Trades

This week’s pick is one of twelve Dividend Kings from the Consumer Staples sector. But of those twelve, only one other is trading below fair value and that’s Target [TGT]. As much as I love Target, especially at their current price, I am going with one that pays a massive 8.2% yield, highest amongst all Dividend Kings. In fact, on August 25, 2022, they announced their 57th dividend increase in the last 53 years. We want to remain defensive in this market, and this stock’s earnings were unphased in our last two recessions, climbing steadily year after year.

Monday morning, Altria Group Inc [MO] joins the Dividend King portfolio.

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My market order to purchase 14 shares of NFG executed at market open today for the price of $73.24. I updated the portfolio and summary by sector. Also, check out the portfolio’s performance to date. These exhibits will be updated periodically and will have more meaning as the portfolio grows.

Do you remember what you were doing on June 15, 2022? We should all remember. On that day, a company from Williamsville, New York, founded in 1902, announced an increase to their dividend. They have paid a dividend for 120 consecutive years and this increase is the 52nd consecutive annual increase in the dividend. Think about that. When they began paying a dividend, the U.S. was still minting the Indian Head penny.

This week’s Dividend King operates in four business segments, one of which is Utilities. I think this might be why they’ve been misclassified as a Utility stock on TD Ameritrade. Yahoo! Finance has them correctly labeled as an Energy company. Energy companies are notorious for inconsistent earnings, because their performance is sensitive to a host of economic factors that are out of their control. It very likely explains why there is only one Energy company in the list of Dividend Kings. Only one.

Monday morning, National Fuel Gas Company [NFG] joins the Dividend King portfolio.

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My market order to purchase 7 shares of PPG executed at market open today for the price of $135.22. I updated the portfolio and summary by sector. Also, check out the portfolio’s performance to date. These exhibits will be updated periodically and will have more meaning as the portfolio grows.

What do the following numbers have in common? 139, 496, 51, 62. Give up? One hundred and thirty-nine years ago, in 1883(!), Pittsburgh Plate Glass was founded by Captain John B. Ford and John Pitcairn in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1898, it began a streak of paying quarterly dividends that persists to this day, 496 quarters later. With their dividend increase in 1971, it began a streak of increasing the dividend payout annually. On July 21, 2022, they announced a three-cent increase to their 62 cents per share quarterly dividend, marking the 51st consecutive year of increasing their dividend.

Now known as PPG Industries, Inc [PPG], it is the largest paint and coatings company in the world, with 240+ manufacturing facilities in 59 countries and operations in 75 countries. The global headquarters is still in Pittsburgh. I missed the first 50 years of this streak, but I think it’s time to get in on the action.

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My market order to purchase 7 shares of ABBV executed at market open today for the price of $138.04, unchanged from Friday’s closing price. I updated the portfolio which includes a summary by sector. Also, check out the portfolio’s performance to date. These exhibits will be updated periodically and will have more meaning as the portfolio grows.

This week’s Dividend King is a bit of a surprise. It spent the first three months of 2022 ignoring the rest of the market and soared from $135 to $175. Eventually, the market got to it. The market considered the last two quarterly earnings announcements to be underwhelming, and the price has come nearly all the way back down. I’m very excited about this. Last week I mentioned that the Utility sector was overpriced on the whole, but I found one utility out of six that was attractively priced, Black Hills Corporation [BKH]. The same can be said of the Health Care sector. There are four Dividend Kings in the Health Care sector as of the time of this writing. Three of them seem to be a bit above their fair value. This isn’t a surprise.

When inflation runs hot and money gets tight, people think twice about pulling the trigger on getting a new mattress or taking a vacation. But the demand for certain services is inelastic. Consumer staples, utilities, and health care services are must-haves. Investors migrate to companies in these sectors as the economy slows down or enters a recession. It’s the smart thing to do. The Dividend King of the Week is really more of a Prince. It is the offspring of another Dividend King, Abbott Laboratories [ABT]. So, get your knees oiled, get your waist oiled – you’re going to be doing an awful lot of bowing . . . to Abbvie Inc [ABBV].

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My market order to purchase 13 shares of BKH executed at market open today for the price of $77.00. I updated the portfolio which includes a summary by sector. The portfolio’s performance to date can be found here. These exhibits will be updated periodically and will have more meaning as the portfolio grows.

There are six Dividend Kings in the Utility sector as of the time of this writing. On the whole, the Utilities are a bit overpriced. This is partly due to the fact that they are Dividend Kings, which tend to trade at a premium to their fair value. The other reason is that with inflation at its highest level in 40 years, the markets have moved towards defensive and inflation-protected sectors such as Consumer Staples, Health Care and Utilities.

When money is tight, people can put off discretionary items such as a new car, new furniture, or the latest iPhone. However, groceries, medical care, heat, and electricity are essential. Thus, utilities have very reliable revenue streams, and this allows them to pay consistent dividends. It is no surprise then, that we have six utilities among the 45 Dividend Kings. But only one is attractively priced right now: Black Hills Corporation [BKH].

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My market order to purchase 10 shares of FRT went through at market open today for the price of $102.83. I updated the portfolio which includes a summary by sector. Obviously, these exhibits will have more meaning as the portfolio grows. These exhibits will be updated periodically.