Monthly Review: November 2013

November was busy as usual at work. The semester ends in about two weeks and I am looking forward to the break. On the investing front, I mentioned previously that by mid-month I completed the rollover and conversion of funds from two retirement plans with my former employer to my Roth IRA. This gave me a little over $25,000 in cash to invest, which I started to do during the month. In fact, it turned out to be one of the most active months in my investing history. Here is a review of what happened in November:

Dividends: I received a total of $240.96 in dividends from 9 stocks, as indicated on my Dividends page. This represents a 74.7% increase compared with the same month a year ago. My year-to-date dividend total is now $2,144.04, which is 30.0% 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):

• HRL: 17.6% increase, $12.00 more in annual dividend income
• BDX: 10.1%, $5.00

Dividend increases occurred for 32 of the 33 stocks in my portfolio in 2013, with the single exception being INTC. The mean and median dividend increases were 11.7% and 10.1%, respectively, with a total of 18 double-digit percent increases.

Contributions: I contributed $2,275 in new capital for investment, which was deposited in my taxable account. My year-to-date contribution total is $17,490, which is an average of $1,590 per month. I excluded the rollover money from my contribution total to avoid distorting the results, but it is included when calculating my portfolio's annualized return.

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

• 60 shares of KMI [R]
• 20 shares of CVX
• 55 shares of O [R]
• 30 shares of TGT [R]
• 40 shares of HCP [R]
• 55 shares of O [R] (again)

I was pleased that I had opportunities to invest some of my rollover money right away. Many REITs are attractively valued at the moment, so I started a position in O and averaged down on my position in HCP. The energy sector also has some good investment opportunities, so I increased my positions in KMI and CVX. Finally, an earnings-related sell-off gave me a nice entry point for TGT. These purchases will increase my annual dividend income by a whopping $554.00. My forward 12-month dividend total is $3,503.

Portfolio: My portfolio (taxable account and Roth IRA together) consists of 33 stocks and has a market value of $129,209.60 (including cash), which is a 29.3% increase over last month's value. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the increase is attributable to the influx of rollover money. The combined value of my 403(b) and 401(a) retirement plans is $4,287.60, all of which is invested in a low-cost S&P 500 index fund.

Seeking Alpha: I did not publish any new articles on the investing website Seeking Alpha. However, I earned $12.19 from page views of previous articles in November, increasing my year-to-date total to $1,140.68.

Looking Ahead: December will be great for dividends, thanks to many stocks in my portfolio paying out in that month. It is possible that a dividend increase (effective in 2014) will be announced soon by T; beyond that, I am not expecting any other announcements until the new year. I will likely contribute some new capital to my taxable account, although given my above-average expenses in December, it might be less than $2,000 (but enough for one purchase). I still have plenty of rollover money left to invest, so I will likely put more of it to work. I continue to like the valuations of REITs; in the interests of diversification I am looking at companies that I do not currently own (specifically, ARCP and VTR). In other areas, I would not mind increasing my positions in CVX, MCD, PM, or TGT. The only potential new position in my sights is IBM. As always, I will post about any purchases soon after they happen.