In June 2011 I invested my money equally in a selection of 10 high-yield dividend stocks. With a year of success behind me, in July 2012, I added even more money to the portfolio. Those names offer triple the yield of the average S&P 500 stock. You can read all the details here. Now let's check out the results so far.
Company | Cost Basis | Shares | Yield | Total Value | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern | $39.71 | 25.0818 | 4.3% | $1,153.01 | 15.8% |
| Exelon | $41.36 | 23.818 | 5.9% | $1,039.18 | (12.8%) |
| National Grid | $48.90 | 20.3693 | 5.4% | $1,150.25 | 15.5% |
| Philip Morris International | $68.49 | 14.5429 | 3.7% | $1,357.00 | 36.2% |
| Annaly Capital | $17.79 | 72.5 | 11.8% | $1,206.40 | (6.5%) |
| Frontier Communications | $7.88 | 126.4243 | 8.8% | $601.15 | (39.7%) |
| Plum Creek Timber | $38.42 | 26 | 4% | $1,102.14 | 10.3% |
| Brookfield Infrastructure Partners | $26.12 | 38.2825 | 4.3% | $1,337.21 | 33.7% |
| Vodafone | $26.52 | 37.5566 | 5.4% | $1,085.76 | 9% |
| Seaspan | $14.90 | 76 | 6.3% | $1,307.08 | 5.9% |
| AT&T | $35.20 | 28.4 | 4.6% | $1,088.86 | 8.9% |
| Retail Opportunity Investments | $12.20 | 81.95 | 4.3% | $1,060.84 | 6.1% |
| Annaly Preferred C | $25.92 | 38.5 | 7.4% | $989.45 | (1.1%) |
| Cash | $112.70 | ||||
| Dividends Receivable | $61.11 | ||||
| Original Investment | $12,983.97 | ||||
| Total Portfolio | $14,652.13 | 12.8% | |||
| Investment in SPY (including dividends) | 12.1% | ||||
| Relative Performance (percentage points) | 0.7 |
Source: S&P Capital IQ.
Our portfolio was even for the week, staying at 12.8% over the week. But the S&P moved up, narrowing our lead from 1.8 percentage points to 0.7. Our blended yield remained at 5.7%. Earlier this week we received our first dividend from Annaly's Series C stock, and we have three cash dividends coming into the portfolio in the next month. I'm confident in the long-run performance of this dividend portfolio, and I expect time will bear us out.
With over $100 now in the portfolio's till, I'm going to reinvest that cash. And the company I've decided on is Seaspan. I've laid out the reasons before in this column, but I've provided a longer case in the following article. The short form: Dividends could drastically increase in February. So as soon as the Fool's rules permit next week, I'll be putting our cash to work in Seaspan.
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat and board member at Philip Morris, continues to buy shares. He acquired another 1,000 shares in late August at $88.50 apiece. That follows 1,000-share buys in July, April, and February as well as seven different purchases of at least 1,050 shares in 2011. The stock has done almost nothing but go up over that time period. It's a reminder that insider buying is one of the best signals of future stock appreciation.
Is it time to buy Vodafone? That's the question fellow Fool Harvey Jones asks, and he answers affirmatively in this article, noting the company's strong dividend and attractive price, at just 11 times forward earnings.
Fool Dan Caplinger asks a question that has been on the minds of investors of mortgage REITs such as Annaly for a while: When will their dividends bottom out? He notes that while Annaly's dividend is now $0.50 per quarter, it has been as low as $0.10 in recent history. I'm keeping a close eye on Annaly these days.
Brookfield Infrastructure is issuing $400 million in five-year bonds at a very cheap 3.455%. I love to see the company take advantage of the low-rate environment, and Brookfield remains one of the sharpest investors out there. The company will use the proceeds to refinance existing debt.
Dividends and other announcements
We're through earnings season, and have lots of dividend news for the moment.
Dividend news:
- Frontier went ex-dividend on Sept. 5 and paid out $0.10 per share on Sept. 28.
- Annaly Preferred C went ex-dividend on Aug. 31 and paid $0.47 per share on Oct. 1.
- Brookfield Infrastructure went ex-dividend on Aug. 29 and paid $0.375 per share on Sept. 27.
- Philip Morris went ex-dividend on Sept. 25 and pays outs $0.85 per share on Oct. 11.
- Annaly went ex-dividend on Sept. 27 and pays out $0.50 per share on Oct. 29.
- AT&T went ex-dividend on Oct. 5 and pays out $0.44 per share on Nov. 1.
All that, of course, means more money coming into our pockets.
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 continue to track and report on the portfolio's progress, including news on these companies.
If you like dividends, consider the 13 tickers above along with the nine names from a free report from Motley Fool's expert analysts called "Secure Your Future With 9 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks." Today I invite you to download it at no cost to you. To get instant access to the names of these nine high-yielders, simply click here -- it's free.
