Ahold Delhaize: A Big European Retailer At A Reasonable Price

I’ve been a dividend investor for almost eight years. One of my first purchases back in 2013 was Walmart (WMT). This purchase was successful based on the total return of around 10% per year, but the dividend growth has been rather slow. Right now I want to increase the Euro-denominated part of my dividend portfolio. This article will explain why I chose to start a position in Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize, a competitor of Walmart in the US market.

Business model

Ahold Delhaize (ADRNY) is a Dutch grocery retail company. Its business model includes supermarkets, convenience stores, hypermarkets, online grocery, online non-food, drugstores, and liquor stores. It’s focused on the US and European market. In the US the biggest local brands are Food Lion, Stop & Shop and Giant. In Europe the biggest local brands are Albert Heijn (The Netherlands), Delhaize (Belgium) and Mega Image (Romania). Roughly 40% of revenues are made in Europe and the other 60% in US markets. The biggest competitors in the US markets are (among others) Walmart, Target (TGT) and Kroger (KR).

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Dividend report: February 2021

February is over! 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?!

Based on a constant exchange rate my dividend income grew by just under 10%. It's not bad considering what happened last year. The lack of dividend increases between Deere, OHI and AT&T and a measly increase from Realty Income (O) is starting to take its toll. Luckily, Deere announced a pretty sweet dividend raise last week, so in the next quarter that row will look a lot better in comparison with the year before! One of my latest additions Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) also paid its first dividend in february. However, due to changes in the exchange rate by dividend income in euro's (€) is more or less the same as last year. Nothing to worry, as that will probably change later in time or life.

With a great first month, and a decent 2nd, 2021 is off to a good start. In the last two weeks I also received several dividend increases which raised my forward dividend income to € 1.940. I will start to see these effects later on this year. It's cool to note that during these two months I received more dividend income than the whole of 2014 (my first full year of dividend investering). If I add the coming month of March I will (almost) surpass the whole of 2015, 2016 and 2017 as well (not combined obviously!). 

With the marktet upswing in February I also reached a new milestone in terms of portfolio value. I reached the € 50.000 milestone! The last € 10.000 took about 17 months which is about the same as the € 10.000 before that. I hope to reach the next €10.000 a bit faster and plan to increase my monthly contribution going forward. More on that in a later post because I used a little bit of financial engineering for that!

How was your second month of the year?

Three recent dividend increases - part 2 (Coca, Walmart and Deere)

 A few days ago I wrote about three recent dividend increases. The pace of raises continues with a few new raises! Of course I am happy with these raises, especially after a somewhat sobering 2020 in terms of dividend growth. So let's take a look at the raises.

Coca-Cola

On February 18th Coca-Cola (KO) declared a $0.42/share quarterly dividend, which is a 2.4% increase from its prior dividend of $0.41. Last year KO increased its dividend by a penny as well. I received eight dividend raises since my purchase of KO back in 2013. The annual dividend growth rate is between 5-6%. It's not mindblowing but it's not that bad either. My return on investment is currently around 8% per annum so I am not complaining.

Walmart

On February 18th Walmart (WMT) declared a $0.55/share quarterly dividend, which is a 1.9% increase from its prior dividend of $0.54. It's not a big raise but its one nonetheless.  I received eight dividend raises since my purchase of WMT back in 2013. The annual dividend growth rate is 2%. I guess my expectations with regards to the dividend growth rate were somewhat higher. However, my return on investment is currently around 11% per annum so that definitely IS solid. We'll see what happens next year with the dividend!

Deere

On February 24th Deere (DE) declared a $0.90/share quarterly dividend, which is a 18% increase from its prior dividend of $0.76. Now that's what I call dividend growth! I received four dividend raises since my purchase of DE back in 2013. The dividend growth occurs on a not so frequent basis. The last dividend raise was about two years ago. The annual dividend growth rate is 8% nonetheless. My purchase of Deere is the best decision I ever made (investment wise that is!) with a return on investment of around 23% per annum. That's a 3.7x-bagger right there! 

Summary

Together these raises increased my forward annual dividend income by roughly €10. 

Based on my portfolio's dividend yield of 3,8% I have to invest € 270 to get this kind of dividend income, but now I get it for free! Rock on!

Three recent dividend increases (TROW, CSCO and BBL)

A few days ago I wrote about four recent dividend increases. The pace of raises continues with a few new raises! Of course I am happy with these raises, especially after a somewhat sobering 2020 in terms of dividend growth. So let's take a look at the raises.

T. Rowe Price

On February 9 T. Rowe Price (TROW) declared a $1.08/share quarterly dividend, which is a whopping 20% increase from its prior dividend of $0.90. Last year TROW increased its dividend by a massive 18% as well. I received five dividend raises since my purchase of TROW back in 2016. The quarterly dividend payment has exactly doubled since that time! My return on investment is currently around 20% per annum so I am not complaining.

Cisco

On the same day Cisco (CSCO) declared a $0.37/share quarterly dividend, which is modest 2.8% increase from its prior dividend of $0.36. I recently purchased shares in Cisco its my first dividend raise. It's not big raise but its one nonetheless. We'll see what happens next year!

BHP

Today BHP released their financial results for the half-year ended 31 December 2020. The results definitely looked solid with increasing earnings and margins, higher cashflow and shareholder returns and lower debt. They declared a dividend of $1,01 per share (which is $2,02 for the BBL shares). This is an increase of more than 50% compared to its March payment last year.

Summary

Together these raises increased my forward annual dividend income by roughly €30. Based on my portfolio's dividend yield of 3,9% I have to invest € 770 to get this kind of dividend income, but now I get it for free! Rock on!

Four recent dividend increases (BEP, BIP, INTC and Unilever)

During the last weeks I received a few dividend increases! Of course I am happy with these raises, especially after a somewhat sobering 2020 in terms of dividend growth. So let's take a look at the raises.

Intel

On January 21 Intel Corporation reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 financial results. The company also announced that its board of directors approved a cash dividend increase of five percent to $1.39 per share on an annual basis. The board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.3475 per share on the company’s common stock, which will be payable on March 1 to shareholders of record on February 7.

Since my purchase of INTC shares back in 2013 the dividend growth has been around 6% annualy. That is not bad, but it's not swinging for the fences either. However based on the total stock return my purchase is a success nonetheless. Including dividends and FOREX changes my purchase yielded 16,5% annualy till now. I'll hang 'on for now.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partner

On February 2 Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP) declared a $0.51/share quarterly dividend, which is a 5.2% increase from its prior dividend of $0.48. It's my first dividend raise from BIP since I purchased shares only in July 2020. With its current yield of around 4% a raise of 5% is right around what you can expect I guess. I'll take it!

Brookfield Renewable Partners

On February 4 Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP) declared a $0.3038/share quarterly dividend, which is a 5.1% increase from its prior dividend of $0.2890 (split adjusted). It's my second dividend raise from BEP since I purchased shares back in 2019. I definitely want to add to this position because I believe in its business model, but shares have soared since my purchase. My original purchase had a dividend yield of almost 6%, currently BEP shares have a dividend yield of just 2,6%. That's a big difference. I'll just have to wait a bit I guess.

Unilever

On February 4 the maker of Marmite and Dove soap raised the dividend by 4% to €0,4268 per share. This is my 7th raise since my original purchase back in 2013. Dividend growth during that timeframe is around 6,6% annualy which seems more than fine, considering its current dividend yield of 3,7%. However total return has been a bit muted with 'just' 6,9% per year. I'd consider adding a few shares at its current valuation but it is one of my bigger positions already so maybe I'll just have to wait.

Summary

In total I received four dividend raises which raised my forward dividend income by about € 12,50. Based on my portfolio's dividend yield of 3,8% I have to invest € 330 to get this kind of dividend income, but now I get it for free!

Let's see what more 2021 has to offer!

Dividend report: January 2021

It's the first time of the year for my monthly dividend report! It's crazy to see that January is already over. 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?!

That's some dividend income right there! It's almost doubled compared to last year! My own employer decided to pay a dividend because our financiel results last year were solid, even with COVID-19. There's also a kicker because the final dividend from fiscal year 2019 wasn't paid last year due to the uncertainties. Together with my extra purchase of 20 shares last year the dividend payment ballooned to €600 before taxes.

However my dollar-denominated growth wasn't too bad either. Small annual increases from WMT, PM, O and a somewhat bigger increase from BAX. One of my latest additions CISCO also paid its dividend for the first time in january.

So its definitely a good start in 2021! In the last week I also received a few dividend increases which raised my forward dividend income to € 1.900, but more on that in a later post. I am also close to reaching the € 50.000 milestone in portfolio value. We'll see what happens in the market in the coming weeks.

How was your first month of the year?

Dividend report: December 2020

I am two weeks later, but we're done with December! It's the last time of the year for a monthly update. 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 € 154 after taxes, compared to € 158 last year. In total I got paid by 13 different companies. Some of my holdings showed some dividend growth. TROW is the biggest autonomous dividend grower, the rest of the bigger increase is due to additional share purchases. The decline in income is explained by a change in the USD.EUR exchange rate. Without the 9% decline in USD.EUR I would have had a 4% increase in dividend income. But hey, who cares!

In total I received about € 1.450 in dividens, which is 8% more than last year. That is rather disappointing but given the circumstances of last year not too bad. Dividend growth was muted in most cases and I even experienced some cuts. The decline in USD.EUR did the rest.  But I guess that gives a lot of room for improvement in 2021. I am bit behind my medium to long term goals so I better step up and increase the pace.

How was your month? what are your plans for this year?