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Coronation! [RPM]

A hospital in town plays a lullaby over the PA system throughout the building whenever a child is born in the Maternity Ward. Once, I was visiting my sick mother there and heard the pleasant tune and asked why it was playing. When I learned, I teared up a little. It is just a simple reminder that there are wonderful things in the world, even when things aren’t going so well.

As you might expect, I keep an eye on companies with long dividend increase streaks. So, it isn’t really a surprise when a company hits their 50th consecutive year of such increases, becoming a Dividend King. Do I tear up a little? No. But it is still a wonderful thing, even when the stock market doesn’t seem to care.

There’s a 76-year-old company that is doing what it has always done. Providing all sorts of materials for builders and DIYers all over the world. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if 50% of what I see in Home Depot or Lowe’s is produced by this company. Ever heard of Rust-Oleum? DAP? Kwik-Seal? Come on! Roto-Rooter? Sure, you have. Essentially this company is your friend whenever you’ve gotten yourself too deep into a home project. On October 5th, they made an announcement that makes them a Dividend King.

All hail RPM International Inc!

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Coronation! [RPM]Read More »

No Purchase This Week [16]

This is the second of three weeks where I am refraining from the usual investment of $250+ into the portfolio, in an effort to restore the $250+ per week average. Below, I present how things would have gone.

This week, five of the portfolio holdings ranked in the Top Ten: BKH, MMM, NNN, PII, and TGT.

TickerAccount Value
BKH1,015.98
MMM2,033.20
NNN901.68
PII974.30
TGT1,050.10

The lowest amount belongs to NNN. Due to the massive sell-off in the market, and TDS’s willingness to follow along with unbridled enthusiasm, there are no sector imbalances in the portfolio for the first time in weeks. So, there would be nothing to preclude that investment other than the fact that I’m sitting this week out.

Dividend Progress

The Portfolio for the Ages came to life with the acquisition of FMCB, a little-known Dividend King, on July 18, 2022. There are now 15 positions covering all 11 sectors and one can see the performance and portfolio characteristics at the relevant menu links1.

Save the stock price performance of TDS, the portfolio’s performance has been a disappointment. I have to emphasize that it is TDS’s price performance that has been phenomenal, as its business performance has been the worst of any of the holdings. And if that doesn’t tell you something about investing in the short term, I’m not sure what does. I am deliberately passing on the opportunity to compare the Royal Dividends portfolio performance to that of SPX or NOBL at this time, in order to stress the importance of dividend accumulation.

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Dividend ProgressRead More »

No Purchase This Week [15]

This is the first of three weeks where I am refraining from the usual investment of $250+ into the portfolio, in an effort to restore the $250+ per week average. Below, I present how things would have gone.

This week, five of the portfolio holdings ranked in the Top Ten: BKH, MMM, NNN, PII, and TGT.

TickerAccount Value
BKH1,062.39
MMM2,153.26
NNN918.84
PII1,041.40
TGT1,105.70

The lowest amount belongs to NNN. However, an investment into any sector other than Health Care or Materials would only continue the imbalance in the portfolio, created largely by the outperformance of TDS. However, there are no companies from either sector in the Top Ten. If I were to simply extend the Top 10 to the Top 19, medical device maker Medtronic PLC [MDT] would make the list. It would be a brand-new position in the portfolio. The sector imbalance is negligible, however, and all sectors may very well be eligible for additional investment in three weeks.

Plot This Ratio Before Your Next Stock Purchase

Have you ever looked up the Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio) for a stock ticker, only to find it is ‘N/A’ or blank? What about seeing a stratospheric P/E Ratio of say 400? Here you thought you were doing some due diligence on a stock recommendation that came your way. You wanted to know if the stock is ‘expensive’ or ‘cheap’, but you hit a dead end.

Sometimes when this happens there’s a better option, and it is right in front of you – in The Upside Down.

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Plot This Ratio Before Your Next Stock PurchaseRead More »

Dividend Stock of the Week [PII]

This week, four of the portfolio holdings ranked in the Top 10: MMM, NNN, QCOM and TGT.

TickerAccount Value
MMM2,231.92
NNN938.34
QCOM2,476.64
TGT1,126.00

The lowest amount belongs to NNN. However, there are imbalances in the portfolio, from both a stock perspective and a sector perspective, due to the outperformance of TDS in recent weeks. Three sectors are ‘eligible’ for additional investment at this time: Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, and Materials. None of the four stocks above are from these sectors. Materials and Health Care are nowhere to be found in the entire Top Ten. However, the Top Ten does include one stock from the Consumer Discretionary sector coming in at #7. Investing $1,000 into this stock will put the portfolio back into alignment from a sector perspective and substantially improve the balance from a stock perspective.

Folks, it is time to add a new position to the Portfolio for the Ages!

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Dividend Stock of the Week [PII]Read More »

Dividend King of the Week [PPG][2]

This week, four of the portfolio holdings ranked in the Top 10: MMM, MO, NNN, and QCOM.

TickerAccount Value
MMM2,324.38
MO2,524.74
NNN992.42
QCOM2602.22

The lowest amount belongs to NNN. However, due to portfolio imbalances created largely by the outsized performance of TDS, there is only one sector in which any additional investment won’t further exacerbate the imbalances, and that sector is Materials. If I keep the same criterion for selecting the Top 10, but extend the ranking out to a Top 20, the first Materials stock, PPG, comes in at #20. After performing a sort that favors Dividend Kings for their dividend safety, PPG comes in at #11. With only $936.60 in PPG, it is even more worthy of additional investment than NNN. It is a good time to add to the PPG position as it is trading about 12% off of recent highs.

PPG last traded at $133.80. Therefore, in order to invest a minimum of $250 in PPG, I need to purchase 2 shares this Monday.  Below, is the purchase history and average cost calculation.

More Human than Human

Update: Later, on the same day as the original post, I asked Bing what ABBV’s current dividend is, and received the correct answer of $1.48 per share. Immediately, I wondered why Bing nailed it this time. Then, I became aware that my setting for Bing was ‘More Creative’ (as opposed to ‘More Balanced’ or ‘More Precise’). This likely explains the parallel universe that I accidentally stepped into earlier that day. It doesn’t explain why it waited until I was a few iterations deep when it decided to get ‘creative’. Why didn’t it just respond with ‘chicken‘? That’s very creative. And why get creative with what is already historical fact? Should I have expected that? Shouldn’t ‘creativity’ be used in less factual arenas, like dreams or forecasts or emotional discussion? Do we need to play around with irrefutable historical fact? I still think the previously unspoken, yet implied warning about AI applies; use multiple sources to verify information provided to you, particularly if from a source you have not used previously. My main source for all things related to dividends, earnings, and fair valuation, is Sure Dividend. When I need additional detail, I venture out into other sources such as Yahoo! Finance, CFRA reports, and TD Ameritrade, and make sure that I reconcile back to my control totals. This fruitless venture into AI as detailed below was an effort to get quarterly dividends that would tie back to the yearly dividends easily obtained from the latest ABBV report available through my Sure Dividend membership. No one source is perfect, but Sure Dividend aims to be. Be careful out there, humans.

I am writing on September 15, 2023. I just completed a rather surreal chat with the AI-powered, Microsoft Bing add-on available in the Microsoft Edge browser. Life may never be the same.

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More Human than HumanRead More »

No Purchase This Week [14]

This is the third and final week in which I am abstaining from the usual $250+ investment into the portfolio in order to reestablish the $250+ per week average. Below, I present how things would have gone.

This week, four of the portfolio holdings ranked in the Top Ten: MMM, MO, NNN, and QCOM.

TickerAccount Value
MMM2,443.52
MO2,556.64
NNN989.30
QCOM2,441.22

The lowest amount belongs to NNN. However, an investment into any sector other than Materials would only continue the imbalance in the portfolio, created largely by the outperformance of TDS. However, there are no companies from the Materials sector in the Top Ten. If I were to relax no requirements whatsoever, but simply extend the Top 10 to the Top 26, PPG would make the list. Then, because it is a Dividend King, it would make #17 in the sorted Top 26. Thus, barring some unforeseen circumstances, I would have placed the $250 into PPG.

TDS has fallen back below $19 and thus, the $20 covered call that expires in February is looking a little safer. I may still look at opportunities to roll it up and out into May depending on what the situation looks like when that expiration date becomes available in a week or so.

No Purchase This Week [13]

This is the second of three weeks in which I am abstaining from the usual $250+ investment into the portfolio in order to reestablish the $250+ per week average. For the truly bored, I present how things would have gone below.

This week, five of the portfolio holdings ranked in the Top Ten: BKH, FMCB, MMM, MO, and QCOM.

TickerAccount Value
BKH1,149.54
FMCB2,851.71
MMM2,459.85
MO2,558.38
QCOM2,653.97

The lowest amount belongs to BKH. However, an investment into any sector other than Materials would only continue the imbalance in the portfolio, created largely by the outperformance of TDS. However, there are no companies from the Materials sector in the Top Ten. If the requirement to rank only those stocks with 10% expected total returns were relaxed to 9.3% AND if the fair value cap of 100% were lifted to 102%, the highest ranked Materials stock would be an existing holding, PPG, coming in at #18. Thus, I likely would have placed the $250 into PPG. There simply are not a lot of purchase opportunities in the five Materials stocks in the Empire.

TDS has climbed above the $20 strike price with 167 days before expiry. I am not particularly happy to see gains on 300 of the 345 shares capped at this point and thus, I will look for an opportunity to roll up and out into May 2024 when that expiry month becomes available in the option chain in a couple of weeks. Rolling all the way out to December 2024 is simply not of interest to me at this time.

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