The World's Best Dividend Portfolio
In June, I invested my money equally in a selection of 10 high-yield dividend stocks. Those names offer triple the yield of the average S&P 500 stock. You can read all the details here. Let's check out the results so far.
Company | Cost Basis | Shares | Recent Price | Total Value | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Southern (NYS: SO) | $39.71 | 25.0818 | $42.27 | $1,060.21 | 6.4% |
Exelon (NYS: EXC) | $41.82 | 23.818 | $42.76 | $1,018.46 | 2.2% |
National Grid (NYS: NGG) | $48.90 | 20.3693 | $48.98 | $997.69 | 0.2% |
Philip Morris International (NYS: PM) | $68.49 | 14.5429 | $63.38 | $921.73 | (7.5%) |
Annaly Capital (NYS: NLY) | $18.24 | 55 | $16.69 | $917.95 | (8.5%) |
Frontier Communications (NYS: FTR) | $7.88 | 126.4243 | $6.13 | $774.98 | (22.2%) |
Plum Creek Timber (NYS: PCL) | $38.42 | 26 | $34.72 | $902.72 | (9.6%) |
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYS: BIP) | $26.12 | 38.2825 | $24.32 | $931.03 | (6.9%) |
Vodafone (NAS: VOD) | $26.52 | 37.5566 | $25.73 | $966.33 | (3.0%) |
Seaspan (NYS: SSW) | $14.61 | 69 | $11.96 | $825.24 | (18.1%) |
Cash | $130.37 | $130.37 | |||
Dividends Receivable | $44.20 | $44.20 | |||
Total Portfolio | $9,490.91 | (5.0%) | |||
Investment in SPY | (10.9%) | ||||
Relative Performance (percentage points) | 5.9 |
Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.
The portfolio remains in negative territory, dropping sharply from a quick break into positive territory two weeks ago. We're solidly outperforming the S&P by 5.9 percentage points, and eight of our 10 picks are still beating the S&P. That performance is also a reminder of the stability of dividend payers over time -- good downside protection and continued income but also less upside volatility. And we're still pumping out those dividends while the dividend-less investors have to hope for capital gains!
Again, don't be too worried about short-term fluctuations. We'll keep cashing our dividend checks, and we now have more than $130 in actual cash in the account, with $44 more coming in the near future. I'll be putting that money to work in one of the 10 stocks above and will come to a final decision in the next week or so, so stay tuned to this column to see which stock I pick. Of course, I'll be abiding by the Fool's trading rules, too.
As for where that new money is going, I'm leaning pretty strongly to Annaly. Of those 10 stocks, where would you put the money?
Dividends and earnings announcements We're moving out of dividend season, and we have a few bits of news:
Brookfield Infrastructure went ex-dividend on Aug. 29, with a payday of $0.35 a share on Sept. 29.
Frontier went ex-dividend on Sept. 7 and pays out $0.1875 per share on Sept. 29.
Philip Morris went ex-div on Sept. 27 and pays out its newly raised dividend of $0.77 per share on Oct. 11.
And everyone's favorite dividend play, Annaly, went ex-div on Sept. 28 and pays its dividend of $0.60 per share on Oct. 27.
And in other news...
National Grid has been one of my favorite stocks for a while now. Fellow Fool Dan Caplinger asks whether National Grid has become the perfect stock.
Philip Morris is seeing more pressure against tobacco in Canada, which is increasing the size of warning labels on cigarette packages to 75% of the front and back of the package, up from 50%. The new rules come into effect in the middle of next year.
It's fun to sit back and get paid, and with the market volatility, we might have a good chance to reinvest those dividends at good prices. Europe continues to be an absolute mess, and continued bad news will likely have stocks plunging again, and if they do, I'll be inclined to pick more shares up.
Foolish bottom line I've been a fan of big dividends for a while, and I think this portfolio will outperform the market over time through the power of dividends. As I promised in the original article, I'll be holding these stocks for at least a year and will continue to track the portfolio over the course of the year, including news on these companies.
If you like dividends, consider the 10 tickers above along with the 13 names from a free report from Motley Fool's expert analysts called "13 High-Yielding Stocks to Buy Today." Hundreds of thousands have requested access to this report, and today I invite you to download it at no cost to you. To get instant access to the names of these 13 high yielders, simply click here -- it's free.
At the time thisarticle was published Jim Royal, Ph.D., owns shares of every company mentioned here. The Motley Fool owns shares of Annaly, Seaspan, Philip Morris, Plum Creek, and Brookfield Infrastructure, and has written puts on Plum Creek. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Vodafone, National Grid, Brookfield Infrastructure, Philip Morris, Exelon, and Southern, as well as writing covered strangle positions on Exelon and Seaspan. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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