Recs

9

This High-Yield Portfolio Will Beat the Market

Forty-eight weeks ago, I invested my cold, hard cash into 10 high-yield dividend stocks I believe will beat the market. Let's see the results so far:

Company

Average Cost

Shares

Recent Price

Total Value

Return

Altria $24.86 40 $28.50 $1,140.00 14.64%
Philip Morris (NYSE: PM  ) $61.83 17 $74.02 $1,258.34 18.79%
National Grid $45.63 22 $48.12 $1,058.64 5.46%
Annaly Capital Management (NYSE: NLY  ) $17.55 57 $16.59 $945.63 (5.47%)
Frontier Communications $8.71 149 $4.89 $728.61 (43.86%)
Southern $37.87 26 $45.07 $1,171.82 19.01%
France Telecom (NYSE: FTE  ) $22.23 45 $14.91 $670.95 (32.93%)
Vodafone Group (Nasdaq: VOD  ) $28.69 38 $27.65 $1,050.70 (3.62%)
Eli Lilly $34.48 29 $39.90 $1,156.98 15.71%
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY  ) $25.37 39 $32.72 $1,276.20 28.98%
Cash       $128.06  
Dividends Receivable       $32.49  
Total Portfolio       $10,618.42 6.18%
Investment in SPY         1.44%
Return vs. SPY (percentage points)         +4.74

Source: S&P Capital IQ, as of Jan. 20.

Since my last report, the SPDR S&P 500 rose 1.5%. Our portfolio actually fell somewhat, with our outperformance moving from beating the market by 7.77 percentage points to a 4.74-point advantage. While outperformance is always good, it should be taken with a grain of salt. We're investing for the long term, and it's only been 11 months.

Movers and shakers
Our largest mover since last time was Bristol-Myers Squibb, which fell 5.75%. The market has responded negatively to Bristol-Myers Squibb's plan to purchase Inhibitex for $2.5 billion, a 163% premium to its closing price.

Money!
There are four upcoming dividends for the portfolio:

  • Annaly Capital Management will pay a $0.57 per-share dividend on Jan. 26. The ex-dividend date was Dec. 26.
  • Vodafone will pay a dividend of 0.705 pence (roughly $1.12, not included in Dividends Receivable, as exchange rate won't be determined until close of market today) per share on Feb. 3. The ex-dividend date was Nov. 16.
  • Southern will pay a $0.4725 per-share dividend on March 6. The ex-dividend date is Feb. 2.
  • Eli Lilly will pay a dividend of $0.49 per share on March 9. The ex-dividend date is Feb. 13.

Reinvestment
With the dividends from Annaly and Vodafone, by Feb. 3, we will have just over $200 in cash in our portfolio. As I said last week, personally, I'm partial to investing in Annaly, Vodafone, or France Telecom. With Philip Morris down from over $80 per share, I'd also consider the tobacco giant as well.

While Frontier looks cheap, we have already made two sizable purchases, and to add a third would be overallocating to one stock. Annaly had a good year in 2011, and with low rates expected to stay until 2013 or even 2014, its high dividend looks safe. Vodafone also had a good year, finally receiving its first dividend from its 45% ownership of Verizon Wireless. The company is using the money to buy back shares and pay out a special dividend, which we'll receive on Feb. 3. France Telecom has been beaten down due to its debt level and exposure to the European crisis. So, Fools, what should I buy?

My Foolish bottom line
I'm highly confident in this portfolio's ability to crush the market over the next decade, and that's why I put $10,000 of my personal cash into these stocks. My strategy is simple. I'm buying strong companies with outsize dividends, reinvesting those dividends, and holding them for the long run. Over the coming year, I'll track my performance, update you on when I'm going to reinvest all my dividends, and keep you abreast of news affecting these companies.

Consider the 10 companies above along with the 11 names from a brand-new free report from Motley Fool's expert analysts called "11 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks." To get instant access to the names of these 11 stocks, click here -- it's free.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Dan Dzombak can be found on his Twitter account: @DanDzombak. He owns shares of Altria, Philip Morris, National Grid, Annaly Capital, Frontier, Southern, France Telecom, Vodafone, Eli Lilly, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

The Motley Fool owns shares of Altria Group, Chimera Investment, Philip Morris International, and Annaly Capital Management. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Southern, France Telecom, Philip Morris International, Vodafone Group, and National Grid. 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.


Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On January 20, 2012, at 3:56 PM, GordonsGecko wrote:

    If we're talking long-term here, I have a feeling PM is the best bet.

    Given the various stages of development that the countries they are marketing to are in, it's not out of the realm of possibility that we're talking about a repeat of what the stateside version of PM did for the past 60 years.

    Developing nations with growing middle classes. Increased disposable income and a more laissez faire attitude towards smoking could lead to giant profits for the next 20 years or so.

  • Report this Comment On January 20, 2012, at 4:51 PM, Hawmps wrote:

    I think I would have to agree with G.G.III because you are already too heavy in Telecom altogether. That or National Grid.

Add your comment.

Compare Brokers

Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 1762297, ~/Articles/ArticleHandler.aspx, 5/27/2012 2:25:12 AM

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

Today's Market

updated 1 day ago Sponsored by:
DOW 12,454.83 -74.92 -0.60%
S&P 500 1,317.82 -2.86 -0.22%
NASD 2,837.53 -1.85 -0.07%

Create My Watchlist

Go to My Watchlist

You don't seem to be following any stocks yet!

Better investing starts with a watchlist. Now you can create a personalized watchlist and get immediate access to the personalized information you need to make successful investing decisions.

Data delayed up to 5 minutes

Related Tickers

5/25/2012 4:02 PM
PM $85.38 Up +0.04 +0.05%
Philip Morris Inte… CAPS Rating: *****
VOD $27.18 Up +0.08 +0.30%
Vodafone Group Plc… CAPS Rating: *****
NLY $16.70 Up +0.10 +0.60%
Annaly Capital Man… CAPS Rating: ****
BMY $33.09 Up +0.10 +0.30%
Bristol-Myers Squi… CAPS Rating: ****
FTE $12.98 Down +0.00 +0.00%
France Telecom (AD… CAPS Rating: *****

Advertisement