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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Awilco Drilling |
$23.25 |
56 |
20.4% |
$1,261.12 |
(3.1%) |
|
CorEnergy Infrastructure |
$6.93 |
144 |
7.2% |
$1,026.72 |
2.9% |
|
Philip Morris International (PM 0.52%) |
$78.05 |
25.5429 |
4.3% |
$2,245.22 |
12.6% |
|
Extendicare |
$6.51 |
548 |
6.5% |
$3,704.48 |
3.8% |
|
Ryman Hospitality |
$40.96 |
39.3 |
4.7% |
$1,881.68 |
16.9% |
|
Plum Creek Timber |
$38.42 |
26 |
3.9% |
$1,173.38 |
17.5% |
|
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners |
$26.12 |
38.2825 |
4.7% |
$1,592.17 |
59.2% |
|
Seaspan |
$17.17 |
136.5 |
6% |
$3,116.30 |
33% |
|
Retail Opportunity Investments (ROIC) |
$12.20 |
81.95 |
4% |
$1,321.03 |
32.1% |
|
Gramercy Property Trust |
$4.48 |
223 |
2.3% |
$1,382.60 |
38.4% |
|
Cash |
$1,562.77 |
||||
|
Dividends Receivable |
$111.55 |
||||
|
Original Investment |
$14,983.36 |
||||
|
Total Portfolio |
$20,379.02 |
36% |
|||
|
Investment in SPY (including dividends) |
45.3% |
||||
|
Relative Performance (percentage points) |
(9.3) |
Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.
The total portfolio is now up 36% after climbing a strong 1.7 percentage points since the last report. Dividend and value stocks have performed well, but we also have some specific catalysts that are propelling the performance. We're now down on the index by 9.3 points cumulatively after slipping 0.4 percentage points relatively since the last report. The blended yield remains at 6.2%.
Retail Opportunity Investments just made a sizable acquisition, as fellow Fool Steve Symington explains in this article. CEO Stuart Tanz thinks he has found value in the $210 million purchase of California's Fallbrook Shopping Center. Compared to the whole REIT's enterprise value of $1.9 billion, the Fallbrook is indeed large. I like the acquisition, and Steve breaks down the deal more in his article.
Philip Morris has been a stellar performer since its spinoff from Altria in 2008. It has paid out gobs in dividends and levered up its balance sheet buying back stock. That's been great for shareholder returns, and with interest rates at all-time lows, it was financially smart. But those days of outsized performance are coming to an end; Philip Morris shareholders will get merely good returns from here, as management intends for the company to maintain its current investment grade of "A." So those buybacks will slow but not cease, and management has still committed to distributing 100% of free cash flow. That commitment will keep the stock flying high for years. Fellow Fool Rupert Hargreaves has more on Philip Morris's dividend in this article.
For now we have over $1,500 in cash in the portfolio. I have a couple good ideas for the cash, and I'll reveal which one I've chosen in future weeks, so stay tuned.
Dividend announcements
Dividend news:
- Plum Creek went ex-dividend on May 14 and paid out $0.44 per share on May 30.
- Exelon went ex-dividend on May 14 and pays out $0.31 per share on June 10.
- Brookfield Infrastructure went ex-dividend on May 28 and pays out $0.48 per share on June 30.
- Extendicare went ex-dividend on May 28 and pays out $0.0362 per share on June 16.
- Awilco went ex-dividend on May 19 and pays out $1.15 per share on June 20.
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.
