Recent purchase: Ahold-Delhaize, Blackrock and Air Products

Recently I increased my position in the following companies: Ahold Delhaize (AD), Blackrock (BLK) and Air Products and Chemicals (APD).

• On July 18th I purchased 50 shares of AD for about € 26 per share. This new purchase adds almost € 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On July 18th I purchased 3 shares of BLK for about $ 600 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 60 to my annual forward dividend income.
• On July 19th I purchased 6 shares of APD for about $ 227 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 40 to my annual forward dividend income.

I used about € 4.400,- in cash for these purchases. My dividend income increased by about € 135,- which equates to a dividend yield of roughly 3,1%.

Recent buy (APD) and recent sell (T)

Last week I sold my position in AT&T (ticker: T). I sold my 42 shares for just under $24 per share. I purchased these shares about three years ago for $28.65. I received about $240 in dividends during this period. The total return on my investment is a rather measly 1% per year. THe first year I received the usual dividend raise. One year after my purchase AT&T decided to stop increasing its dividend. To make matters worse, earlier this year they decided to slash its dividend because of the spin-off of WarnerMedia. I decided to offload my shares before the actual spin-off so I wouldn't be stuck with two positions I am not too happy about. This will decrease my annual forward income by about $74.

That said, with my cash position I decided to start a new position in Air Products & Chemicals (APD). APD provides essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications to customers in various industries, including refining, chemical, metals, electronics, manufacturing, and food and beverage. Given the high barriers for entry and long-term contracts with its clients, I expect this company to do well in the future.

The share price of APD is more than 20% lower than the peak in last year. Shares are yielding 2,6%. I believe the company is not THAT cheap, but I guess its fairly valued. I consider this my first purchase. Depending on the share price developemnt I could further increase my position. This purchase will add about $40 to my annual forward income.

All in all my annual forward dividend income decreased because AT&T was a higher yielding company before the dividend cut. However, later this month I might have a big enough cash buffer to make another purchase. Let's see what happens!

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