Sunday, March 25, 2012

Where My Portfolio is Headed

I'm currently sitting on 24 positions in my dividend growth portfolio.  The goal is to hold 30-35 companies representing all sectors.  What I notice right now is the following:

-I have nothing from the Materials sector
-I only have one position in Financials and Consumer Discretionary
-I need to beef up Health Care
-I need more foreign holdings

The plan is to slowly make new purchases to rectify these shortcomings.  I have 6 slots open before I reach 30 without counting spinoffs from COP and ABT.  My goal is up to 35 so I can include spinoffs and other future opportunities. Below is how I anticipate rounding out my portfolio, it is always subject to change depending on future developments.

1) Materials Sector - A few weeks ago I researched the sector and concluded APD would best fit my objectives.  With the recent div. increase APD now yields about 2.8% which makes it a good candidate for my strategy.  Unfortunately APD is kind of pricey, I can wait.  Alternate: CMP

2) Consumer Discretionary Sector - My only holding here is MCD.  The best candidate I could find to augment MCD is GPC which has over 50 years of dividend increases and a yield north of 3%.  GPC is also pretty pricey right now.  Alternate: None

3) Financial Sector - I am weary of this sector after the meltdown a couple years ago.  I'm sorry but I cannot trust large banks.  Who knows what they are holding or what they are doing.  I do, however, feel comfortable with small banks and foreign banks, namely Canadian.  I'm also open to insurance companies, there are many choices.  Right now I hold SBSI.  I'm thinking of adding AFL, BMO, BNS, or RY.  I need to look at Canadian banks in depth, but Canada is known to be a banking safe haven. 

4) Health Care Sector - Currently hold ABT and JNJ.  I haven't made a new purchase in this sector in quite a while.  I've looked at potential candidates for a third company and concluded MDT would be ideal.  It is currently yielding about 2.5%, I'll wait for a better yield.  Alternate: OMI

5) Foreign Stocks - I would like to increase my foreign holdings.  I only hold EIFZF (EIF on the Toronto Stock Exchange) from Canada.  The problem I usually encounter is two fold: I don't want my dividends withheld, and I want quarterly or monthly payments.  There aren't many options outside Canada and the U.K.  I am leaning toward Canadian banks listed above and also like UL and EMRAF. 

6) MLP - Oil pipelines come to mind for MLPs.  What ever company I choose, it will not be a pure natural gas pipeline (I already have that in BWP and TCP).  SXL and KMP have shown weakness as of late.  I was tempted to make a purchase the past few weeks.

I like the direction my portfolio is headed.  It's a good time to be in dividend stocks.

3 comments:

  1. Hi CI,

    I left a comment yesterday offering to answer any questions on Canadian banks (if you had them) since I work for one of the banks and also own them in my portfolio. The comment is not here today. In case you found it offencive - my apologies for posting it.

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  2. Hmm, I have never deleted a comment except for the very first one I made myself because it had my actual name in it(I want to stay anonymous). Weird. I have thick skin, don't worry about offending me.

    I will be looking at Canadian banks and will take you up on the offer. Probably later this weekend.

    Thanks for stopping by,

    CI

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  3. Sounds good. You can find me here http://averagecfa.blogspot.ca/

    ReplyDelete