My Dividend Growth Investing Update for December 2018

Portfolio Update - January 2019

Today I am sharing my long-term dividend growth portfolio at the beginning of January 2019. I am new in investing with very little experience. I have started investing last year in June 2018. Since then I am investing in dividend paying companies who have records of increasing dividends yearly. I am collecting the dividends and reinvesting them in purchasing stocks. My main trading platform is Robinhood. However, in future, I have a plan to move to a well-established brokerage. Because I am new in this area any suggestion from you will be helpful for me. Initially, I invested in some stocks without going into deep so that's why I am balancing my portfolio by selling those stocks. below is my current portfolio:

Portfolio Breakdown:

The following pie chart shows the breakdown of my stocks allocation by sector based on Morningstar. The pie chart shows that my highest investment is in the financial sector (26%) followed by the consumer sector with 23%. My third biggest holdings are in the Technology sector (16%) which is followed by Healthcare (12%), Industrial (9%), and in the Communication sector (8%). I have invested a small percentage in Basic materials, Real Estate, and in the Energy sector with each around 2 to 3%.

Portfolio Performance Comparison:

My portfolio performances compared to the Morningstar US Market Index and S & P 500 TR index are shown in the following figures. The comparison charts show that my portfolio suffered 9.58% loss while Morningstar US Market and S & P 500 lost 9.4 and 9.03% respectively. My portfolio performed slightly lower than the two indexes. 

                                                                                                                        Source: Morningstar

Dividend Meter:

In December, my projected annual dividend increased from $773 to $846. I have purchased shares of Apple, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Main Street Capital, Gladstone Investment, and The Kraft and Heinz. 

Prepared using Google Sheet

My forward yield is 3.06 while my Yield of Cost is 2.94. Because of the market crash in December, my forward yield is higher than the YOC. 

Prepared using Google Sheet

Dividend Growth Performance:

The charts below show the history of my monthly dividends received since I started to invest. December 2019 is my highest payments through dividends. I have received $82 in dividends. Last year during the same month I received only $5. In the beginning, I invested in non-dividend stocks such as Micron, Paypal, Facebook, Alibaba, JD etc. That's why my dividends were low. But I have changed my mind to invest in long-term dividend growth stocks.

This graph shows my projected annual dividend income.

Stocks Purchased in December:

In December, I purchased Apple stocks at $149.52 on 24th December 2018. I also purchased Bank of America at $23.6, JP Morgan Chase at $96.32, Main Street Capital at $33.96, The Kraft and Heinz at $49.52, and Gladstone Capital at $8.92.

Stocks Sold in December:

In this month I have sold all of my positions in Cypress Semiconductors (CY) and Ally Financial (ALLY).

My Watchlist:

I don't have any utility stocks in my portfolio. So I am planning to add 1 or 2 utility stocks. I am closely watching Southern Corp (SO) and NextEra Energy (NEE). I am also planning to add my position in Johnsson and Johnsson (JNJ) and Microsoft (MSFT) in this month. My target price for JNJ is $120 and for Microsoft $90. I am also watching PepsiCo (PEP). I am planning to add my position in PEP around $100.

My Dividend Growth Portfolio Update - November 2018

Dividend Growth Update - November 2018

I am sharing my dividend growth portfolio at the beginning of December 2018. Since then I have gradually invested in stocks which have proven records of paying dividends and most of them increase their dividends yearly. I am reinvesting all the dividends. My main trading platform is Robinhood. You can join for free and if you sign up following the link both you and me will get a free share. In my first referral, I received one JP Morgan Chase stock (Ticker: JPM). Below is my current portfolio holdings:

Portfolio Breakdown:

The following pie chart shows the breakdown of my stocks allocation by sector. I have chosen the sectors from Morningstar. The pie chart shows that my most investment is in the financial sector (25%), then the second majority is in the consumer sector with 24%. My third biggest is in the Technology sector (13%) which is followed by Healthcare (12%), Industrial (10%), and in the Communication sector (9%). I have invested a small percentage in Basic materials, Real Estate, and in the Energy sector with each around 2 to 3%.

Portfolio Performance Comparison:

My portfolio performances compared to Morning Star US Market Index fund in the following figure. The comparison shows that the performance is better than the index fund.

The following figure compares my portfolio with S & P 500 TR. The figure shows that my performance is exactly the same in the month of November 2018.

Source: Morning Star

Dividend Performance:

The chart below shows the performance of my dividends received from my holdings.

Source: Morningstar and Seeking Alpha

Dividend Meter:

In this month my annual dividend income decreased a little bit because I have sold some dividend shares and holding cash in order to buy some great dividend stocks with a big discount. The market was crashing in November especially tech stocks so I decided to lower my position in Western Digital (WDC) and Cypress Semiconductor (CY). Although I doubled my Apple (AAPL) position in this month. So my current annual dividend income is 773$ and my target is to get 70,000$ annually. Still, a long way to go. As I am young, I have a lot of time left to achieve this goal.

 Dividend Meter prepared using Google Sheet

My current yield is not that high. I believe that I should move it to 3%. However, I am planning to increase my yield on cost (YOC). That's why I have purchased some low yield stocks who has lots of potentials to grow the dividends. These stocks are Mastercard (MA), Visa (V), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Southwest Airlines (LUV) etc. These stocks recently raised their dividends really aggressively. Thinking about long-term, I really have a great chance to raise my YOC.

Company Performance:

The table summarizes the performances of my stocks those I am currently holding. I am observing Colgate-Palmolive (CL) and Ally Financial (ALLY). I am not interested to hold them for long term. I will sell them when the market is bullish mode. 

Source: Morningstar & Seeking Alpha

Stocks Sold in November:

I sold some tech stocks in November. I sold 50% of my investment in Cypress Semiconductors (CY) and Western Digital (WDC). I have also sold all of my General Electric (GE) shares. I suffered 52% loss in GE. My worst investment ever.

Stocks Bought in November:

With that money that I got from selling, reinvested again in Apple (AAPL). I doubled my holdings in AAPL. I also initiate investing in Cedar Fair (FUN). In the coming months I am planning to invest in The Kraft & Heinz (KHC) and in JP Morgan (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC).