This is the last of nine scheduled ‘off’ weeks—an intentional pause to restore our $250+ weekly pace after using significant outside capital to triple our stake in LEG. However, we do have $296.85 in uninvested cash available to deploy.
This week, five of the portfolio holdings ranked in the Top Ten.
| Ticker | Account Value |
| ADP | 3,646.16 |
| BDX | 2,869.40 |
| HTO | 3,811.56 |
| PPG | 3,387.12 |
| SCL | 3,344.92 |
The lowest amount belongs to BDX. Yet, there is a position imbalance whereby only UHT is eligible for additional funds. Now ordinarily, this would mean that since UHT is not in the Top Ten we would open a $1,000 position in the highest ranked stock not already in the Portfolio for the Ages, which in this case would be Hormel Foods Corp [HRL].
This creates a conundrum.
So, UHT is the only portfolio stock eligible for additional funds, but it isn’t in the Top Ten (it ranks at #29 this week). HRL would be added to the portfolio, but this is supposed to be an off week. There is $296.85 in cash available, but that isn’t enough to start a new position. As I see it, there are four choices:
- Ignore the position imbalance and buy 2 shares of BDX.
- Ignore the ‘Top Ten’ requirement and replace it with a special ‘Top Twenty-Nine’ and buy 7 shares of UHT.
- Ignore the off week, open a new position in HRL, and take off four more weeks.
- Ignore the cash in the account and do nothing.
Had a couple of dividends not come in this week, this would have been an automatic ‘do nothing’. Thus, in honor of following through with the original intention of this week, let’s ignore the cash in the account and take this week off (choice #4).
If HRL is meant to be in the portfolio, there is a very good chance it will be added next week. And, if that is the case, we can start the position, not only using $1,000 of new money, but also the cash in the account which come next week, may be even more than $296.85. HRL is a 60-year Dividend King in the middle of a 4-year price slide.
How exciting would that be?