First Quarter Review
Here we go, the first review of the Long Term Dividend Fund, now just over one quarter in age. I will go ahead and preface this by saying that this fund began on November 30th and I will be including December of 2016 in this quarter's review. How about that for an accounting slight of hand?
Before we begin let's review what I wanted to accomplish by the end of year 2017:
- Have a total portfolio worth of $12,000.
- Have a total gain of 10% or higher.
- Total Dividend Income of at least $450.
As you can see from the summary below I am well on my way to reaching my goals. With just under $7700 in my account as of April 1, this actually leaves me in a great place to meet first goal. I am currently allotting myself $1000 per month to put into my account, which actually will lead my to meeting my goal (barring any catastrophic collapses) by the first of August.
Moving on to goal number two (10% gain) I feel pretty solid about this as well. When I look at the current standing at just under 6% gain I am fairly confident that the continued addition of the dividend income will get me there. Obviously the market has been on fire and could take a turn for the worse (probably will here soon) but I still believe that many of my holdings are still undervalued in comparison to their peers.
Finally that leads me to my third goal of $450 in dividend income. This should be accomplished with continued additions of safe dividends. Now when you look at my current holdings the companies are not all dividend growers, in fact most of them do not have a long (if any) streak of dividend growth. I do maintain that all of my holdings were in a position to keep their dividend at the current levels for at least the entirety of 2017.
Portfolio Analysis
In the inaugural quarter I added seventeen positions, yes seventeen! This may seem like an absurd amount of companies but with the market's continued pace I felt safer diversifying with small amounts and adding to these positions at a later time if there came an opportunity. As the market kept rising, I kept diversifying, until I realized that I had some positions consisting of only 5 shares! This will get corrected a bit this next quarter.
Biggest Winner:
Banc of California (BANC) which I picked up at a steal when their was allegations of, let's call them accounting discrepancies, by a blogger. This was partially the reason for the small position, something I would be kicking myself for later as it ended up gaining almost 30%!
Biggest Loser:
Noble Corp PLC (NE) an off-shore drilling contractor that was and is still priced well under book value. This company I took a small position in and am glad I did as it has continue to drop out of favor with the market.
Biggest Holding:
8point3 Energy Partners (CAFD) which is a partnership formed between First Solar and SunPower. This yieldco has a large dividend and is in a very undervalued sector for the potential implications that solar has in the future. I do not believe that this will be a quick turn around for the industry and honestly think that CAFD is pretty fairly priced right now for the potential turmoil that may lay ahead with First Solar looking to vacate their position.
Going Forward
Going into the second quarter I will be looking to add positions to balance out my holdings, specifically in Healthcare, Consumer Goods, and Basic Materials. These sectors I believe still hold some very undervalued companies that will soon produce great returns. I also will be looking to add a dividend grower or two to give myself some more stability in terms of dividend income, that is if the market will finally let them come down in price a bit. That being said I am looking forward to the earnings season and the opportunities that it will bring!
Let me know what you think are current bargains and what you opinion is of my current holdings!