Recent buy: Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY)

On one of the last days of 2020 I added a position in Bristol-Myers Squibb (ticker: BMY). I wanted to strengthen the healthcare part of my portfolio. I only held JNJ and Baxter and wanted to diversify a bit further by adding a big pharmaceutical company to my roster.

I hesitated between purchasing shares of Bristol-Meyers, Pfizer or Abbvie. I compared their yields, valuation and other financial indicators but the differences were actually rather limited. I find it difficult to judge how their pipelines look and what I can expect in terms of future revenue growth between these companies. In the end, I went with BMY because of their slightly better valuation. Their ex-dividend date is actually today (not really a coincidence) so I expect to receive my first dividend payment February 1.

I added 22 shares for about $61,60 per share. This purchase will add roughly € 35 to my annual dividend income stream which stands at around € 1.840 pre-tax.

What do you think of my purchase?

Dividend raise: Realty Income and Aflac

I totally forgot about these two raises weeks ago but for the sake of full transparancy and completeness of my journey, I'll post 'em.

A few weeks ago Aflac has raised their dividend by a whopping 18%! This is much higher compared to their raises earlier in 2020 and 2019 which were around 4%. Because I added to my position in Aflac earlier this year, this raise will add more than € 13 to my annual dividend income. That's the biggest raise in absolut terms I have ever received from a public company. The new dividend will be paid in Q1 2021 for the first time, so I will count this as a raise in 2021.

More recently, Realty Income Corporation (Realty Income, NYSE: O) announced its Board of Directors has declared an increase in the company's common stock monthly cash dividend to $0.2345 per share from $0.234 per share. This raise adds a whopping € 0,12 to my annual dividend income. Ka-ching!

All jokes aside, Realty Income increases their dividend on more than one occasion each year. Last year they raised the dividend 5 times. I will count this as their first raise in 2021. Hopefully there's more to come next year!

Dividend report: November 2020

We're already done with November! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

Compared to last year my dividend income more or less remained the same. I received about € 87 after taxes, compared to € 92 last year. In total I got paid by 5 different companies. Three of my holdings showed some dividend growth albeit small. The decline in income is explained by a change in the USD.EUR exchange rate.



I am still ahead compared to the cumulative total I received last year till now. I still aim for an increase this year, but it won't be a growth of 40% as targeted but maybe something like 10%. We'll see what happens! In the meantime, I just keep grinding away, putting money to work and reap the rewards down the line.

How was your month? Do you see values in the current marketplace?

Recent buy: Brink

Last week I purchased 20 additional shares of the company I work for. I work as a real estate and finance consultant for a mid sized management and consulting firm. I like my job very much! It offers me a lot of interesting and challenging projects in the field of real estate and area development. I love solving and optimizing these financial puzzles with Excel spreadsheets but also to be able to give customers quality advice about how to act. I wrote about it last year as well.

My company has been profitable for at least the last 15 years, even during the big downturn in 2009-2010. The company is fully owned by its employees. There are no outsider shareholders. I really like that, because the interests as shareholders and colleagues are aligned most of the time. If the company performs well financially, everyone profits, whether you are a shareholder or not.

My company has a policy to distribute its earnings based on a threshold for the capitalization rate of at least 30%. Excess funds are distributed as dividends in two payments: a bigger one of 75% just after the financial year has ended and a final payment at the shareholder meeting a few months later.

The valuation of my company is based on a 5.5x multiple of the last three years earnings and the forecast for next year's earnings. Its dividend yield based on last year's dividend is almost 9%. My purchase of 20 additional shares adds roughly € 150 to my annual dividend income (before taxes). My annual dividend income currently hovers around € 1.850,-.

As of now this position is about 11% of my portfolio and 25% of my dividend income. My plan is to purchase new stocks to further diversify my portfolio. I am able to purchase shares in my company once a year, so hopefully I can purchase another batch next year!

Would you consider purchasing shares in your own company?

Dividend Report: October 2020

We're done with October! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

Compared to last year my dividend income increased by more than 20%. It's mostly because of my recent purchase of CSCO. I received about € 43 after taxes, compared to € 35 last year. In total I got paid by 5 different companies. Most of my holdings showed some dividend growth albeit small.

I am still ahead compared to the cumulative total I received last year till now. I still aim for an increase this year, but it won't be a growth of 40% as targeted but maybe something like 10%. We'll see what happens! In the meantime, I just keep grinding away, putting money to work and reap the rewards down the line.

How was your month? Do you see values in the current marketplace?

Dividend Report: September 2020

We're done with September! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

Compared to last year my dividend income remained fairly in place, what isn't exactly a great thing to be honest. I received about € 180 after taxes, compared to € 190 last year. In total I got paid by 15 different companies. Most of my holdings showed some dividend growth albeit small. Too bad I had two nasty cuts earlier this year (RDS and BBL). But I am happy with my new dividend payers JNJ and BIP , and increased dividend payments by Unilever and Aflac because of purchases earlier this year

I am still ahead compared to the cumulative total I received last year till now. However the trend is not in the right direction. I still aim for an increase this year, but it won't be a growth of 40% as targeted but maybe something like 10%. We'll see what happens! In the meantime, I just keep grinding away, putting money to work and reap the rewards down the line.

How was your month? Do you see values in the current marketplace?

Recent Buy: Cisco

Last week I purchased 35 shares of Cisco Systems Inc. (ticker: CSCO) for $ 39,11 per share. CSCO pays a quarterly dividend of $0,36 so this purchase adds roughly $50 per year before taxes and FX-change.

 The reasons of my purchase are as follows:

• Cisco is quite cheap based on its forward PE-ratio: about 12,5x. In the past 5 years the PE-ratio hovered somewhere between 12 tot 20x so the current price seems relatively cheap.
  
• I don't have a big exposure to tech in my portfolio, only IBM and Intel. 
  
• Cisco's dividend yield is decent at about 3,7% and there is room for growth with a payout ratio less than 50%.
• Dividend growth in the last 5 years has been really solid at 13%. I don't expect this growth to continue (although it would be nice) but a dividend growth of 6-8% coupled with a dividend yield of 3,7% and buybacks will deliver a solid total return.
  
• Its balance sheet is rock-solid. Enough cash ($30 billion) to cover its entire debt-load. And if that's not enough, Cisco's annual free cashflow is enough to cover its debt load as well.
• Total return in recent years has been less than the S&P500. I expect "reversion to the mean" works for Cisco as well.
  
• The DGI community has been buying Cisco as well, so that counts for something :-)
  

Thanks for reading! What do you think of my purchase?

Dividend cut (BBL) and raises (PM, O)

This year has not been too kind with regards to dividend growth. I received several dividend cuts (or "suspensions") with the cut from Shell being the toughest. The latest dividend cut is BBL. A few weeks ago they declared a dividend of $ 1,10 per share which is a 15% decrease from last years dividend. My annual dividend income will decrease by about € 10.

However there's also some good news. Recently PM raised its dividend by almost 3% to $1,20 per share. Realty Income (O) raised its monthly dividend to $0,234 which is a whopping 0,2% increase. My annual dividend income increased by just under € 2 due to these raises.

In total I received 22 raised (and cuts) so far this year. Maybe growth will return later this year, but for now I don't expect anything going forward. I'll just have to deposit more money to grow dividends!

Dividend Report: August 2020

We're done with July! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

Compared to last year my dividend income remained fairly in place, what isn't exactly a great thing to be honest. I received about € 87 after taxes, compared to € 91 last year. In total I got paid by 5 different companies. Most of my holdings showed some dividend growth albeit really small. However with the decreasing value of the USD compared to EUR my monthly dividend income is almost 5% lower.

I am still ahead compared to the cumulative total I received last year till now. However the trend is not in the right direction. I still aim for an increase this year, but it won't be a growth of 40% as targeted but maybe something like 10%. We'll see what happens! In the meantime, I just keep grinding away, putting money to work and reap the rewards down the line.

How was your month? Do you see values in the current marketplace?

Dividend Report: July 2020

We're done with July! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

Compared to last year my dividend income decreased drastically. I received just € 35 after taxes, compared to € 72 last year. My US holdings recorded slight increases all around, however my only EUR-denominated stock (Brink) postponed its final dividend payment due to COVID-19. They expect to pay later this year (or beginning of next) if things normalize. In total I got paid by 4 different companies.

I am still ahead compared to the cumulative total I received last year till now. However the trend is not in the right direction. I still aim for an increase this year, but it won't be a growth of 40% as targeted but maybe something like 10%. We'll see what happens! In the meantime, I just keep grinding away, putting money to work and reap the rewards down the line.

Recent buy: Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP)

Last week I purchased 32 shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (ticker: BIP) for $41,62 per share. BIP pays a quarterly dividend of $0,485 so this purchase adds roughly $62 per year before taxed and FX-change.

The reasons of my purchase are as follows:

• BIP operates a diversified collection of assets generating resilient long-term cash flows. Regulatory frameworks and contracted capacity leads to predictable cash flows.
• Assets are in various businesses like transportation, utilities, energy, data infrastructure which can be described as recession resistant.
• Its business is diversified over different areas, but also in a geographic manner. 
• No significant debt maturities in next five years.
• Yield of 4,7%.
• Dividend growth of more than 9% per year in the last five years.
• Price-to-AFFO is around 16x, which seems like a fair price (but who knows!)
• Desire to further increase the diversification in my own portfolio by adding another utility-like business.

Thanks for reading! What do you think of my purchase?

Dividend Report: June 2020

We're done with June! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

Compared to last year I received a 10% higher dividend income. I received almost € 175 before taxes, about € 150 after. As mentioned earlier, the dividend cut of Shell stings. However, my additions to Unilever, Aflac, and earlier purchases of BEP and JNJ offered some relief. Of course the dividend raises from TROW and UNP were welcome as well! In total I got paid by 12 different companies. 

Based on stock prices, almost all of my companies ended lower. Only BEP increased slightly. Big losers are Aflac, Exxon, Shell, Omega Healthcare. All of these companies decreased between 13 to 17%.

If I look at my progress based on the cumulative dividend income this year I am still about 25% ahead compared to last year. That sounds perfect, especially during these rough times! However, I expect this growth percentage to come down during the year because of the dividend cuts I received in the last two months and the slow dividend growth going forward.

My current forward dividend is slightly below € 1.700,-. I just keep doing what I've been doing in the last years: work, earn money, deposit into my brokerage as much as I can and keep buying income producing assets to enhance my financial situation. Rinse and repeat.

Dividend raise: Realty Income

Recently Realty Income Corporation (Realty Income, NYSE: O) announced its Board of Directors has declared an increase in the company's common stock monthly cash dividend to $0.2335 per share from $0.233 per share. This raise adds a whopping € 0,14 to my annual dividend income. Ka-ching!

All jokes aside, Realty Income increases their dividend on more than one occasion each year. Last year they raised the dividend 5 times. This is their fourth raise already in 2020. Hopefully there's more to come this year!

So far this is my 17th dividend raise (and two cuts). The Royal Dutch Shell dividend cut still stings and weights heavily on the dividend growth this year. All the raises combined added roughly € 95 to my annual dividend income, however the two cuts decreased my dividend income with more than € 170, for a net reduction of € 77. Let's what the rest of 2020 brings us. I'll keep you updated!

Did you like the dividend raise of O? Do you think the dividend is safe during COVID-19 times? 

Monthly report: May 2020

We're done with May! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

Compared to last year I received a slightly lower dividend income. This is mostly because of the Accell dividend cut I mentioned earlier but the muted (in some case non-existent) dividend growth doesn't help either. Nonetheless, I still received € 94 after taxes. I got paid by 5 different companies. 

Based on stock prices, all companies ended up this month. Only RDS and Aflac finished were they started at the beginning of this month. These two happened to be my last two purchases (here and here). What's up with that?!

If I look at my progress based on the cumulative dividend income this year I am about 25% ahead compared to last year. That sounds perfect, especially during these rough times! However, I expect this growth percentage to come down during the year because of the dividend cuts I received in the last two months and the slow dividend growth going forward.

My current forward divided is slightly below € 1.700,-. I just keep doing what I've been doing in the last years: work, earn my wages, deposit into my brokerage as much as I can and keep buying income producing assets to enhance my financial situation. Rinse and repeat.

Monthly Report: April 2020

We're almost done with May, but I still have to report on my dividends in the month of April. Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

I received € 44 after taxes. This is a slight increase from last year. I got paid by 5 different companies, I guess April is a slow month for me. If I look at my progress based on the cumulative dividend income this year I am about 32% ahead compared to last year. That sounds perfect, especially during these rough times! However, I expect this growth percentage to come down during the year because of the dividend cuts I received in the last two months.

Current forward divided is around € 1.700,-. I just keep doing what I've been doing in the last years: work, earn my wages, deposit into my brokerage as much as I can and keep buying income producing assets to enhance my financial situation. Rinse and repeat.

Dividend raises, and a dividend cut!

Recently I received a few dividend raises and a cut.

• Johnson & Johnson raised their quarterly dividend with more than 6%.
• Kinder Morgan raised their quarterly dividend with 5%.
• IBM raised their quarterly dividend with just under 1%.
• BAX raised their quarterly dividend with more than 11%.

These raises added about € 6 to my annual dividend income. Too bad I also had my 2nd dividend cut this year, after Accel suspended its annual dividend. Royal Dutch Shell decided to slash its dividend with 66%. This is a unprecedented move for the company but I guess they didn't have any other option. Oil prices were low already due to the geopolitical struggles between big oil producing countries. Then COVID-19 entered our world which lowered demand drastically. This perfect storm (or black swan) was just too much. Too bad Shell was (and still is) a big part of my dividend portfolio so my forward annual dividend took a big hit.

Recent buy: Aflac

Last week I've purchased another batch of shares. After my recent purchase of Shell of a few weeks ago it was time for me to pounce again on the recent pullback due to COVID-19. 

I've added 24 shares of Aflac to my portfolio. Aflac is an existing position in my portfolio. I bought my first shares back in 2014 for a split-adjusted price of around $ 31. The price has been hovering between $50 and $55 before all the market turmoil began. Aflac crashed about 40% so I thought it was time to add a little bit to my existing position.

I now own 80 shares of Aflac. These new 24 shares add roughly €25 to my annual forward dividend income which now stands at €1.892.

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

Dividend cut: Accell

So this is my first dividend cut since a long time. Earlier, Accell decided to pay a dividend € 0,30 per share but they withdrew the proposal last week. They want to hoard cash and pulled their existing credit line as well. I guess they are making the right moves, since times are tough for the company.

I am not sure if this is a cut or just a suspension. I expect the worst, which means my annual dividend income will decrease by almost € 15. Let's see what happens with other companies in the coming weeks.

Monthly report: March 2020

It's already April, so it's time for my regular monthly dividend report! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

I received € 182 after taxes. This is a solid increase from last year. If I look at my progress based on the cumulative dividend  income this year I am about 35% ahead compared to last year. That sounds perfect! Last month has been volatile with all the Corona issues and its impact on the stock market. I am not too worried however, and decided that I should use the moment to increase the size of one of my holdings. I'll write about it in the next blog post.

The underlying treemap shows the results per ticker relative to its size in my portfolio. The color green suggests an increase, but that's not true. The color is based on the best and worst performer in my portfolio. WMT with an increase of 6% is my best performer, but that's actually the only company that is worth more since last month. The rest of my companies has declined in price, between 5% to almost 50% for Realty Income and Accel.

How was your month? Did you buy or sell last month?

Dividend raise: Realty Income

Amidst all the terrible news surrounding COVID-19, I received my 12th dividend raise of 2020. A few days ago Realty Income (O) announced a raise in their monthly dividend from $0,2275 to $0,2230. This raise adds a whopping € 0,14 to my annual dividend income. Ka-ching!

All jokes aside, Realty Income increases their dividend on more than one occasion each year. Last year they raised the dividend 5 times. This is their third raise already in 2020. Hopefully there's more to come this year!

So far this is my 12th dividend raise. These raises combined have added almost € 90 to my forward annual dividend income. Of course I expect more raises during the rest of 2020. I'll keep you updated!

Did you like the dividend raise of O? Do you think the dividend is safe during COVID-19 times? 

Recent buy: Royal Dutch Shell

Last week I've purchased another batch of shares. 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 40 shares to my current position of Royal Dutch Shell for €20.50 per share. This is the lowest price I paid in all of my RDS purchases in 6 years.

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.
• Management seems to be doing a good job with unloading assets at times with higher oil prices and buying back shares when prices are low. 
• 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 8% looks awesome! 
• I wanted to strengthen my EURO-denominated part of the portfolio. About 75% of my stock portfolio is listed in US dollars. I am not too uncomfortable with that right now, but it still provided me with an extra argument to purchase RDS.

I now own 150 shares of RDS. These new 40 shares add roughly €67 to my annual forward dividend income which now stands at €1.813.

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

Monthly report: February 2020

It's already March, so it's time for my regular monthly dividend report! Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

I received € 93 after taxes. This is a huge decline from last year, but that's because my own employer paid its dividend a month earlier. If I look at my progress based on the cumulative dividend  income this year I am about 40% ahead compared to last year. That sounds a lot better!

Last month has been volatile with all the Corona issues and its impact on the stock market. I am not too worried however, and decided that I should use the moment to increase the size of one of my holdings. I'll write about it in the next blog post.

The underlying treemap shows the results per ticker relative to its size in my portfolio. The color green suggests an increase, but that's not true. The color is based on the best and worst performer in my portfolio. BEP with an increase of 1,1% is my best performer, but that's actually the only company that is worth more since last month. The rest of my companies has declined in price, between 5% to almost 20% for RDSA and AFL.

How was your month? Did you buy or sell last month?