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HomeInvestmentsMay 2014 Dividend Research

May 2014 Dividend Research

For the first time in a year or two I didn’t create a dividend watch list.  It wasn’t because I forgot, but rather, I decided to move my research to the beginning of the month rather than the middle so that gave me a gap in time.  Since my last update in March, I purchased:

  • 5 Shares of Chevron (CVX) on 3/19/2014 for $117.69 (with fees)
  • 6 Shares of Chevron (CVX) on 4/9/2014 for $119.07 (with fees)

I didn’t sell any positions.  I received $136.77 of dividends in March and $72.36 in April (I have decided to start sharing dividends received):

dividend income

As I have mentioned in the past this (along with every other) update takes a snapshot of certain metrics on a certain date.  This update was prepared on Sunday, May 4, 2014.  The shared spreadsheets below do not update automatically.

My Dividend Investment Portfolio Screening Criteria

  1. The company has paid increasing dividends for at least 20 years.
  2. The stock has to have a Price to Earning that is lower than their industry average. The Price to Earnings Ratio has to below 20 regardless of industry average.
  3. The Operating Margin has to be in line with the particular stock’s industry average. I want companies that are profitable as compared to their peers.
  4. Price to Book – Should be below 4, but if it isn’t it must be in line with industry average (or lower).
  5. This monthly update the Dividend Yield should be above 2.5% (changes whenever I update the list depending how many stocks I have left after the first 4 steps).

You may notice that some of the stocks aren’t eliminated if they barely fail a metric test. This is because I don’t want to eliminate a stock that is within a range that eyeball since I am taking a snapshot.

Tweaks Which occurred in June of 2013

Back in June 2013  I changed a few variables.  I have included them here just as a reminder to myself (the reminder will be removed in June of 2014).  

  • For the past few years I have focused on the the Dividend Champion list (before that I used the the Dividend aristocrat list). The dividend champion list is updated monthly. I have lowered the amount of years that a company has to have paid increasing dividends to 20 (from 25).
  • I eliminated any stock with a P/E over 30, then I lowered it to 25 and now I am at 20 regardless of it beats the industry average.
  • In the past P/B was “reasonable” but as lot of commenters pointed out this eliminates companies with naturally higher P/B. I should have listened to my readers earlier! As such, I now use the industry average for all stocks with a P/B over 4.
  • Yield is now my last criteria (as opposed to P/B).

Definitions of Metrics Used for my Dividend Investment Portfolio

Since not everyone knows what I am talking about above I have provided definitions (all quotes taken from Investopedia):

  • Dividend Champions are those dividend paying American companies that have increased their dividend for the past 25 years. Unlike the Dividend Aristocrat list they do not have to be part of the S&P 500. I have included a part of the dividend contenders list.
  • P/E is Price is “a valuation ratio of a company’s current share price compared to its per-share Earnings.”
  • Operating margin is “a measurement of what proportion of a company’s revenue is left over after paying for variable costs of production such as wages, raw materials, etc. A healthy operating margin is required for a company to be able to pay for its fixed costs, such as interest on debt.”
  • Price to book is a ratio used to compare a stock’s market value to its book value. It is calculated by dividing the current closing price of the stock by the latest quarter’s book value per share.
  • Dividend Yield a “Financial ratio that shows how much a company pays out in dividends each year relative to its share price. In the absence of any capital gains, the dividend yield is the return on investment for a stock. Dividend yield is calculated by dividing Annual Dividends per Share by Price Per Share”

Evan’s Note: I usually embed each stock screen below but I can’t figure it out with Google’s new spreadsheet.  Instead all the data is below:

 

First Stock Screen: PE Ratio

The first Stocks I their eliminated were those whose Price to Earnings Ratios were out of line with their industry average. I also eliminate companies with PEs above 20 regardless of their industry average.

Second Stock Screen: Operating Margin

Next I eliminated those stocks whose operating margin was not better than its peers in the industry. I want the companies I invest in to be more profitable than their peers. This way unless there is a huge problem with the industry they’d be less likely to stop doing something (i.e. paying increasing dividends) that they have been doing for the past 20+ years

Third Stock Screen: Reasonable Price to Book or in line with their Industry

I was looking for those stocks whose price to book value is low as to further evidence that it is undervalued. In an effort to limit the unintended consequence of choosing stocks with a lot of tangible or financial assets on the books I have started comparing the P/B to the industry average.

Fourth Stock Screen: Yield

While I am not ‘chasing yields’ I am attempting to create a dividend portfolio, so the next elimination step was to remove any stocks with a dividend yield of less than 2.5%. This is a moving target depending on how many stocks I have left to choose from. Sometimes I go for 2% sometimes 4%.

Remaining Dividend Aristocrats that I hope are near their 52 week low

For the next month I will be looking at the following stocks hoping some come near their 52 week low:
Name Symbol
AT&T Inc. T
Chevron Corp. CVX
Community Trust Banc. CTBI
Consolidated Edison ED
Eagle Financial Services EFSI
ExxonMobil Corp. XOM
Genuine Parts Co. GPC
McDonald’s Corp. MCD
MGE Energy Inc. MGEE
Northwest Natural Gas NWN
Tompkins Financial Corp. TMP
Arrow Financial Corp. AROW
Enterprise Bancorp Inc. EBTC
Meredith Corp. MDP
McGrath Rentcorp MGRC
People’s United Financial PBCT
First Financial Corp. THFF

 

Any feelings about these equities?

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Not a bad list to sort through. While I know you are not ‘chasing yields’ I would not discount stocks that yield 2.5% simply because you think that is too low. AFL is a perfect example of a stock that yields 2.3% but has a dividend growth rate of over 16% for the last 10 years. That kind of growth rate can double your dividend payments very quickly and does keep pace with inflation. With a low payout ratio and PE in this market it can be safe to assume that AFL will continue its dividend raises into the future. That’s all I’m saying… can’t discount a high quality stock just because current yield seems “too low.” Disclosure: Long AFL

    • I have a bunch of AFL bought in the 30s. I am not against a 2.3% yield but since I am buying once a month it feels like I need a list that at least eliminates some of the stock within the list.

      Something I have yet to include is payout ratio. I really need to add that into the screening process. Maybe next month.

  2. Nice list…there are quite a few companies you’ve mentioned that are on our watch list. Thanks for sharing.

    I think once you add payout ratio to the mix, you should be able to narrow the list down further and have an even more selective buy.

    Just a comment…you may want to consider stretching out your Google spreadsheet a bit. It would make it easier for your readers to view. 🙂

    • Payout Ratio is coming in June! If you see older posts I did make it much larger, but with the new google docs I am having trouble lol

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