Monthly Update: November 2015

A bit overdue but I still need to present my dividend income for the month of November. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

Indicator	As of 31-10	As of 30-11	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.871	3.883	+0,3%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	36.023	36.277	+0,7%
AEX GR	1.386	1.412	+1,9%
USD.EUR	0,9079	0,9444	+4,0%
Portfolio value	€ 23.787	€ 23.982	+0,8%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Purchases

None.

Dividends received
Nine separate companies paid me dividends during this month.

• DE: 18 shares @ $0.60 for a total of $10.80
• KMI: 48 shares @ $0.51 for a total of $24.48
• OHI: 59 shares @ $0.56 for a total of $33.04

Total: around €54 after tax, which is 26% higher than last year.

Dividend increases or decreases during this month

I have two companies in my portfolio that significantly reduced their quarterly dividend payments in recent history: Textainer and Kinder Morgan. The dividend from TGH will be reduced starting with the payment in December. The dividend payment from KMI this month was a "normal" one, however the next payment somewhere in February will be much smaller. I am contemplating what to do with these positions.

Yearly forward dividend
My 12-month forward dividend rate is now €940, compared to €1031 last month. I took a big hit in income due to the dividend from KMI.

Seeking Alpha articles
None.

Monthly Update: October 2015

A bit overdue but I still need to present my dividend income for the month of October. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

Indicator	As of 30-9	As of 31-10	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.570	3.871	+8,4%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	33.172	36.023	+8,6%
AEX GR	1.261	1.386	+9,9%
USD.EUR	0,8953	0,9079	+1,4%
Portfolio value	€ 21.951	€ 23.787	+8,4%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Purchases

None.

Dividends received
Nine separate companies paid me dividends during this month.

• KO: 37 shares @ $0.33 for a total of $12.21
• BAX: 22 shares @ $0.115 for a total of $2.53
• BXLT: 22 shares @ $0.07 for a total of $1.54
• PM: 17 shares @ $1.02 for a total of $17.34
• I earned $37.70 in option premiums because I sold a covered call.

Total: around €62 after tax.

Dividend increases during this month

PM raised their dividends from a quarterly payment of $1.00 to $1.02.

Yearly forward dividend
My 12-month forward dividend rate is now €1031, compared to €1038 last month. I took a big hit in income due to a dividend cut from TGH. The dollar appreciated in value against the euro so that kind of offset the dividend cut from TGH.

Seeking Alpha articles
I wrote two articles for Seeking Alpha:

• Total Return In The Industrial Gases Sector: Why Airgas Outperformed Praxair And Air Products And Chemicals
• Total Return In The Insurance Sector: Why Aflac Was An Inferior Investment Compared To Chubb And Ace

Monthly Update: September 2015

It's that time of the month again! A few days late but here's my monthly update for September. In general markets lost a little bit, which is not really a big deal. Especially considering the big drop from last month. There is still a lot of volatility in the market. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

Indicator	As of 31-8	As of 30-9	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.661	3.570	-2,5%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	33.627	33.172	-1,4%
AEX GR	1.317	1.261	-4,2%
USD.EUR	0,8909	0,8953	0,5%
Portfolio value	€ 21.906	€ 21.351	-2,5%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Purchases

I deposited €600 and topped of my position in TGH. You can read about it here. After that I wrote a covered call option on my position in TGH.

Dividends received
Nine separate companies paid me dividends during this month.

• INTC: 63 shares @ $0.24 for a total of $15.12
• AFL: 28 shares @ $0.39 for a total of $10.92
• IBM: 7 shares @ $1.30 for a total of $9.10
• WMT: 20 shares @ $0.49 for a total of $9.80
• XOM: 17 shares @ $0.73 for a total of $12.41
• UNP: 15 shares @ $0.55 for a total of $8.25
• BBL: 28 shares @ $1.24 for a total of $34.72
• RDS: 97 shares @ $0.47 for a total of $45.59 (DRIP 1 share)
• UNA: 37 shares @ €0.30 for a total of €11.17

Total: around €124 after tax which is about 50% more than last year in September. It's the second time that I crossed the 100 euros per month threshold. That's looking good!

Dividend increases during this month
None

Yearly forward dividend
My 12-month forward dividend rate is now €1038, compared to €950 last month. I finally surpassed the€1000 dividend income per year milestone. My extra shares in TGH made the difference. Let's see how long it takes before I get to the next thousand milestone!

Seeking Alpha articles
I wrote one article for Seeking Alpha. It's called: Textainer: Dividend Seems Safe But Investors Need Courage and got some good reviews.

Writing Covered Calls On TGH Position To Earn Extra Income

A few days ago I wrote about my purchase of additional TGH shares. One of the reasons for my purchase was that I wanted to "experiment" a little bit with writing covered calls. This post will explain my reasoning and will show the calculations of expected values in different scenarios.

Total Return In The Industrial Gases Sector: Why Airgas Outperformed Praxair And Air Products And Chemicals

Just before the weekend another article of mine was published on Seeking Alpha. The topic of the article is total return in the industrial gases sector. Total return is based on different variables like revenue, margins, outstanding shares and valuation multiples. Insight into the breakdown of various contributors to total return provides an investor with knowledge about which components have been important and whether repeatability can be expected in the future. Fellow author Eli Inkrot has written at length about this topic, recently in a side-by-side comparison of Kroger (NYSE:KR), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Target (NYSE:TGT). As I have written about the industrial gases sector before, I was interested to see how this analysis worked out.

You can check it out here, it's called: Total Return In The Industrial Gases Sector: Why Airgas Outperformed Praxair And Air Products And Chemicals

Recent buy: TGH

Yesterday I purchased 57 shares of TGH for $16.20 per share. With this purchase I now have 100 shares of TGH. I plan to write covered calls against my position to generate extra income. I expect that the share price of TGH won't have any real upside in the short term due to low rental rates. The dividend however seems sustainable (see my article on Seeking Alpha). If the valuation multiple returns to the historical average in a few years, total return should more than offset the extra risk.

I'll get up another post in a few days about my possible option purchase.

Textainer: Dividend Seems Safe But Investors Need Courage

Textainer is facing difficult times. Rental rates are historically low and renewing long term leases at lower prices puts a dent in revenues. Textainer should be able to maintain their dividend, unless something dramatic and unforeseen happens. Read the rest of the article on Seeking Alpha!

Monthly Update: August 2015

It's that time of the month again! I guess last month wasn't kind to my portfolio but honestly I wasn't all that bothered. I was mostly frustrated by the fact that I did not have any real liquidity on hand to take advantage of some of the low stock prices. I kind of need to save a bit extra to fund my (possible) future home purchase (and consequently the costs of selling our current apartment).

After the big losses in earlier in June, followed by a small recovery in July, my portfolio really suffered this month. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

August 2015
Indicator	As of 31-7	As of 31-8	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.896	3.661	-6,0%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	35.848	33.627	-6,2%
AEX GR	1.472	1.317	-10,5%
USD.EUR	0,9082	0,8909	-1,9%
Portfolio value	€ 24.074	€ 21.906	-9,0%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Monthly Update: July 2015

It's that time of the month again! I am late because I just returned from my holiday. It's a nice feeling to be away for three weeks yet still get paid a few bucks for owning shares in some wonderful companies.

After the big losses in my portfolio last month, this month showed some black numbers again. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

July 2015
Indicator	As of 30-6	As of 31-7	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.816	3.896	+2,1%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	35.662	35.848	+0,5%
AEX GR	1.403	1.472	+4,9%
USD.EUR	0,9032	0,9082	+0,6%
Portfolio value	€ 23.631	€ 24.074	+1,9%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Omega Healthcare Investors: A Healthcare REIT That Under Promised And Over Delivered In The Last Decade

When I wrote my monthly update last Wednesday and had to write about my Seeking Alpha goal (writing 24 articles this year) I was actually feeling a little bit miserable about myself. I already had some valuation analysis done for Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI) and decided to put it in an article.

I have been a shareholder of Omega Healthcare Investors since December 2013. Back then I opened a position for roughly $30 a share. I was attracted by the consistent revenue growth in the past few years, high dividend growth rate and yield. This purchase has become one of my better buys in the past years with an annualized rate of return of almost 18%. I am contemplating adding to my position, but does that make sense when the stock has performed so wonderful the last 1.5 years? It must be overvalued, right? However there are some great companies like Johnson & Johnson, Colgate and Disney that constantly seem overvalued but still have the ability to provide great rate of returns for a shareholder. I am not comparing Omega to these companies in any meaningful way but still would like to investigate whether the current valuation merits a buy or not.

You can read the rest of the article here:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/3315655-omega-healthcare-investors-a-healthcare-reit-that-under-promised-and-over-delivered-in-the-last-decade

Monthly Update: June 2015

It's that time of the month again! A few days late but here's my monthly update for June. Markets lost a lot of ground, especially the Dutch AEX. But my portfolio definitely took a tumble this month. Down over 5%, with special attention to INTC (-11%), KMI (-8%) and TGH (-7%). In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

Indicator	As of 30-5	As of 30-6	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.891	3.816	-1,9%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	36.473	35.662	-2,2%
AEX GR	1.461	1.403	-4,0%
USD.EUR	0,9020	0,9032	0,1%
Portfolio value	€ 24.890	€ 23.631	-5,1%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends. Too bad I don't have any capital available right now to pounce on some of the value the market is currently offering.

Monthly Update: May 2015

It's that time of the month again! A few days late but here's my monthly update for May. In general markets rose with gains between 1 and 2%. The USD.EUR-rate also increased 1% which helps my portfolio since around 80% is USD-listed. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

May 2015
Indicator	As of 30-4	As of 30-5	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.842	3.891	+1.3%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	35.927	36.473	+1.5%
AEX GR	1.437	1.461	+1.6%
USD.EUR	0.8929	0.9020	+1.0%
Portfolio value	€ 24.833	€ 24.890	+0.2%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Monthly Update: April 2015

It's that time of the month again! A few days late but here's my monthly update for April. In general markets rose slightly with gains between 0.3 and 1%. On a daily basis the fluctuations were much higher but in the end the results are average I guess. However the US dollar lost grounds against the Euro which had its effect on my portfolio. Roughly 80% of my portfolio is valued in USD. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

april 2015
Indicator	As of 31-3	As of 30-4	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.805	3.842	+1,0%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	35.767	35.927	+0,4%
AEX GR	1.433	1.437	+0,3%
USD.EUR	0,9107	0,8929	-2,0%
Portfolio value	€ 25.407	€ 24.833	-2,3%

Recent buy: Union Pacific Corp

Last week I wrote a post about the question in which company to invest next. I got several good tips, thanks! In the end I went back and forth between Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Union Pacific Corp (UNP). So what's my reasoning with this purchase?

• I was not invested in any railroad company so far while I do have some healthcare exposure through BAX and to a lesser extent OHI.
• The railroad industry has high barriers of entry and consequently a big moat. Railroads and trains have various competitive advantages over trucks (e.g. cost, speed, safety, environment) and will remain an important part of the future transport sector.
• Current yield of UNP (2%) is lower than JNJ's yield (3%), however UNP's dividend growth in recent years outpaced JNJ's growth rate.
• UNP's payout ratio (in terms of %EPS) is only 37% which leaves ample room for future dividend growth, especially with estimated EPS growth of ~14% in the next 5 years (analysts opinions...).
• JNJ's payout ratio is slightly higher at 54% and estimated EPS growth rate is also lower at ~5% for the next 5 years.
• The P/E-ratio is comparable (~18x)
• Obviously JNJ's balance sheet is a fortress, but UNP's debt/equity ratio of 0.6 is not too bad either.
• Total return in the last 10 years for UNP is a whopping 22% per year. Even half of that would be just fine by me! JNJ's total return in the last 10 years is only 6% per year. This gap is much smaller if you take into account the risk adjusted rate of return (JNJ is a much 'safer' investment in terms of beta). But still UNP is much more of a growth company than JNJ.

All in all I decided to open a position in Union Pacific Corp. My purchase of 15 shares add roughly €30 to my annual forward dividend income.

Next purchase: what to do?

I just deposited €1000,- to my brokerage account. Together with the accumulated dividends of the last months (€500) I am able to open up another position in my dividend growth portfolio. Given the fact that the US dollar and the Euro are looking at parity maybe somewhere in the next few months, I was pondering to purchase a Euro-based dividend company. However the 'Euro Dividend All Stars' (maintained by No More Waffles) provided me with less options than I originally anticipated!

I used the following criteria in my search:

• P/E-ratio < 20;
• 3-, 5- and 10 DGR > 6%;
• Yield > 1.5%;

This set of criteria yielded me with 6 investment options. All of those are hovering near their 52wk highs. I only recognized BASF (materials) and BMW (auto industry). However I am not keen on getting into the auto industry. So maybe BASF? Unfortunately they only pay their dividends once per year :(

So what about US dividend stocks? There seems to be some consensus that certain stocks are good buys in the current market environment. I've seen a few 'recent buy' posts about JNJ, T and TROW. However, Praxair (PX) is looking nice at $122 as well (P/E-ratio at 21x though). Blackrock's (BLK) stock price has run up slightly since the beginning of the year, so perhaps TROW is a slightly better option right now? Realty Income (O) decreased almost 10% in the last 3 months and is a monthly dividend payer. Definitely O would be a nice quality addition to my portfolio!

Does someone out there have some good advice for me? Or maybe some other suggestions? I am looking forward to hearing from you :)

Monthly Update: March 2015

It's that time of the month again! A few days late but here's my monthly update for March. In general markets calmed a bit after a hectic beginning of the year. American markets lost a bit of ground whereas the Dutch AEX index continued it march upwards. The US dollar continued to gain strength against the Euro but the pace seemed to slow down compared to earlier months. In the table below I have presented some benchmark indicators of general market indices and my own dividend growth portfolio.

March 2015
Indicator	As of 28-2	As of 31-3	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.866	3.805	-1,6%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	36.441	35.767	-1,9%
AEX GR	1.421	1.433	+0,8%
USD.EUR	0,8907	0,9115	+2,3%
Portfolio value	€ 24.214	€ 24.407	+0,8%

However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Monthly Update: February 2015

It's that time of the month again! A few days late but here's my second monthly update in 2015. What a month it was. Stock markets were on a tear, especially in Europe. The Dutch AEX index increased over 8%! My dividend portfolio did not increase as much but it still ended above € 24.000 which is obviously not chump change.

Indicator	As of 31-1	As of 28-2	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3.656	3.866	+5.7%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	34.767	36.441	+4.8%
AEX GR	1.314	1.421	+8.1%
USD.EUR	0,8834	0,8907	+0.8%
Portfolio value	€ 23.386	€ 24.214	+3.5%

All in all a hectic month. However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Monthly Update: January 2015

It's that time of the month again! A few days late but here's my first monthly update in 2015. What a month it was. The ECB decided to act on continued fears of deflation and will pour over a trillion euro's in the market in the coming years. This decision resulted in a lower euro and rising stock prices in Europe. However the opposite seemed to happen to US stocks in the past month.

All in all a hectic month. However, since I am in it for the long haul I am not too interested in these daily or monthly fluctuations. What matters is that I keep focused on buying high quality companies which provide me with a steady stream of growing dividends.

Indicator	As of 29-12	As of 31-1	% change
S&P 500 Total Return	3,827	3,656	-4.5%
Dow Jones Industrials Total Return	36,081	34,767	-3.6%
AEX GR	1,244	1,314	+5.6%
USD.EUR	0.8227	0.8834	+7.4%
Portfolio value	€ 22,390	€ 23,386	+4.4%

Praxair Is My Favorite Play In The Industrial Gases Sector

Recently I searched the CCC list and Westlake Chemical Corp. (NYSE:WLK) popped up on one of my screens. My own, self-made Excel application directly lists all the competitors in the particular industry (Chemical-Specialty), ranked by market cap. Praxair (NYSE:PX), an industrial gases company, was the biggest with a market cap of $38 billion, yet somehow I never heard of the company. However, just by looking at the company overview, I could see that this company could be a potential add-on to my dividend growth portfolio. 

There has only been one in-depth article on Seeking Alpha last year about this industry leader. So I decided to do a write-up of the company. Check out my new article on Seeking Alpha and let me know what you think.

Syngenta: Demographic Trends Will Result In Future Revenue And Earnings Growth

Syngenta AG is a Swiss agribusiness operating in the crop protection and seeds business. In 2000, the agrochemical and seeds division of Novartis and the agrochemicals and biotechnology research divisions of AstraZeneca spun-off and merged to become Syngenta. Syngenta recently popped up in one of my screens in the CCC-list with a decent yield and high dividend growth rate. My article on Seeking Alpha provides a breakdown of the company and whether it is worthy as a possible addition to my dividend growth portfolio!

Go check it out and I am looking forward in hearing your reactions!

Syngenta: Demographic Trends Will Result In Future Revenue And Earnings Growth

Syngenta AG is a Swiss agribusiness operating in the crop protection and seeds business. In 2000, the agrochemical and seeds division of Novartis and the agrochemicals and biotechnology research divisions of AstraZeneca spun-off and merged to become Syngenta. Syngenta recently popped up in one of my screens in the CCC-list with a decent yield and high dividend growth rate. My article on Seeking Alpha provides a breakdown of the company and whether it is worthy as a possible addition to my dividend growth portfolio!

Go check it out and I am looking forward in hearing your reactions!

Goals for 2015!

Halfway 2013 I started my journey of becoming a Dividend Growth Investor. 1.5 years ago I sat down and calculated income goals for the coming 30 years. These goals (annual dividends received) were based on the assumed dividend growth, yield, monthly deposits and stock price appreciation. So far I've been killing these goals!

I am not going to change these goals because they are meant to be long-term goals. It's great that I am ahead of these goals for now but there are obviously going to be times when I might not be able to contribute as much to my portfolio. But just like last year I am going to set annual goals. These goals could differ from my long-term goals. It's just a method of keeping myself motivated and to keep pushing myself this year to reach more goals.



I decided to expand the theme of my goals a bit and to include some non-financial related goals. Without further ado, here is my list of goals for 2015.

• Deposit €350 per month (on average)
• Receive €950 in annual dividends
• Write 24 premium articles for Seeking Alpha
• Lose 10kg (currently at 98kg)

In general I think my goals are ambitious but not completely out of reach all together. I'll just have to work hard, earn some extra money and put aside time to write SA articles. I am off to a good start, my 2nd article of the year just got published! In the next few days I'll put out a reminder post for this article.

I am not going to set a goal for the value of my portfolio because I am hardly in control to reach that goal. Market gyrations have far too much influence on the portfolio value. I just can't expect to earn 20% for another year. 

I'll keep all of you updated about my progress towards reaching my goals for 2015. Finally I hope all of you will reach your goals in 2015, whether they are financial or not!

Recent buy: RDS

Yesterday I've purchased my first shares in 2015! It was finally time for me to pounce on the recent weakness in oil stocks. Currently I have three oil related stocks in my portfolio: Exxon Mobil, Kinder Morgan and Royal Dutch Shell. I decided to add 37 shares to my current position of Royal Dutch Shell for €26.77 per share. This is slightly more than I paid last year in my first purchase of RDS.

My reasoning is as follows:

• Shell is a fundamentally sound company and also important: it's an integrated energy company. Lower oil prices are obviously bad for upstream business (exploration and production) but margins for downstream operations (refineries) are increasing.
• Shell unloaded lots of assets earlier this year (roughly $10 bn) when oil prices were high. Great job by management!
• Shell bought back shares recently when prices were low. Again, great job by management!
• Oil prices will fluctuate. They have so done in the past and will do so in the future. I still see future potential in the oil business (like for 20-30 years or so) before alternatives are economically feasible and provide enough (and stable!) energy. The world's population is growing to 9 billion people and these people need energy. Shell can and will provide these needs.
• The dividend yield of 6% looks awesome!
• I wanted to add to this existing position to take advantage of the DRIP possibility (if that still exists). Usually I would get the opportunity to reinvest my dividend in stock IF the amount would be able to purchase at least 1 share. My former quarterly dividend was not enough to purchase 1 share of RDS: my current quarterly dividend definitely is.
• I wanted to strengthen my EURO-denominated part of the portfolio. Even though the US dollar is getting more expensive, over 80% of my stock portfolio is listed in US dollars. I am not too uncomfortable with that right now, but it still provided me an extra argument in purchasing RDS.

So, these new 37 shares add roughly €60 to my annual forward dividend income which now stands at €866! To put my recent progress into perspective: I expected to earn around €850 in annual dividends in my 4th year of DGI. Right now I can expect this amount of money after just 2.5 years of DGI which means I am more than 1.5 year ahead of my income goals so far. It feels great!

What do you think of my purchase? And my reasoning?

Financial Review Of 3 Asset Management Companies: My Favorite Is BlackRock

I started to year of great by writing an article for Seeking Alpha on three companies in the asset management sector, titled: Financial Review Of 3 Asset Management Companies: My Favorite Is BlackRock.

The three companies I investigated were Franklin Resources (BEN), T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) and BlackRock (BLK). BlackRock is the biggest one in terms of assets under management (roughly $4.500 billion). Check out my article if you want to know why BlackRock is my favorite stock in this space! Please let me know what you think of the article.

Disclaimer: I currently don't own stock in any of the companies mentioned.

Review of goals in 2014

Last year around this time I put out some goals for 2014. These goals relate to my dividend growth portfolio. A year has passed since then, so let's take a look at how I've done!

Goals for 2014

I roughly stated four goals:

1. Deposit €300 per month (€3.600 in total)
2. Receive dividends of €550
3. Make one purchase each quarter
4. Reach a portfolio value of €18.000 (least important goal, because I can't control reaching this goal by any means.