Monthly Review: October 2013

Here is a review of what happened in October:

Dividends: I received a total of $137.87 in dividends from 7 stocks, as indicated on my Dividends page. This represents a 10.7% increase compared with the same month a year ago. My year-to-date dividend total is now $1,903.08, which is 15.4% higher than my year-end dividend total for 2012.

Dividend Increases: I was pleased to see dividend increases announced for the following stocks (click on each stock to see my post about the increase):

• UTX: 10.1% increase, $5.40 more in annual dividend income
• ABT: 57.1%, $14.40
• KMI: 2.5%, $6.60
• VFC: 20.7%, $7.20

Note that it was the fourth increase from KMI this year, resulting in an overall increase of 13.9% in 2013. It was great to see the massive dividend increases from ABT and VFC. Thus far this year, there have been dividend increases for 29 of the 31 stocks in my portfolio. The mean increase has been 11.6%.

Stock Splits: It was rare to see stock splits announced for two stocks during the month (click on each stock to see my post about the split):

• VFC: 4-for-1 stock split, resulting in 40 shares instead of 10
• CNI: 2-for-1 stock split, resulting in 40 shares instead of 20

Stock splits do not really matter to me because they do not change the values of the stocks. For example, owning 50 shares of a stock trading at $100 per share is no different than owning 100 shares of the same stock trading at $50 per share after a 2-for-1 split; in each case, the total value of the shares is $5,000. However, I am aware that stock splits have positive psychological effects on some investors and can make options trading more convenient, so I generally view them as positive events.

Contributions: I contributed $2,800 in new capital for investment, which was divided between my taxable account and Roth IRA. My year-to-date contribution total is $15,215, which is an average of $1,522 per month. I have now maxed out my Roth IRA for 2013 (which has a contribution limit of $5,500), so my November and December contributions will go into my taxable account.

Transactions: I made two purchases during the month (click on the transactions to see my posts about them):

• 15 shares of XOM [R]
• 25 shares of WMT

I was pleased to double my position in XOM and start a position in WMT. These purchases will increase my annual dividend income by $84.80. My forward 12-month dividend total is $2,932.

Portfolio: My portfolio (taxable account and Roth IRA together) consists of 31 stocks and has a market value of $99,914.18 (including cash), which is a 7.3% increase over last month's value. The unusually large increase reflects strong capital gains and an above-average influx of new capital. As noted in a milestone post, my portfolio's value closed above $100,000 for the first time in late October.

Starting with this month's review, there is a new addition to my Portfolio page. Below the portfolio table is information about the retirement plans with my new employer, which I discussed in a previous post. The combined value of the 403(b) and 401(a) plans is $3,014.45, all of which is invested in a low-cost index fund that tracks the S&P 500. At some point in the future I will likely modify my fund allocations, but for the time being I have decided to keep things as simple as possible.

Seeking Alpha: This month I published two new articles on the investing website Seeking Alpha:

• Wal-Mart Stores: A Retail Heavyweight For My Dividend Growth Machine
• A Real Dividend Growth Machine: Q3 2013 Review

The WMT article was a bit of a flop, getting about 3,400 page views, which is the lowest of any article I have written. The quarterly review had a better reception, getting over 9,800 page views. I earned $157.48 from page views in October, pushing my year-to-date total past the $1,000 mark to $1,128.49. It is pretty amazing that I increased my income by over $1,000 by writing just 9 articles this year. Obviously, I could make more money by writing more often, but I do not want to fall into the high-frequency/low-quality trap that affects some authors. Moreover, I simply do not have much "spare time" outside of my job to write investing articles, over and above monitoring my investments and keeping this blog up-to-date. Thus, I will likely continue to average about one article per month.

Looking Ahead: November will yield a nice batch of dividends and result in a substantial year-over-year increase. I expect the last dividend increase effective in 2013 to be announced by BDX, leaving INTC as the lone stock in my portfolio that did not increase its dividend this year. As mentioned previously, I plan to continue holding INTC into early 2014. I also expect dividend increases for 2014 to be announced in November by HRL and T. I should be able to contribute around $2,500 in new capital to my taxable account in November, which will allow for either one large purchase or two smaller ones.

In a recent post I mentioned that I had initiated the rollover of money from my former employer's retirement plans to an IRA. The money from TIAA-CREF has already been deposited and I expect the money from Vanguard to be deposited within the next few days. Once that happens, I will arrange the conversion of the Rollover IRA into my existing Roth IRA, which I assume will not take long to do. Thus, the rollover-and-conversion process is still on track to be completed by mid-November, which will result in a sizable chunk of money becoming available for investment in my Roth IRA. I might put some of that money to work by the end of the month, but it will depend on whether I can find attractively valued stocks. It's slim pickings on my watch list at the moment.