Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Recent buy: ADP, VZ, SO

Added my second tech company in my portfolio today. I will be starting position in ADP and adding more as it goes down. ADP is a dividend aristocrat with a long established earnings and dividend history spanning decades. ADP does payroll and has quite a large moat in that area, many large companies use ADP.  ADP is one of the highest credit rated companies. They used to be AAA but are now AA.

ADP: $1000
VZ: $300
SO: $700

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Recent buy: XEL

Added $1000 of XEL to my taxable account.

XEL yields 3.35% today so this is $33 added to my yearly income.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Sold HCP for VZ

Before going forward, I rarely sell. My philosophy is to buy a company and hold onto it for its cash generating abilities forever. However I am open to selling when it's appropriate. Usually I sell during spin offs or acquisitions, dividend cuts, or fundamental degradation. Today I exited my HCP from my IRA account and swapped the funds for Verizon. Verizon has dipped off its peak recently and provides a healthy yield of 4.4%, HCP has a higher yield at the moment at 6.70% due to the high risk nature of HCR Manorcare. I added VZ instead of T because T has not pulled back yet and I have more T than VZ.

I have exited HCP because of the announcements of their spinoff of their troubled unit. I personally feel this company is the lowest quality company I own and that spinning off its cancer will not be too favorable for me since I do not want to hold that spinoff with a ten foot pole.

In terms of quality rankings here is a comparison of HCP and VZ:

HCP:
S&P Financial Rating: BBB+
Value Line Financial Strength: B++
Value Line Safety: 3

VZ:
S&P Financial Rating: BBB+
Value Line Financial Strength: A++   (A++ is the highest)
Value Line Safety: 1   (1 is the best)

The majority of the companies I own have a safety of 1 and financial strength above A or BBB+ so HCP has been a yield-chase purchase from my earlier days when I was chasing yield over quality.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Recent buy: KMB

I added $3832 in KMB today, an American dividend aristocrat specializing in making personal care products like toilet paper.

KMB is one of the higher quality companies I own and I see it as an essential core holding in my portfolio. It yields around 2.9% today so I'm getting $111 a year more from this investment.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Recent buy: HRL and SO

Due to uncertainty in the company I work for I have decided to postpone the down payment of a place to live for another year to see how the restructuring plays out. This will allow me some more freedom to allocate my cash since I do not need a large emergency fund to last for more than a year. Were I to lose my current job, I would still receive a severance package and I think an emergency fund in the $10,000-$15,000 will be sufficient for my needs since I only have to worry about myself.

I do not feel that renting is any worse than buying, and postponing the property purchase another year will not be any set back. In fact I estimate that renting will put me ahead. From the calculations I have done for my area (Silicon Valley in California) the property values to rent ratio are quite high so you are not getting much ahead by buying unless you are relying on capital gains on property purchases.

So today I resumed my routine portfolio contribution:

SO : $2000 (yield 4.44%)
HRL: $3000 (yield 1.51%)

Sunday, May 1, 2016

April 2016 Portfolio Summary

Compared to last month my net worth has increased a tiny bit. Almost scraping the $200k surface.

April 2016 Dividends Received

I received $341 in dividends in April. My dividends have not been growing lately because I have been saving up cash to purchase a place to live. Compared to last year's April month, this year's April is around 24% more. So not too shabby.

Ticker      Total    Taxable    Roth IRA         401k
KHB $30.24 $30.24
KMB $20.24 $20.24
KO $33.87 $33.87
MKC $17.55 $17.55
MO $106.87 $78.66 $28.21
O $30.91 $30.91
PM $95.87 $66.27 $29.60
XEL $6.23 $6.23
$341.78 $235.51 $30.91 $75.36