June 2014 Bonus Buy

It's time to put my income to work again with a duo of bonus buys for June.  Earlier in the month I picked up shares of VZ and NAT.  Since then I have been putting in my time researching the next place I want to unload a pile of cash.  I have also been working on coming up with a mathematical formula to help me assign scores/multipliers to dividend paying/growth stocks and populating a database with basic statistics to test the formula.  While I am still far from perfecting the process I did use the formula to single out my two buys this month.

For my first purchase I bought 30 shares of TGT at 58.09 per share for a total of $1762.69.  Target has been struggling recently with multiple management changes, a major security breach, and poor performance in its Canadian expansion.  While these are real issues (particularly the failures in Canada) they are somewhat reflected in the low price of Target stock.  If the new Canadian leadership can bail out this sinking ship Target is set for a major rally, if not there will be more blood-loss.

Shares of Target recently saw a dividend raise of 21% which is in line with their excellent history of being very generous with dividend raises.  This increases Target's payout ratio to 56% however future dividends could be in jeopardy if things do not improve.  Sounds like my cup of tea!

For my second purchase I bought 108 shares of SPLS at $11.14 per share for a total price of $1213.11.  Yuck another beleaguered retailer?  Well not so fast, Staples has been cutting costs recently by closing unprofitable brick and mortar stores around the country while ramping up their online operations. Staples is now the third largest global online retailer after Amazon and Apple.  Staples has an incredibly low debt and excellent free cash flow.  The dividend is secure and has seen steady admirable growth over the last five years.  Major insider buying is also another positive sign.

With these two purchases and the raise from target my yearly dividend income has increased from $1964.4 to $2085.12

2014 May Dividend Income, Spending, and a Pair of Trades

It's looking like my posts will be a bit fewer and far between while I settle in to my new house and get hooked back up to the internet.  So for the sake of efficiency I will probably be combining posts for the next few months.  For this month I present to you May's earnings, spending, and a few early month portfolio trades!

May Spending 2014

I accidentally blew my budget for the month of May.  I had to pay closing costs on my home purchase and pick up a lawn mower and weed eater to attack a lawn that had been neglected for almost a year.  With a few other essential home purchases I ended up spending a total of $2526.00 for the month.  Here is the spending breakdown!

The Misc Expenses, and Food and Dining categories were my biggest costs for the month.  Misc expenses includes my final closing costs, yardpocolypse equipment, moving truck fees, and a few smaller house items.  The food and dining budget was also part of the cost of moving as I took my friend and his fiance out for dinner and drinks to pay them back for helping me move(money well spent!)

While I was not able to meet my goals this month, going forward I am in a significantly better position to save money on both utilities and rent.  

May Dividend Income

My dividend income for May is as follows:

PSEC:  $11.04

KMI:    $18.90

For a total earnings of $29.94.  While this number still seems small, I have managed to double last quarter's (February) earnings.  I am extremely happy with this outcome and really look forward to blowing this number away this coming August.  Here is a breakdown of this months dividend income, and dividend income to spending.

Total dividend coverage to spending this month was 1.25%  This beats last February's 0.62% even considering I spent significantly more in May.  I am extremely happy with this outcome and am excited as to what the future holds.

Early June Portfolio Shake Up

Early in June I made the decision to sell off a few positions in my portfolio that do not meet my overall investing goals.  My typical investments are in dividend growth or high yield stocks.  While I plan on building my portfolio with rock solid blue chip investments I also occasionally dip into the foreign markets or industries with high yield stocks that have not recovered fully after the recession.  Two of my positions in my portfolio did not meet these criteria.  INTC and CHK.  Neither company has been successful at raising dividends in an extended time period, and they aren't my favorite high yield distressed companies. 

I took $600 of my own money and sold my positions in INTC and CHK (both for a profit), using the money to purchase shares of VZ and NAT.  I bought a total of 36 shares of Verizon for a price of $1797.12 and 157 shares of NAT for a total of $1307.81.  After the smoke cleared my new 12 month forward dividend income sits at $1964.40 per year.  My portfolio has been updated to reflect the new changes.

I am currently closely monitoring everything currently in my portfolio and RY, TD, and GM for a possible purchase later this month.

Thanks for reading and I hope you had an amazing May!