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 and then more again in 2013. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Exelon (EXC -1.65%) |
$41.36 |
28.818 |
3.4% |
$1,037.16 |
(13%) |
|
National Grid |
$48.90 |
20.3693 |
4.9% |
$1,447.04 |
45.3% |
|
Philip Morris International (PM -1.22%) |
$78.05 |
25.5429 |
4.4% |
$2,189.54 |
9.8% |
|
Extendicare |
$6.51 |
548 |
7.2% |
$3,359.24 |
(5.8%) |
|
Ryman Hospitality |
$40.96 |
39.3 |
4.8% |
$1,804.66 |
12.1% |
|
Plum Creek Timber |
$38.42 |
26 |
4% |
$1,136.20 |
13.7% |
|
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP -1.29%) |
$26.12 |
38.2825 |
4.9% |
$1,492.63 |
49.3% |
|
Seaspan (ATCO) |
$17.17 |
136.5 |
6.3% |
$2,979.80 |
27.1% |
|
Retail Opportunity Investments |
$12.20 |
81.95 |
4.1% |
$1,266.95 |
26.7% |
|
Annaly Preferred D |
$25.50 |
38.9 |
7.6% |
$961.61 |
(3.1%) |
|
Gramercy Property Trust |
$4.48 |
223 |
2.7% |
$1,168.52 |
17% |
|
Cash |
$359.99 |
||||
|
Dividends Receivable |
$19.84 |
||||
|
Original Investment |
$14,983.36 |
||||
|
Total Portfolio |
$19,223.16 |
28.3% |
|||
|
Investment in SPY (including dividends) |
40.7% |
||||
|
Relative Performance (percentage points) |
(12.4) |
Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.
The total portfolio is now up 28.3% after climbing 0.3 percentage points from the last report. We lost a bit on the index to lag by 12.4 percentage points. The blended yield remained at 5.3%. Dividends and dividends receivable continued to flow into the account, and there's plenty more on the way, especially in May, which is one of the key dividend months for the portfolio. If the market encounters more difficulties, I expect that dividend stocks will be a great place to be, and we should outperform.
We continue to see very attractive yields from a number of our stocks. Brookfield Infrastructure recently increased its dividend by nearly 12%, and that stock now yields 4.9%. Brookfield is one of the best-positioned infrastructure companies out there and has made fantastic deals over the last few years.
Following its own 10% dividend increase in March, Seaspan now offers a 6.3% yield that should continue to grow quickly over the next few years. The shipping company is rapidly growing its capacity, and that should support quickly growing dividends.
And megacap Philip Morris offers a tasty 4.4% yield. A lackluster Europe -- where the tobacco giant earns a huge chunk of its money -- has helped keep the stock subdued for a while. But looking at the longer term, I think it makes a good buy at today's prices.
I've decided to say goodbye to one of our stocks, Exelon. The utility just announced that it was acquiring Pepco. I think we have much better opportunities for high yield and high growth, so I'm using the cash from selling Exelon to buy my next stock.
The latest addition to the portfolio is CorEnergy Infrastructure (CORR). The company invests in energy-related infrastructure and pays out a generous 7.4% yield and is working to aggressively expand its portfolio. So I think it offers a much better opportunity for market-beating returns. (If you want to read my whole case for CorEnergy, take a 100% free trial to Motley Fool Income Investor.)
In addition to that reallocation, the portfolio still has nearly $400 in built-up cash that needs to be deployed. Oh, and I'm thinking of buying an attractive double-digit yield, the details of which I'll reveal in this column. Stay tuned if you want to know more.
Dividend announcements
Dividend news:
- Extendicare went ex-dividend on April 25 and pays out $0.0362 per share on May 15.
- Seaspan went ex-dividend on April 16 and paid out $0.345 per share on April 30.
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 more bad news will likely have stocks plunging again, and if they do, I'll be inclined to pick up more shares.
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.
