Recent Buy - Cullen/Frost Bankers (CFR)

I made my usual monthly purchase recently and it's probably a stock that's not on most peoples radar. Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. (CFR) is a small regional mid cap bank based in Texas. I was actually researching another Texas bank (PB) at the time that I discovered CFR and I decided I liked it a little better. CFR has been beaten up recently as the Texas economy has been under pressure due to low oil prices and the Texas banks have not been immune to this either.

CFR does have some direct exposure to oil as about 15% of their loans are connected to the oil patch. However most of these loans are safe and the company stated that only 9.8% of those loans are likely to produce a loss. It's important to note that CFR has been through this before and survived quite well.

As far as banks go I like the regional banks over the larger banks who are really under so much scrutiny especially now during election time. CFR was also able to weather the financial crisis better than most of it's larger competitors like WFC and BAC which cut their dividends during that time.

CFR Stock Chart

CFR Basic Stats

• Ticker Symbol: CFR
• Sector: Financial
• Yield: 3.4%
• Dividend Growth Streak: 23 years
• Annualized Dividend Growth 3yr: 3.5%
• Payout Ratio: 49%
• P/E Ratio: 14.1
• Market cap:$3.7 Billion
• Website: http://www.frostbank.com

CFR Financial Growth

CFR Dividend Growth

March 2016 Dividend Update

It's March dividend update time! My dividend total for March was $289.49 which is a 15% improvement over last year and just slightly higher than last quarter. This total probably would have been higher had I not sold my shares in Chevron after growing concern about their dividend coverage. This could be my last month below the $300 mark and it looks like my quarterly average is comfortably above the $300/month mark as well. April is looking to be a solid month! My dividend income is listed below.

March Purchases

• Cisco (CSCO) - 37 Shares @ $27.58

March Dividend Increases

• Compass Minerals (CMP) - From .66 to .695 (+5.3%)
• Avista (AVA) - From .33 to .343 (+4%)

March Dividend Income

• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) - $45.75
• Unilever (UL) - $18.18
• Exxon (XOM) - $49.64
• Compass Minerals (CMP) - $12.51
• Realty Income (O) - $19.85
• McDonalds (MCD) - $31.15
• Avista (AVA) - $19.87
• Flowers Foods (FLO) - $17.26
• Pepsi (PEP) - $30.21
• Travelers (TRV) - $7.32
• Powershares Muni Bond ETF (PZA) - $5.48
• Universal Health Trust (UHT) - $32.25

Total Dividends March 2016: - $289.49