Dividend Dolphin

Parallel to investing in individual dividend growth stocks I also invest €100 into two mutual funds. One fund is a mixed fnds with both bonds, shares and some liquid assets. This fund automatically reinvests all the dividends and interest payments, resulting in a higher price. The other mutual fund, Kempen Global High Dividend Fund, pays a quarterly dividend. This dividend was raised for 2017. The quarterly dividend is raised from €0.33 to €0.35 per share. This is a dividend raise of 6.06%. The current price for the fund is €31.40, a dividend yield of 4.46%. At the moment I own 11.5 shares of this mutual fund so this raise increases my yearly dividend with 78 cents. However, I purchase for €50 each month and reinvest the dividend automatically. The first payment will be in February the exact date is not set yet.

The end of the month is coming so it is time to state my dividend income. It has been a slow month, however the dividend income is at least a million times higher than last year when I wasn't investing yet. This month only one company paid me. Whitestone REIT (WSR) paid me €3.79 for owning 50 of their shares. Compared to last October's dividend this moth the dividend is much lower. This is all Coca Cola's fault. They pay dividends in the first month of the quarter three ties a year, also in October, but they already paid in December instead of January. WSR itself paid me the same amount of dollars, but in Euros I received 14 cents more than last October.

After the 2016 report of Unilever (AMS: UNA) this morning, the stock price of UNA fell with almost 2 Euros. This gave me the green light to add to my holdings. I made a purchase order for 13 shares at a limit price of €37.65. This afternoon the shareprice dropped (shortly) under this limit, so the purchase was made. Including transaction fees the cost basis was €491.55 in total or €37.81 per share. With their quarterly dividend of €0.3201 per share, this purchase will yield almost 3.4% before taxes. This purchase will increases my expected yearly dividend €14.14 after taxes to €320. I now own 45 shares of UNA with a cost base of €38.56. The yield on costs is 3.3%.

Earlier this week I bought 5 shares of Target Corporation (TGT), today I bought 5 more for $65 per share. This will put my expected annual net dividend income well over €300. Now I own 10 shares of TGT at a cost basis of €619.03. Dividend yield is now 3.66%. TGT is down this week after disappointing Holiday sales. However, I like the deal they struck with the Major League Soccer (MLS) this week. I think this is going to pay off in the next few years. Soccer is growing in popularity in the US and is still the most commercial sport worldwide.

Today I started another new position. I bought 5 shares of Target Corporation (TGT) at a price of $66.65 a share. Although I had zero shares of TGT it is not a totally new postion. In November 2016 I bought and sold a few shares for a hefty profit. Back  then I bought the shares for almost the same price $66.80 and sold them for $77.25 and also picking up a quarter of dividend in the process. TGT was down heavily today after presenting disappointing Holiday season sales. Now the share price is back down to the level of November. While the share price in dollars was a bit lower than when I bought the shares in November, the amount I had to pay in Euros was a bit higher due to the stronger dollar. Including transaction fees the total costs are €313.19. With TGT paying $2.40 per year it the yield is 3.6%. My expected forward dividend is increased by €9.62 fastly approaching €300. I now have added three new positions this month. And almost used all of the funds I designated ...

With the new year barely started I'm on a roll initiating some new positions. After the AbbVie purchase just over a week ago, yesterday I got myself another new position. Yesterday, I bought 4 shares of Texas Instruments (TXN) at a price of $74.80 per share. Including service fees the total costs were €282.38. TXN pays a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share which increases my expected forward 12 month dividend income by eight dollars or €6,42 bringing it to amost €287. TXN is a dividend achiever and placed no. 7 on SureDividend's top 10 dividend achievers list  of last December. An analysis of TXN can be found here . If the divididend paying schedule is similar to 2016, TXN will go ex dividend in the last week of January.

The great thing about dividend growth investing is that you get regular pay raises. Esspecially when a company raises its dividend every quarter. Omega Healthcare Investorrs (OHI) is such a company. Since owning their shares OHI yesterday announced its second dividend raise. OHI raises its dividend with one cent to 62 cents per share. This is a 1.6% raise. Owning 20 shares this raises my annual dividend with 80 cents. Looking at the year on year dividend growth OHI has raised its dividend by 5 cents or 8.8%.

Yesterday I did my first purchase of the year. While expenses are high in the end of December and the beginning of January, I was able to do a small purchase of AbVie (ABBV). I bought 3 shares at $62.75 a share. Including transaction fees the cost base will be $62.92. ABBV pays $0.64 per quarter the yield on costs will be just over 4%, 4.07% to be exact. Since ABBV will go ex dividend at January 11th, I will nicely pick up the dividend. Payout will be in Fruary. This buy increases my forward 12 month dividend with $7,68 before taxes. After taxes and at the current exchange rate this will be €6.28 bringing it to about €280.

2017 is already a few days old and sadly, I've been back to work for a few days as well. So is more then time to share my investment goals for this year. €400 of dividend income My current forward dividend is €273 and last year I raked in €114. Adding these two together should give me a nice aim for this year. Add at least 4 companies to my portfolio... I now own shares of 5 companies, KO,RDSA, UNA, OHI and WSR. Four extra companies should be a doable. I will be looking at a mix of more defensive shares and some a bit more cyclical. I already set a small order to buy a new company this week. ... of which at least one European company Not only do I want to spread risks between different kinds of companies I also want to spread between currencies. So I will not only buy US stock but also Euro stocks. Raise investments to €11.000 I now have invested about €6.000. I will not be investing more than last year, because I want to pay off a big part (10%) of my mortgage this yea...