August Dividend Update

It's time to report on my August dividends and I nearly had my highest dividend total ever at $227.68 which just barely missed beating my June number by 23 cents. My recent purchase of KMI (pre merger news) helped bolster my income as did a couple of dividend raises that I've listed below.

August Dividend Increases

Kinder Morgan (KMI) - From .42 to .43 +2.3%
Clorox (CLX) - From .71 to .74 +4.2%

(The low growth in KMI is misleading as they tend to increase dividends multiple times per year.)

August Purchases

• Coca Cola (KO) - 20 shares @ $39.38

August 2014 Dividend Income

• AT&T (T) - $45.08
• General Mills (GIS) - $22.55
• WGL Holdings - $29.04
• Clorox (CLX) - $14.06
• Realty Income (O) - $18.28
• Kinder Morgan (KMI) - $39.99
• Proctor & Gamble (PG) - $21.88
• Peoples United Financial  (PBCT) - $36.80

Total Dividends For August: $227.68

Looks like I've got that chart back on the right track after a weak July.

Top 40 Stocks Held By DGI Bloggers

I've always wondered what the most widely held dividend stocks are. Which names appeal to investors the most or at least to DGI (Dividend Growth Investors) like myself. So I thought I'd do a bit of investigative work. Pretty simply I counted up all of the positions held by my fellow dividend investors that are in my blogroll. Most of them have a link to their portfolios somewhere linked on their blogs which allowed me to see exactly what stocks they are holding at the moment. Then I just tallied up all of the names (and there was a lot) accordingly. As you can see there are a lot of familiar names.

Here I present to you the Top 40 dividend stocks held by my fellow DGI (Dividend Growth Investor) bloggers like me....

What do you think of the list? Do any of the stocks surprise you that they are that high or low ? There's some great names that didn't make the Top 40 as well. Companies like Visa (V), Caterpillar (CAT), Southern Company (SO) ,and Walgreens (WAG) didn't make the cut.

Liebster Award Nomination

 

 

 

 I've been nominated for a Liebster award from Ferdis over at DivGro and I'd like to thank him for thinking of me for the award! The Liebster award is a really neat way to get followers to connect with other blogs with similar content. It follows similar principles as a chain letter, in the sense that it should be passed forward to a certain number of people (in this case 5).  You just answer the questions posed by the nominator and then you nominate other blogs and ask them to answer 5 other questions of your own. So here goes ....

 

Here are the 5 questions DivGro asked of me:

 

1 - What is your favorite vacation destination?

 

I don't travel much at all but I have been to a few places like Colorado and Florida most recently but I think I'd love to go to Hawaii. That would be a beautiful place to visit, just not when a hurricane hits !

 2 - What is your favorite movie and why ?

This is a toughie for me, there's so many great movies to choose from. It's hard to compare great films from different genres too. I mean comparing a movie like "Schindler's List" against a comedy like "Snatch" or "Airplane" isn't easy. However if I'm forced to make a choice I'd go with "Lord Of The Rings - Fellowship Of The Ring" as my favorite. I love the movie and I've watched it countless times even if it's just for background noise while I'm on the computer.

3 - If I could go back in time what is the one thing you would tell the 21-year old version of yourself?

Aside from something like the winning lottery numbers I'd probably tell myself to go to college and earn a degree. That was my biggest mistake and one of the reasons why I'm not in a job I enjoy. 

4 - What is your favorite quote?

 

Normally I would say Carl Sagan's famous "Pale Blue Dot" speech but that might be a bit long to be considered a quote so I'll use another one of his ....

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
― Carl Sagan

 

5 - What is the number one resource you use for your investment blog ?

I use several, many of which I have linked on my blog but without a doubt the one I use most is Yahoo Finance.

 

 

My Nominees are:

Divid-Elephant

DivHut

My Dividend Pipeline

Dividend Mongrel

DividendVet

I honestly don't know if any of them have been nominated by other bloggers yet or not but I enjoy following these blogs and you may too. Also if your a nominee please don't feel obligated to continue this chain but if you'd like to just answer the 5 questions below ...

My 5 questions to the above bloggers are as follows.

1 - Why did you start your blog ?

2 - What is your favorite tv series ?

3 - What was your favorite car you've ever owned ?

4 - What is your worst stock market or financial mishap ?

5 - What if anything do you do for exercise ?

Thanks again DivGro for the nomination!

Kinder Morgan to combine its companies

NEW YORK (AP) — The group of oil and gas pipeline and storage companies controlled by Kinder Morgan but traded separately will combine and become the 4th biggest U.S. energy company by market value.

The companies announced Sunday that Kinder Morgan Inc., Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Kinder Morgan Management and El Paso Pipeline Partners will all combine under the Kinder Morgan Inc. umbrella and trade under the KMI ticker symbol.

Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. says the total purchase price of the three other companies is $71 billion, including $27 billion of assumed debt. The combined market value of the four companies was $92 billion as of the close of the market Friday. That would make it the fourth largest U.S. energy company after Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

Source: Yahoo News

CEO Richard Kinder also stated the following ...

“All shareholders and unitholders of the Kinder Morgan family of companies will benefit as a result of this combination,” said Chairman and CEO Richard D. Kinder. “Everyone will hold a single, publicly traded security – KMI – which will have a projected dividend of $2.00 in 2015, a 16 percent increase over the anticipated 2014 dividend of $1.72. We expect to grow the dividend by approximately 10 percent each year from 2015 through 2020, with excess coverage anticipated to be greater than $2 billion over that same period. This combined entity will be the largest energy infrastructure company in North America and the third largest energy company overall with an estimated enterprise value of approximately $140 billion. Additionally, we will have a leading position in each of our business segments and operate in the rapidly growing North American energy infrastructure sector"

I'm really not sure what to make of all of this, but I'm very happy to see the commitment to the dividend is still strong going forward. In the short term it'll be interesting to see how the market reacts to this tomorrow.

A closer look at Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

As a stock holder of many different companies I find myself checking through all kinds news and analysis on the internet. This week I thought I'd share a couple of items about the Dividend Aristocrat Johnson & Johnson. Some fellow dividend bloggers have written some nice analysis of JNJ and there was also a great piece that Bloomberg did as well.



Pollie has a great dividend analysis of JNJ on his blog - "Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Stock Analysis Pollie Style"

Dividend Growth Investor also wrote an article and analysis over on Seeking Alpha -"Johnson & Johnson: A Quality Dividend Company At Attractive Valuation"

Income Surfer also wrote a new valuation of JNJ - "My Updated Valuation Of Johnson & Johnson"

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is a holding company that researches, develops, and manufactures a diversified range of products in the healthcare field. The company has three segments: Consumer, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Devices and Diagnostics. JNJ is a dividend champion who has increased it's dividend for over 50 years in a row!

Disclosure: I currently own JNJ

Recent Buy - Coca-Cola (KO)

This week I decided to purchase more shares of the soft drink titan Coca-Cola (KO). I purchased another 20 shares at a price of $39.38 which was a bit higher than the last time I purchased KO back in February. With the recent market correction I was intending to make a purchase and had narrowed down my choices between Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) and Coke. In the end I chose Coke but I don't think I could have went wrong with either one. This gives me a total of 61 shares.

The Coca-Cola Company (KO), a beverage company, engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of nonalcoholic beverages worldwide. This dividend king has raised dividends for over 50 years in a row.

KO Stock Chart

 

KO Basic Statistics

• Ticker Symbol: KO
• PE Ratio: 20.9
• Forward PE Ratio: 17.6
• Yield: 2.9%
• Dividend Growth 5yr:  12%
• Payout Ratio: 61%
• Market cap: $171 B
• Website: http://www.cocacola.com

KO Dividend Growth

 

July Dividend Update

It's time to report on my July dividends and it looks like a pretty weak month for me at only $179.34. However this is due to a couple of factors; one being that Walmart (WMT) advanced it's latest dividend to June rather than July and I also just missed the ex-div date when I recently purchased more shares of Piedmont Natural Gas (PNY). Both would have put me comfortably over the $200 mark. That being said i think next quarter will be more inline with my other monthly totals. So from here on out I should be over the $200 mark and climbing ever higher toward that $300 mark.

 July Purchases

• Kinder Morgan (KMI) - 31 shares @ $37.46

July 2014 Dividend Income

• Coke Cola (KO) – $9.76
• Altria (MO) – $45.60
• Glasko Smith Kline (GSK) – $14.72
• Piedmont Natural Gas (PNY) - $21.76
• Realty Income (O) - $18.28
• Hatteras Financial (HTS) - $27.50
• Sysco (SYY) - $19.14
• Kraft (KRFT) - $22.58

Total Dividends For July: $179.34