Monday, October 1, 2012

October Shopping List


The stock market continues to fly high making it difficult to find quality dividend stocks trading at attractive valuations. The usual dividend stalwarts such as KO, ABT, WMT, CL, and CVX are no longer on sale, yet I have money to invest and will continue depositing more funds from my day job. I'm going to buy something, this is a list of what I'm currently looking at.

●Genuine Parts Company: I've had my eye on GPC for a while, but it never quite reached the entry price I had in mind. I came very close to pulling the trigger a few months ago when it went down to around $58. I like Genuine Parts because it would help diversify my portfolio into an industry that I'm currently lacking plus it has proven itself to be a shareholder friendly company over the years. After revisiting GPC, I determined a 3.3% entry yield would be a decent place to start an investment. I'm interested in this stock below $60, it's pretty close right now.
3.24% yield / 52% payout ratio / 56 years of increases / 15.93 P/E
 
●Kinder Morgan, Inc: KMI is an American success story that wasn't available to the public until last year. It's one of those stocks I feel will be worth more many from years now but is difficult to value due to its business model. If you plug the numbers into a dividend discount calculator you'll see that it's way undervalued because it has a nice current yield and is expected to grow dividends at a rapid pace. It kind of tells you it's almost too good to be true (I had the same sort of feeling when I bought shares of PM last year). This one will be a steal if they can continue raising dividends like they say. The dividend growth is the wild card here; I like KMI's chances seeing that they recently acquired El Paso Pipelines. With that in mind I'm going to target a 4.0% yield which means a price of $35. I plan to put this one in my ROTH and keep regular MLPs in my taxable account. I'd like to make the purchase soon to make sure I get the Q4 dividend, it should go ex later this month.
3.94% yield / 1,078% payout ratio (isn't meaningful) / 2 years of increases / 281.9 P/E
 
●Norfolk Southern: NSC took a nose dive the past few weeks after it cut its future guidance. This drop has been well documented by internet bloggers and has been a consensus buy across the board. Anytime I get can a 3% yield with NSC I'll consider adding to my position, but at the same time I don't want one stock dominating my portfolio and odds of retirement success (which is why I've leaving INTC off this list). Since I already have a sizable stake with this railroad, I'm going to target a price that will lower my cost basis. My next price point is at the 3.25% yield or $61.50/share since we don't really know when the bleeding will stop.
3.14% yield / 34% payout ratio / 11 years of increases / 10.90 P/E

My plans are constantly changing, but chances are I'll pick up one or two of these names this month. In fact I think I'll put in a limit order for KMI right now just in case.

10 comments:

  1. I've been watching NSC very closely as well. It is right up there with INTC. I may have to hold off on both as I'm looking at some rental properties I'm considering purchasing and would need the cash I have in the brokerage account. We shall see.

    Good luck on adding more NSC at 61.50. That would be sweet!

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    1. Haha I see NSC went up some the past few days, I don't know if it will go down all the way to $61.50 or not. I'll be ready though!

      Best of luck with the rental properties. Let us know how it turns out!

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  2. I'm looking to add some more CAT, MSFT and EMR to my portfolio. Hopefully Mr. Market will be nice and give us investors some hefty discounts in the coming weeks. I haven't bought any stocks since August, but don't mind sitting on cash for a bit longer.

    Anyways, good look on adding more positions to your portfolio. I'm sure 10 years from now we won't be complaining about the price we bought our investments at. Happy investing, cheers!

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    1. I've been eyeing EMR as well, another solid dividend champion. I don't follow CAT or MSFT, but I know both are popular dividend stocks. I can only track so many companies... I look at MSFT as being similar to INTC. Both seem to be unappreciated tech dividend stocks that kind of missed the boat in mobile but have an outside chance to make a splash. Personally I think INTC has a better shot but others might differ in opinion. Either way people aren't going to stop using computers anytime soon. I'm typing this on a computer that runs windows and has an Intel chip. Same thing at work.

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  3. CI,

    Nice watch list there.

    I'm definitely a fan of GPC. If it drops below $60, I'd also be interested.

    NSC would have to drop significantly for me to add, as the allocation to this position for me is already full. Same with INTC. It would have to drop significantly. But, I'd be open to buying more if that happens.

    KMI is a great purchase for the long-term, I feel. I don't know if I'll add any more as it hasn't dropped since I purchased it, but if it drops much further I'd also continue to add to my position.

    I'm not a huge fan of the business, but I did notice WM has been fairly weak lately. Some of the defense stocks like GD are also fairly cheap here. But they face risk from budget cuts. VOD looks strong. Also, SBSI still looks cheap.

    Best wishes!

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    1. I like all those companies you mention. I'm pretty excited about KMI and looked at it closely in the past. I waited to see what would happen with the dividends since it hasn't been publicly traded for very long. It would have been nice to buy shares in the 20's, its had a nice runup. I'm interested in KMP too, but for different reasons. Right now I'm trying to focus on higher DG stocks of which KMI has more promise.

      I don't know about the whole budget cut thing. It's true that the military is downsizing and that Afghanistan might end soon. Then again the media has been talking about budget cuts for a while and defense stocks are doing great. Anything we buy has some type of risk... Probably safer to not go overboard I guess.

      I'll most likely hold off from SBSI for a while, but I am curious to see if they'll do a special dividend this year. I wonder how big it'll be?

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  4. That's a nice selection of stocks.

    GPC: It is the first stock I ever bought and I remain a happy shareholder.

    NSC: Coincidentally, my next price point is very close to yours, although given the large size of my existing position, I would prefer to add to other positions or start new ones.

    KMI: It is a stock I am closely watching and hoping to buy at some point.

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    1. GPC is something I plan to own for a long time if it happens to reach a pricepoint I have in mind. Before I left for Korea I noticed there are NAPA autoparts dealers everywhere. When you actually look for it, you'll see (at least in Michigan). Genuine Parts is doing something right and becomes all the more obvious when you look at their track record of rewarding loyal shareholders.

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  5. Love the stock selection. Thanks for bringing GPC to my attention, I hadn't been paying attention to that one. It looks solid.

    I'm with you on NSC, and made two separate purchases last month.

    KMI is very high on my wishlist. I have a friend who works in pipeline distributions and he could not recommend this one more. Management also seems very committed to increasing the dividends over the next few years. I also like KMR since it can be had at a discount compared to KMP. Though the distribution is done through shares.

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    1. Yep KMI is what Richard Kinder himself owns. Aligning my interests with his seems like a good idea. It's a difficult stock to value, but I want in on this one. I can see the appeal of KMR, but it's not for me (I'd rather take distributions in cash). I like all the different options Kinder Morgan gives us.

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