moves in the Treasury market. The 10-year yield went up 12 basis points this week despite economic discussion that inflation was peaking. That discussion was followed by two days of declining rates following big CPI and PPI numbers for March.

The financial sector was down particularly because of earnings missed by JPM and WFC. Other banks for the most part surpassed expectations.

Airline stocks showed strength this week with AAL raising their Q1 revenue guidance and DAL with earnings that beat expectations. JETS also went up 8% this week.

Aside from airlines doing well, the materials, industrials, energy, and consumer staples sectors of the S&P were positive with gains all under 1%.

Now let’s move on to reviewing our portfolio’s performance for the week.

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $8,020 into the account, the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $8,494.4. That’s a gain of $474.42 for a total return of 5.92%. The account is down $48.08 for the week which is a 0.56% loss.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down -1.41% whereas our portfolio has an overall return of 5.92%! Let’s keep up this good progress with smart adds to the portfolio.

We added $120 in cash to the account this week. The stock purchases made with this will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week.

This week our annual dividend income increased by $20. My portfolio’s dividend yield may be just slightly higher than what you will see in other portfolios, however that is strategic per my time horizon. I am in my 20s and am just starting off this investment journey, so a higher dividend yield gives me greater cash flow now to reinvest which helps me realize the benefits of compounding sooner.

Our beta usually hovers right around the mid 0.6s which is good, especially in times of uneasiness. It means my portfolio won’t dip as much as the rest of the market on red days, however, it does go the other way around and I won’t have as much green on the good days. Therefore, it is good to watch your beta in terms of cyclicity. View the chart above to see the performance of my portfolio versus the S&P 500, notice how my portfolio’s green days are not as substantial as the S&P’s but neither are my red days, that is beta at work. My beta so far has led to better returns than the market since beginning this portfolio, however, on rally weeks I underperform. In order to combat that, I have started adding to a levered position to raise my beta. I would like to see it in the 0.8s.

Dividends

This week we received two dividends. $13.77 from UWMC and $3.17 from BBY

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically. All dividends were reinvested (except for BBY, that will be reinvested on Monday).

Dividends received for 2022: $90.19

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $113.11

Trades

Below is a breakdown of my trades this week.

On Wednesday I did some restructuring of the portfolio. I sold my whole position in EOG and spun a majority of those into a new utilities position in AY. There are a couple of reasons I did this. The IPCC report came out this week and is pretty grim about the future of our planet. It makes it clear that the devastating impacts of a climate crisis are occurring and the opportunity to curb terrible outcomes are already slipping through our fingers. The report says that greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 to limit global warming close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as targeted by the Paris Agreement. Mitigating climate change continues to a growing and ever important focus for governments, business, and people.

Though the Ukraine conflict is where the world’s attention is at right now. I still believe that oil will be a good business model in the short term, thus I am continuing to hold CVX, but I believe that adoption of more “green” policies are inevitable and will come sooner or later. When this happens, oil companies will come under pressure and renewable energy companies will benefit. It will be a long transition, possibly over decades. But I would rather build positions on renewable energy companies now instead of later. For that reason, I sold my EOG position and rolled it into a new position in AY, a sustainable infrastructure company with a majority of its business in renewable energy assets (solar, water, and wind).

  • April 11th
    • T – added 2 shares at 19.59
    • SMHB – added 1 share at $10.99
    • UWMC – added 3.251476 shares through $13.77 dividend reinvested
  • April 12th
    • UWMC – added 3 shares at $3.97
    • MMM – added 0.1 shares at $148.70
  • April 13th
    • EOG – sold position (3.113613 shares) for a 45% gain
    • AY – new position, bought 6 shares at $33.56
    • BAC – added 2 shares at $38.86
    • T – added 5 shares at $19.44
    • SCHD – added 0.126727 shares at $78.91 (recurring investment)
    • XYLD – added 0.201191 shares at $49.70 (recurring investment)
  • April 14th
    • SBUX – added 0.25 shares at $79.68
    • UWMC – added 3 shares at $3.90
    • SMHB – added 1 share at $10.94

Summary

That is it for the update this week. Let’s kill it next week. Stay patient and be ready to buy income producing assets at a discount!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on twitter and Instagram using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week and have a happy and safe Easter!

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio

Dividend Portfolio: 4/8/2022 Week in Review

Welcome back to Dividend Dollars and our weekly review!

March FOMC minutes came out this week and confirmed expected balance sheet reductions and future rate increases possibly being 50 basis point jumps or more. Following this, Treasury yields of all timeframes jumped with the 10 year moving up 34 basis points and the 2 year moving up 10 basis points. Longer term notes were pushed even higher by the March ISM Non-Manufacturing Index which showed the Prices Paid Index hit its second highest reading ever.

Essentially, the Fed news harkens concerns about the central bank potentially making policy mistakes that could sent the economy into recession, which would lower earnings prospects and valuations. Growth stock valuations were pressured by this and rapid rise in rates this week.

Having paid very close attention to rates this week, I had a good conversation with @ScoreBDInvestor on twitter who ended up doing a great write up about TIPX and treasury inflation protected securities. It might be timely to read into and consider adding it as an inflationary hedge.

At the end of it all, the S&P and Nasdaq headed for their first weekly loses in four weeks. The DJIA lost 0.3%, NASDAQ 3.9%, Russell 4.6%, and the S&P 1.3% with 5 of the 11 sectors making gains. Biggest losers included information technology, consumer discretionary, and communication services while the biggest gainers were the energy, healthcare, and consumer staples sectors.

Now let’s move on to reviewing our portfolio’s performance for the week.

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $7,900 into the account, the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $8,449.48. That’s a gain of $549.81 for a total return of 6.96%. The account is up $8.90 for the week which is a 0.11% gain.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is up 0.74% whereas our portfolio has an overall return of 6.96%! Let’s keep up this good progress with smart adds to the portfolio.

We added $120 in cash to the account this week. The stock purchases made with this will be broken out below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week.

This week our annual dividend income increased by $9. My portfolio’s dividend yield may be just slightly higher than what you will see in other portfolios, however that is strategic per my time horizon. I am in my 20s and am just starting off this investment journey, so a higher dividend yield gives me greater cash flow now to reinvest which helps me realize the benefits of compounding sooner.

Our beta usually hovers right around the mid 0.6s which is good, especially in times of uneasiness. It means my portfolio won’t dip as much as the rest of the market on red days, however, it does go the other way around and I won’t have as much green on the good days. Therefore, it is good to watch your beta in terms of cyclicity. View the chart above to see the performance of my portfolio versus the S&P 500, notice how my portfolio’s green days are not as substantial as the S&P’s but neither are my red days, that is beta at work. My beta so far has led to better returns than the market since beginning this portfolio, however, on rally weeks I underperform. In order to combat that, I have started adding to a levered position to raise my beta. I would like to see it in the 0.8s.

Dividends

This week we did not receive any dividends, however a handful of positions did announce dividends in the upcoming month or two, so our below dividend graph is updated for those.

In my portfolio, all positions have dividend reinvestment enabled. I don’t hold onto the dividend, I don’t try to time the reinvestment, I just let my broker do it automatically. All dividends were reinvested (except for KO, that will be reinvested on Monday).

Dividends received for 2022: $73.25

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $96.17

Trades

Here’s the breakdown of the trades I made this week (it was a light week):

  • April 4th
    • SBUX – added 0.5 shares at $86.62
    • SMHB – added 0.5 shares at $11.64
    • UWMC – sold covered call $5 4/14 for a $2 premium
  • April 5th
    • SMHB – added 1 share at $11.48
  • April 6th
    • SBUX – added 0.25 shares at $82.68
    • SCHD – added 0.126568 shares at $79.01 (recurring investment)
    • XYLD – added 0.202268 shares at $49.44 (recurring investment)
    • SMHB – add 1 share at $11.25
  • April 7th
    • SMHB – added 1 share at $10.94

Summary

That is it for the update this week. Let’s kill it next week. Stay patient and be ready to buy income producing assets at a discount!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on twitter and Instagram using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week!

Categories
Market Recap Monthly Recap

Monthly Market Recap – March 2022

The first quarter of 2022 has been quite volatile for markets. Concerns about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the need for faster interest rate hikes to combat inflation weighed heavily on both equities and bonds. The first half of March looked rough as the S&P lost over 4% before ripping up to an overall gain of 3.8% for the month. As of the end of March, the stock markets have now recovered their losses since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began in February.

The end of March rally brought the S&P’s YTD loss to about 5% despite continuing concerns about inflation and hawkish monetary policy.

The narrative that inflation was transitory has definitely changed since the beginning of the year. The start of the war in Ukraine and the resulting commodity supply shock makes the decision of choosing growth or taming inflation for central banks an even more difficult one to make. Despite the uncertainties related to this conflict and its effect on economies, central banks have so far shown that inflation is the more pressing topic. With rising cost of energy, housing, goods, and food (fastest inflation rate in 40 years) the Fed raised interest rates by 0.25% this month for the first time since 2018, indicating a shift in policy’s stance from economic growth to controlling inflation. Fed members expect regular increases at most of the Fed meetings through the rest of this year. Other members have even stated that they support stronger rate increases.

In response, interest rates across the bond yield curve have shot up, with the 10-year Treasury notes jumping from 1.8% to 2.5% this month. The latest inflation reading came in at 7.9% suggesting yields could keep pushing higher if prices don’t show some downward pressure.

As yields rise, bonds and T-bill prices fall, thus this month’s sharp jump in rates has caused Treasuries to post their worst quarter since 1972. If inflation continues exceeding the Fed’s target of 2%, then bonds could remain under pressure longer as investors demand higher yields. With most longer-term bond yields sitting around 2.5%, well below the rate of inflation, real returns remain negative.

Regardless of the inflation situation, the US job market showed significant numbers this month with the release of the February jobs report coming in better than expected with nonfarm payrolls easily beating the consensus of forecasts. Unemployment dropped to 3.8% and the labor force participation rate moved up to 62.3% Wage growth was at 5.1% year-on-year.

This month, congress passed a spending bill to fund the federal government through September. This combined with last Decembers $2.5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling significantly lessens the risk of a looming financial crisis.

Overall, the outcome of the war in Ukraine remains uncertain. If tension escalate, we could see further pricing pressure on commodities and energy which would only serve to worsen the state of inflation and supply chain constraints that were already poorly managed through the pandemic.

However, geopolitical issues, as we have seen with the market’s bounce this month, have a harsh but quick impact on the markets. As we discussed in last month’s update, geopolitical events, on average, take 22 days for the market to bottom out and then 47 days to recover. This event took about a month. This is way its important to not panic-sell and not worry about the volatile ups and downs of the market in times like these.

It is important to have a constructive approach. One that emphasizes keeping a diversified portfolio of financially sound and strong companies that have long term potential. As a dividend investor, the best dividend paying stocks usually contain those traits. Holding dividend stocks of strong, established, tested, and successful companies makes it easy to buy when the price is down, earn more dividend income while the yields are high, and reap rewards of safe a steady income stream to support yourself with or use to grow your positions.

While it is impossible to predict what will happen in the coming months, I can confidently predict that the collection of businesses I hold in my portfolio will continue to deliver dependable dividends and make capital gains over the long term. Stay true to the strategy and I will check back with another update next month!

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio

Dividend Portfolio: 3/25/2022 Week in Review

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Welcome back to Dividend Dollars and our weekly review!

We saw a good amount of volatility in the market this week. The indices all ended higher. The S&P 500 tugged with its 200 day simple moving average since last week but was able to end above it this week hitting a six week high.

10 of the 11 sectors ended positive this week with healthcare being the only one to record a loss of 0.2%. The energy sector gained 7.4% and was mostly supported by crude oil which gained 10.5% for the week. The Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to keep key commodities at elevated prices.

This week Biden made appearances in Europe and Chevron received clearance to resume operations in Venezuela.

Oil and defense positions continue to crush it, but the market as whole has had two solid weeks in a row. Let’s see if it keeps up next week! Moving on to our performance now.

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $7,540 into the account, the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $8,087.95. That’s a gain of $547.95 for a total return of 7.27%. The account is up $101.64 for the week which is a 1.27% gain.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is up 1.97% whereas our portfolio has an overall return of 7.27%! Let’s keep up this good progress with smart adds to the portfolio.

We added $120 to the account this week. This week I did some reshuffling within my portfolio. I sold my positions in PB and ALL and moved that money into a new $BAC position. I did this because I don’t think ALL is set up to adjust to the changing channel environment within the insurance industry. I also believe that rising rates will be good for banks, however I wanted exposure to a larger, nationwide bank. I sold my CAH position and rolled it into an MRK position which I believe is better positioned to benefit from the growing healthcare industry. I also sold my WBA and SJM positions in order to consolidate my positions within the consumer staples industry. I used those funds to add to MRK and MO. Lastly, I also sold my small HD position simple because I felt that I was starting that position at too high an entry point. I think with pandemic easement, rising rates, and growing inflation that HD and LOW will experience some downside which is when I plan to enter.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week.

This week our annual dividend income dropped by $9 as a result of the AT&T dividend cut following the Warner spinoff planned for next month. Our dividend yield decreased by 0.22% and our beta increase by 0.01. My portfolio’s dividend yield may be just slightly higher than what you will see in other portfolios, however that is strategic per my time horizon. I am in my 20s and am just starting off this investment journey, so a higher dividend yield gives me greater cash flow now to reinvest which helps me realize the benefits of compounding sooner.

Our beta usually hovers right around the mid 0.6s which is good, especially in times of uneasiness. It means my portfolio won’t dip as much as the rest of the market on red days, however, it does go the other way around and I won’t have as much green on the good days. Therefore, it is good to watch your beta in terms of cyclicity. View the chart above to see the performance of my portfolio versus the S&P 500, notice how my portfolio’s green days are not as substantial as the S&P’s but neither are my red days, that is beta at work. My beta so far has led to better returns than the market since beginning this portfolio, however, on rally weeks I underperform. In order to combat that, I am going to start adding to a levered position to raise my beta. I would like to see it in the 0.8s.

Dividends

This week we received two dividends: one from HD for $0.57, this was not reinvested, and the other from LMT for $5.64 to be reinvested on Monday.

Dividends received for 2022: $63.48

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $86.40

Trades

As detailed above, we did some restructuring in the portfolio this week. We also had some option activity.

Here’s the breakdown of the trades I made this week:

  • March 21st
    • APD – added 0.3 shares at $234.80
    • XYLD – added 0.20491 shares at $48.80 (recurring investment)
    • SMHB – added 1 share at $11.22
  • March 22nd
    • ALL – sold 2 shares at $137.10
    • PB – sold 2 shares at $71.45
    • CAH – sold 2.018676 at $57.48
    • WBA – sold 2.029713 at $47.23
    • SJM – sold 1.511712 at $129.87
    • BAC – bought 8 shares at $43.93
    • MRK – bought 3 shares at $79.36
    • MO – added 2 shares at $53.12
    • MKC – added 1 share at $96.10
  • March 23rd
    • HD – sold 0.5 shares at $317.78
    • MMM – added 0.4 shares at $148.15
    • CMCSA – added 1 share at 46.82
    • O – added 0.3 shares at $67.03
    • UWMC – added 3 shares at $4.55
    • SCHD – added 0.127976 shares at $78.14 (recurring investment)
  • March 24th
    • UWMC – opened a $4.5 4/14 covered call for $18 premium
    • BBY – added 0.4 shares at $96.05
  • March 25th
    • UWMC – closed position at $12
    • SNDL – opened $0.5 4/8 put position at $3
    • O – added 0.5 shares at $67.56

Summary

That is it for the update this week. Let’s kill it next week. Stay patient and be ready to buy income producing assets at a discount!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on twitter and Instagram using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week!

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio Stock Market

Dividend Portfolio: 3/11/2022 Week in Review

Welcome back to Dividend Dollars!

The market ended red this week after finding itself unable to climb out of the whole that high oil prices had put it in, despite the fact that oil prices eventually cooled off after flirting with $130 per barrel. The initial spike to $130 was in anticipation of bans on Russian energy imports. The US banned it and the UK and EU said they would phase out of Russian energy imports this year. WTI futures ended the week at $109.

Even though oil is dropping, our economic environment is still one of high inflation. Total CPI for the year is up 7.9%

The Russia-Ukraine situation continues to keep markets volatile. Ceasefire talks continue to make no progress. Treasury yields spiked, Nickel soared, AMZN announced a stock split, and the S&P ended fell 2.9% for an overall eventful week! Let’s see how we fared.

Portfolio Value

Last week our portfolio soared while the S&P lost more than 1% due to our positions in oil and defense. This week was another red week for the market, and this time our portfolio was not immune to those actions.

To date, I have invested $7,190 into the account, the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $7,399.46 . That’s a gain of $209.46 for a total return of 2.91%. The account is down $177.44 for the week which is a 2.34% loss.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down 5.64% whereas our portfolio has an overall return of 2.91%! Let’s keep up this good progress with smart adds to the portfolio.

We added $170 to the account this week. My buys are detailed below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week.

This week our activity raised our annual dividend income by $5. Our dividend yield increased by 0.08% and our beta stayed flat. My portfolio’s dividend yield may be just slightly higher than what you will see in other portfolios, however that is strategic per my time horizon. I am in my 20s and am just starting off this investment journey, so a higher dividend yield gives me greater cash flow now to reinvest which helps me realize the benefits of compounding sooner.

Our beta usually hovers right around the mid 0.6s which I like, especially in times of uneasiness. It means my portfolio won’t dip as much as the rest of the market on red days, however, it does go the other way around and I won’t have as much green on the good days. Therefore, it is good to watch your beta in terms of cyclicity. View the chart above to see the performance of my portfolio versus the S&P 500, notice how my portfolio’s green days are not as substantial as the S&P’s but neither are my red days, that is beta at work. My beta so far has led to better returns than the market since beginning this portfolio.

Dividends

This week we received dividends from 3 positions: $3.90 from AMGN, $0.62 from MSFT, and $1.42 from CVX. All dividends were reinvested. We are expecting another dividend from WBA for $0.96 to hit our account on Monday.

Dividends received for 2022: $51.36

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $74.28

Trades

This week I did some portfolio reorganizing. I liquidated my position on my Canadian companies (CNQ and TD) because I decided that extra tax wasn’t worth it in the long run for me. Selling those positions allowed me a realize some decent gains on CNQ and put that money elsewere.

Here’s the breakdown of the trades I made this week:

  • March 7th
    • SBUX – added 0.2 shares at $87.85
    • APD – added 0.1 shares at $224.00
    • O – added 0.5 shares at $65.32
    • CNQ – sold position at $59.71 per share for a 40% gain
    • TD – sold position at $76.39 per share for a 6% gain
    • PB – bought 2 shares at $71.62 (new position from the CNQ & TD proceeds)
    • CMI – added 0.2 shares at $191.80
  • March 8th
    • APD – added 0.2 shares at $218.35
    • AMGN – dividend of $3.90 reinvested
  • March 9th
    • XYLD – added 0.209556 shares at $47.72 (recurring investment)
    • SCHD – added 0.130074 shares at $76.88 (recurring investment)
  • March 10th
    • BBY – added 0.5 shares at $98.20
    • MSFT – dividend of $0.62 reinvested
    • CVX – dividend of $1.42 reinvested
  • March 11th
    • BBY – added 0.1 shares at $97.30

Summary

That is it for the update this week. Let’s kill it next week. Stay patient and be ready to buy income producing assets at a discount!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on twitter and Instagram using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week!

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio Stock Market

Dividend Portfolio: 3/4/2022 Week in Review

Welcome back to Dividend Dollars!

The market ended red this week after rocketing oil prices dampened risk sentiment driven by the worsening situation in Ukraine. The Nasdaq dropped 2.8% and the S&P dropped 1.3%. Oil was responsible for the 9.3% gain in the S&P’s energy sector, with utilities, real estate, and defense sectors also making gains. Financial, information technology, communication services, and consumer discretionary sectors were the laggards.

Russian forces attacked civilian areas in Ukraine and seized and shot at an important nuclear power plant. Sanctions have not slowed down Putin’s mission and two rounds of peace talks have appeared to make no beneficial progress.

Fed Chair Powell clarified that the central bank supports a 25 bp rate hike later this month. A 50 bp hike is still possible in the future, but our attempts to fight inflation are significantly weakened due to raising oil prices and the geo-political environment we find ourselves in.

Portfolio Value

Though it was a red week for the markets, we had one of our best weeks to date with LMT and our oil positions leading the way. To date, I have invested $7,020 into the account, the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $7,425.73 . That’s a gain of $405.73 for a total return of 5.78%. The account is up $238.78 for the week which is a 3.32% gain.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down 2.84% whereas our portfolio has an overall return of 5.78%! Let’s keep up this good progress with smart adds to the portfolio.

We added $270 to the account this week. My buys are detailed below.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio that tracks annual dividend income, yield, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week. The company names in blue are stocks that have been previously picked as a stock pick. I use a stock screener to find potentially undervalued stocks with safe and growing dividends. You can find last month’s watchlist here, going forward I will be doing heavy DD on monthly stock pick instead of multiple. Keep your eyes open for the first one on MMM in the coming weeks!

This week our activity raised our annual dividend income by $16. Our dividend yield decreased by 0.03% and our beta stayed flat. My portfolio’s dividend yield may be just slightly higher than what you will see in other portfolios, however that is strategic per my time horizon. I am in my 20s and am just starting off this investment journey, so a higher dividend yield gives me greater cash flow now to reinvest which help me realize the benefits of compounding sooner. Our beta usually hovers right around the mid 0.6s which I like, especially in times of uneasiness. It means my portfolio won’t dip as much as the rest of the market on red days, however, it does go the other way around and I won’t have as much green on the good days. Therefore, it is good to watch your beta in terms of cyclicity. View the chart below to see the performance of my portfolio versus the S&P 500, notice how my portfolio’s green days are not as substantial as the S&P’s but neither are my red days, that is beta at work. My beta so far has led to better returns than the market since beginning this portfolio.

Dividends

This week we received dividends from 6 positions: $0.70 from REYN, $1.49 from SJM, $0.40 from AFL, $1.10 from INTC, $1.37 from XYLD, and $0.65 from CMI.

Dividends received for 2022: $44.46

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $67.39

Trades

Here’s the breakdown of the trades I made this week:

  • March 1st
    • UWMC – added 2 shares at $4.05
    • T – added 1 share at $23.47
    • APD – added 0.2 shares at 231.15
    • SJM – dividend of $1.49 reinvested
    • AFL – dividend of $0.40 reinvested
    • INTC – dividend of $1.10 reinvested
  • March 2nd
    • BBY – added 0.2 shares at 98.45
    • UWMC – added 1 share at $4.56
    • UWMC – sold a $5 call ¾ for $2 premium
    • XYLD – added 0.207695 shares at $48.15 (recurring investment)
    • SCHD – added 0.128535 shares at $77.80 (recurring investment)
    • SBUX – added 1 share at $92.68
    • XYLD – dividend of $1.37 reinvested
  • March 3rd
    • UWMC – closed covered call position for $1
    • CMI – dividend of $0.65 reinvested
  • March 4th
    • UWMC – sold $5.5 call 3/25 for $4
    • T – added 2 shares at $23.77

Summary

That is it for the update this week. Let’s kill it next week. Stay patient and be ready to buy income producing assets at a discount!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on twitter and Instagram using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week!

Categories
Economics Monthly Recap Stock Market

Monthly Market Recap – February 2022

Photo by Matti on Pexels.com

The S&P 500 lost another 3% in February 2022, as headlines quickly pivoted from inflation and interest rate concerns to the dangerous situation unfolding in Ukraine as Russia’s military began its invasion on February 24th.

Some investors are understandably anxious about how these geopolitical tensions will end. Europe is experiencing its largest ground war since WWII and Russia holds more nuclear warheads than any nation in the world, so times are, without a doubt, grim.

From purely an economic standpoint, the numbers aren’t that scary. Russia and Ukrain make up less than 2% of worldwide GDP, and global banks have less than $100B of exposure to Russia. To help make put that number into perspective, as of September 2021, the largest 15 US banks hold a combined total of $13.19 trillion in assets. Per the FDIC, qualifying community banks are required to have a leverage ratio of greater than 9%, which means the top 15 US banks have roughly $1.18 trillion in equity capital that can be used to eat credit losses.

It is increasingly likely that this conflict escalates into a larger-scale European clash or a recession-inducing energy crisis as Russia pumps about 12% of the worlds oil and supplies over 40% of the EU’s natural gas imports.

Forecasting how this event plays out is impossible, but if history is any guide, U.S. stocks take most geopolitical events in stride. LPL research featured in a blog post a review of major geopolitical events starting with Pearl Harbor. On average, the S&P 500 experienced a total decline of 5% and bottomed after 22 days followed by an average recovery time of 47 days. Thank you to @GenExDividend on twitter for sharing this information.

Vanguard did a separate analysis of geopolitical events but arrived at the same conclusion: sell-offs related to these risks are typically short term.

There’s always the chance that history does not repeat itself. But fortunately, only about 1% of S&P 500 companies’ sales come from Russia and Ukraine. Few American-based businesses should experience a substantial financial hit as a result of these conflicts. Some business are benefiting, as evident in the oil and defense sectors ($CVX and $LMT are my most notable holdings in this aspect).

Recently, numerous countries have announced plans to invest more in armed defenses, Russia is a loose-cannon when it comes to cyber-attacks, and oil and gas prices are surging which could encourage more energy independence via more oil/gas production or renewable resources within the US. If you’re looking to benefit off of the conflict, I recommend looking to stocks involved in oil, energy, defense, and cybersecurity for those reasons.

That said, war still introduces various risks to the world’s economy, including the potential for a long term energy crisis. With global inflation running high, a restriction of the world’s energy supply from Russia would only serve to worsen inflation. High oil prices affect everything from transportation and manufacturing and utilities. It is very likely that we will see a period of sustained inflation. This hurts consumer purchasing power and slows growth. This also increases the pressure on the Federal Reserve to stabilized prices by lifting interest rates and shrinking balance sheets, both of which are actions that the Fed have committed to throughout this year. The Fed needs to walk a fine line of using these actions to cool the economy while also being weary that doing too much can cause a recession.

From high inflation, to Fed actions, to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, investors will always have to be ready for these risks. However, a calm approach to a well diversified portfolio is more than enough for simple investors, like myself, to ride out any crisis with positive returns given a long enough holding period.

This is why I like dividends. Companies that pay dividends consistently (through the good and bad times) are companies that are built to last. They tend to have strong cash flows, healthy balance sheets, wide economic moats, safe debt levels, etc. While not all dividend paying stocks have these traits, I believe through research and screening we have built a portfolio of companies that embody most, if not all, of those characteristics.

As Warren Buffett says, “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing”. Every time I see a dividend hit my account, I am reminded about the durability of my positions. Stick to the plan and you will succeed!

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio

Dividend Portfolio: 2/11/2022 Week in Review

Photo by Brett Jordan on Pexels.com

Welcome back to Dividend Dollars!

We have survived another red week in the market with most indexes posting a larger than 1% loss for the week meanwhile our account ended higher by 0.5%!

Every week I write an update on the dividend portfolio as we build it so that we can track its progress. I will give an overview of what the portfolio is invested in, its value, the dividends received, trades made, and any news or business announcements that may be of interest to our positions.

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $6,100 into the account, the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $6,340.48. That’s a gain of $240.48 for a total return of 3.94%. The account is up $32.75 for the week which is a 0.52% gain.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is down 0.83%! Let’s keep up this good progress with smart adds to the portfolio.

We added $165 to the account this week. A significant chunk of that money added was put towards adding buys in CMI, a stock from our monthly watchlist.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio as tracked through simplysafedividends.com. I use that site for tracking forecasted dividend income, yield, annual income, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week. Usually, a chunk of my buys throughout the week are buys from my monthly stock picks. You can read about February’s stock picks here. I use a stock screener to find potentially undervalued stocks with safe and growing dividends. All stock picks (for this month and previous months) are highlighted in blue.

This week our activity lowered our annual dividend income by $6. Our dividend yield decreased by 0.23% and our beta remained flat. My portfolio’s dividend yield may be just slightly higher than you will see in other portfolios, however that is strategic per my time horizon. I am in my 20s and am just starting off this investment journey, so a higher dividend yield gives me greater cash flow now to reinvest which help me realize the benefits of compounding sooner. Our beta usually hovers right around the mid 0.6s which I like, especially in times of uneasiness. It means my portfolio won’t dip as much as the rest of the market on red days, however, it does go the other way around and I won’t have as much green on the good days. Therefore, it is good to watch your beta in terms of cyclicity.

This week I did some reorganizing of a couple of oil/energy positions to better consolidate the money I have invested in those segments. You can see those trades below.

Dividends

This week we received one dividend from EPD for $2.79 that will be reinvested tomorrow.

Dividends received for 2022: $33.56

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $56.48

Trades

Here’s the breakdown of the trades I made this week:

  • February 7th
    • UWMC – sold 1 $5 2/18 covered call for a $5 premium
  • February 8th
    • T – added 1 share at $23.96
  • February 9th
    • XYLD – added 0.202454 shares at $49.139 (recurring investment)
    • SCHD – added 0.125395 shares at $79.75 (recurring investment)
  • February 10th
    • CMI – bought 0.45 shares at $225.78 (new position)
    • UWMC – added 1 share at $4.66
  • February 11th
    • MMP – sold 4 shares at $48.13 (closed position)
    • AQN – sold 3.030818 shares at $14.13 (closed position)
    • NEE – bought 3 shares at $75.66 (new position started from MMP and AQN sells)
    • T – added 1 share at $24.33
    • UWMC – added 1 share at $4.44

Noteworthy News

This section of the post will identify some headlines that may be of import to our positions. If they are important enough, we will also call out in the posts if the news calls for actions to readjust our portfolio.

Unfortunately, I was so busy this week that I did not follow news on positions, so I have nothing to share here. Hopefully, I’ll have some content for this section next week!

Summary

That is it for the update this week. Let’s kill it next week. Stay patient and be ready to buy income producing assets at a discount!

Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on twitter and Instagram using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week!

Categories
Dividend Stocks Dividends Portfolio

Dividend Portfolio: 2/4/2022 Week in Review

Photo by Burak Kebapci on Pexels.com

Welcome back to Dividend Dollars!

This week was a tad better than last with all indexes posting some minor gains. Data highlights this week included some strong job reports and rising treasury yields to finish us strong for the week.

Unfortunately, my portfolio didn’t fare so well and we will get into why! Every week I write an update on the dividend portfolio as we build it so that we can track its progress. I will give an overview of what the portfolio is invested in, its value, the dividends received, trades made, and any news or business announcements that may be of interest to our positions.

Portfolio Value

To date, I have invested $5,935 into the account, the total value of all positions plus any cash on hand is $6,120.91. That’s a gain of $185.91 for a total return of 3.13%. The account is down $61.98 for the week which is a flat 1% loss.

We started building this portfolio on 9/24/2021 and when compared to the S&P 500 we are outperforming the market so far! Within that same timeframe, the S&P 500 is up only 1.01%. Let’s keep up this good progress with smart adds to the portfolio.

We added $250 to the account this week. A significant chunk of that money added was put towards my position in 3M as you will see further down.

Portfolio

Above is a dashboard of the portfolio as tracked through simplysafedividends.com. I use that site for tracking forecasted dividend income, yield, annual income, beta, dividend growth, and more.

Below is a table of everything we are invested in so far. There you can see my number of shares, shares bought through dividend reinvestments, average cost, gains, and more. The tickers in green are positions that I bought shares in this week. Usually, a chunk of my buys throughout the week are buys from my monthly stock picks. You can read about January’s stock picks here (I know I am late but February’s picks will be here soon!). I use a stock screener to find potentially undervalued stocks with safe and growing dividends. All stock picks (for this month and previous months) are highlighted in blue.

This week our activity raised our annual dividend income by $14. Our dividend yield increased by 0.11% and our beta remained flat. My portfolio’s dividend yield may be just slightly higher than you will see in other portfolios, however that is strategic per my time horizon. I am in my 20s and am just starting off this investment journey, so a higher dividend yield gives me greater cash flow now to reinvest which help me realize the benefits of compounding sooner. Our beta usually hovers right around the mid 0.6s which I like, especially in times of uneasiness. It means my portfolio won’t dip as much as the rest of the market on red days, however, it does go the other way around and I won’t have as much green on the good days. Therefore, it is good to watch your beta in terms of cyclicity.

This week I just had to buy the dip on 3M following their poorly received earnings report.  MMM reported $2.31 EPS beating the estimates by $0.29. Revenue has been relatively flat for the company for the last three years, yet the price has been declining. That seems unreasonable to me and this substantial dip gave me a good opportunity to buy!

Also, this week I added one share to my AT&T position following their update. T announced that they are cutting the dividend by 47% and are structuring their Warner Bros. deal as a spinoff instead of an exchange offer. The 47% dividend cut still keeps shares over a 4% dividend yield which is still attractive. The spinoff deal also will give shareholders 0.24 shares in the new entity for every share of T they own. As an investor who has only recently started building a position in T, this is great news. My position is only down 2%, my dividend yield is still strong following the cut, and I get a new (and fairly costless) position in the new WBD stock. I will keep watching for opportunities to add to T before the spinoff.

Both AT&T and 3M are both prior watchlist picks from last October, you can read that article here.

Aside from those two reasonable moves, I made more moves with UWMC. Shortly after starting this position it became the best position in my portfolio. It has quickly become my worst holding now, down 25%. I keep adding on the dips. I think long term, as long as leadership play their cards right to fix the float, UWMC will be a homerun. However, it must be watched extremely closely to make sure steps are being taken to get us there. I will read thoroughly their next earnings report and decide if an exit may be smart. But for now, we sit, wait, and collect the dividends and covered call premiums.

Dividends

This week we received dividends from MFA for $2.86, T for $5.72, VZ for $2.56, and XYLD for $0.96.

Dividends received for 2022: $9.24

Portfolio’s Lifetime Dividends: $53.69

Trades

Here’s the breakdown of the trades I made this week:

  • January 31st  
    • MMM – added 1 share at $163.79
    • TD – added $0.59 from dividend reinvestment at $80.08
  • February 1st
    • T – added 1 share at $24.30
    • UWMC – added 4 shares at $4.88
    • VZ – added $2.56 from dividend reinvestment at $53.56
    • T – added $5.72 from dividend reinvestment at $24.24
    • XYLD – added $0.96 from dividend reinvestment at $49.19
  • February 2nd
    • XYLD – added 0.203294 shares at $49.19 (recurring investment)
    • SCHD – added 0.125826 shares at $79.47 (recurring investment)
    • CMCSA – $0.25 dividend reinvested at $45.55
  • February 3rd
    • UWMC – added 6 shares at $4.40

Noteworthy News

This section of the post will identify some headlines that may be of import to our positions. If they are important enough, we will also call out in the posts if the news calls for actions to readjust our portfolio.

Last week had tons of news to share, and now this week I could not find anything worthy of sharing! Lots of earnings again for our positions but nothing bad or mind blowing!

Summary

That is it for the update this week. Let’s kill it next week. Stay patient and be ready to buy income producing assets at a discount!

 Let me know what you think of the progress so far, share with me your progress and questions, interact with me on twitter and Instagram using the links below!

Thank you for reading! See you next week!