Recent Buy

Last Friday was terrible! Every share on my portfolio except Realty Income Corp (O) was going down. This of course created a great opportunity to buy some shares!
So I bought 33 shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ).

Description:

"Verizon Communications Inc. (Verizon) is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Verizon is engaged in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, Government and wholesale customers. The Company operates through two segments: Wireless and Wireline. Verizon Wireless’s communications products and services include wireless voice and data services and equipment sales. Wireline’s communications products and services include voice, Internet access, broadband video and data, Internet protocol network services, network access, long distance and other services. As of June 30, 2014, the Company had 104.6 million retail connections, including 98.6 million retail postpaid connections. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in approximately 150 countries."

Verizon (VZ) has been increasing dividend for 10- years, according to Dividend Champion's list. And it is so called "Dividend Contender" (10-24 Straight Years Higher Dividends).

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) is currently trading at $45.56 with a P/E 9.46, EPS 4.82 and
Div/yield $0.55/4.83%. 

This purchase increases my annual dividend income by $72.60

Recently Verizon has been falling, because the company recently announced press release that Verizon fourth-quarter wireless margins will be hurt as phone discounts and price promotions led to a surge in new monthly subscribers. Also, AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said that rival promotions are luring away some customers and squeezing margins this quarter.

I believe that Verizon is a good company to own in long-term. And now you get a little bit of a discount.

I also updated my portfolio.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-08/verizon-says-wireless-margins-will-be-hurt-by-discounts.html

http://www.verizon.com/about/investors/

Dividend Income: November

Hi everyone!
Nothing new for me this month, just have been busy trying to find a new job. Still no luck.
But I have been on a few interviews so hopefully I can get a new job.

But it's good that my portfolio brings me some comfort, and some dividends.

I hope that I do get a job quickly so I can continue pushing forward towards my financial freedom. I can continue on that path even if I do not get a job soon, it is just so much slower. So anyway here is my Dividend Income for November.


Dividend Income: November

• Gjensidige Forsikring (GJFO) NOK 260 ($37.32) 
• AT&T Inc. (T) $36.80
• American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. (ARCP) $24.67
• Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI) $23.32
• Realty Income Corp. (O) $8.42

Total: $130.53

That's just awesome, my November was better than my whole 3th Quarter (JUL-SEP). It rely brings comfort for me that this actually works. And I see that at least I'm doing something right. 

What comes to my portfolio, currently if we look at performance the best stock that I hold is Nike Inc (NKE) it has grown quite much 42.12%. Nike pays quite low dividend Div/yield 0.28/1.13 and has a P/E 30.95 Which is quite high. Currently this is my only "growth" company on my portfolio. Nike also increased its quarterly dividend by 17% from $0.24 to $0.28. Which is awesome. Hah I just realized I have been misspelling Which few times.. looks quite funny "witch is awesome" heh.

My worst stock by performance is American Realty Capital Properties (ARCP) and we all know why.

It has actually come back little bit, so that's good. I'm currently down for around (18.95%), but I believe that it will someday comeback. But that is just a speculation.

Anyway! How was your month? any good?

thanks for reading.

Dividend Income: October & Recent Buy

We all have been shocked this week because of the American Realty Capital Corporation (ARCP) accounting mistakes. It is not something that usually happens, and it makes ARCP look like a less trustworthy company. Although I feel sad about what happened, I still bought more.

I bought 96 shares of American Realty Capital Corporation (ARCP)

This purchase increases my annual dividend income for around $92.16 



This purchase does not come without higher risk, and I did think these risk factors before my purchase. The biggest risk probably is that there is more accounting errors, and if there is ARCP will loose all that little bit of trust what they have left among the investors. But I also believe that the CEO and the Board Members have already looked through the files before making any announcements, and making sure that there isn't anything more that could surprise them, well that would be something I would do, I would make damn sure that there isn't anything else that could compromise the company, before announcing anything like that.

Also after listening the ARCP press conference (you can download it here http://78449.choruscall.com/dataconf/productusers/arcp/media/arcp141029.mp3 ) ARCP CEO David S. Kay did what a CEO had to do and what he should do, he increased my confidence and comfort according to this issue. If everything bad was here the biggest blow is towards the reputation of the company. Even if it is a speculation I trust that everything bad was here and the stock itself is a bargain, and will eventually rise.

Conclusion: I do plan to hold ARCP for a long time, even if there would be a blow on the 2013 AFFO, and even if the dividend would fall 50% it would still yield a decent 5% dividend annually at the current price. But I would like to remind all of you that ARCP currently may or may not have a higher risk, so if you are planning to buy it you must make your own judgement.

Dividend Income: October

• American Realty Capital Corporation (ARCP) $16.67
• Realty Income Corp. (O) $8.42
• Nike Inc (NKE) $4.56
• Laclede Group Inc (LG) $20.68
• The Coca-Cola Company (KO) $24.40

Total: $74.73

My monthly dividend income is starting to look an actual income instead of pennies, and I am really happy on this progress I have made. I will continue to purchase more good dividend businesses and increase my dividend income to be big enough to let me retire one day.

cheers!

Any comments on my ARCP purchase are welcome.

What's Going on? American Realty Capital Properties Inc (ARCP)

American Realty Capital Properties Inc (ARCP) traded down around 25% at the start of trade. So what is going on?

In short ARCP stated that: "You could/can no longer rely on our previously issued financial statements and we have made some changes to our accounting personnel."

From CNBC.com:

"The Audit Committee believes that this error was identified but intentionally not corrected, and other AFFO and financial statement errors were intentionally made, resulting in an overstatement of AFFO and an understatement of the Company's net loss for the three and six months ended June 30, 2014."

CNBC.COM

This is rely troubling news since I own 200 shares of ARCP.

10/29/2014 07:03 ARCP press release: American Realty Capital Properties Announces Non-Reliance on Previously Issued Financial Statements and Changes in Accounting Personnel Related reductions in adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) estimated to be $11,974,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and $10,869,000 for the three months ended June 30, 2014, reporting non-controlling interests on a gross basis Michael Sodo named Chief Financial Officer and Gavin Brandon named Chief Accounting Officer No impact on first quarter Net Income First and second quarter NAV, Revenues, Net Operating Income and real estate property metrics are unaffected for relevant periods Previously announced annual dividend rate is not affected by the estimated reductions in AFFO No impact on the Company's balance sheet or the assets managed for Cole Capital® non-traded REITs Previously announced transactions are unaffected, including the sale of Cole Capital to RCS and the sub-advisory agreement with ARC Global II
Company Release - 10/29/2014 07:03


NEW YORK, Oct. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. ("ARCP") (NASDAQ: ARCP) announced today the conclusion of its Audit Committee that the previously issued financial statements and other financial information contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal periods ended March 31, 2014 and June 30, 2014, and the Company's earnings releases and other financial communications for these periods, should no longer be relied upon. The Audit Committee based its conclusions on the preliminary findings of its investigation into concerns that were first reported to it on September 7, 2014. The Audit Committee promptly initiated an investigation, which is being conducted with the assistance of independent counsel and forensic experts. Senior management was informed of the preliminary findings of the investigation on October 24, 2014.

"The accounting issues are unacceptable and we are taking the personnel and other actions necessary to ensure that this does not happen again. As disappointed as I am, I do not believe that this impairs, in any meaningful way, what is important about our Company – the high quality and diversification of our real estate assets, the depth and strength of our management team, the strong and predictable cash flows from our leases, the strength of our balance sheet and the size of our market opportunity," said David S. Kay, Chief Executive Officer of ARCP.

Although the Board is disappointed in these developments, the Board has full confidence in the management team and staff. The Audit Committee, Board and management team are fully committed to resolving this matter in an expedited and thorough manner. The Board continues to support management's efforts surrounding the simplification of the business, enhancements in transparency, and improvements to the predictability of our earnings, all with the goal of enhancing long-term value.

The Audit Committee's investigation conducted to date has not uncovered any errors in the consolidated financial statements (prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP) for the three months ended March 31, 2014. However, based on the preliminary findings of the investigation, the Audit Committee believes that the Company incorrectly included certain amounts related to its non-controlling interests in the calculation of adjusted funds from operations ("AFFO"), a non-U.S. GAAP financial measure, for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and, as a result, overstated AFFO for this period. The Audit Committee believes that this error was identified but intentionally not corrected, and other AFFO and financial statement errors were intentionally made, resulting in an overstatement of AFFO and an understatement of the Company's net loss for the three and six months ended June 30, 2014.

Based on the preliminary findings of the investigation, the Company has identified the potential adjustments shown on the attached financial table to the Company's reported net loss in accordance with U.S. GAAP for the three and six months ended June 30, 2014 and to reported AFFO for the three months ended March 31, 2014 and the three and six months ended June 30, 2014. The Company notes that, in calculating AFFO for the first quarter of 2014, the Company reported non-controlling interests on a net basis, while in the second quarter of 2014, as permitted, the Company reported non-controlling interests on a gross basis (which it will continue to do in calculating AFFO in future periods). The weighted average number of shares used in calculating AFFO differs depending on whether the net or gross method is used (but does not change for purposes of calculating net loss per share in accordance with U.S. GAAP). The investigation is ongoing and there can be no assurance that the potential adjustments set forth in the attached financial table will not change based upon the final results of the investigation, and any such change could be material.

The Audit Committee has indicated that nothing has come to its attention that leads it to believe that there are any errors in the Company's previously issued audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 contained in the Company's 2013 Form 10-K. However, the Audit Committee has expanded its investigation to encompass the Company's audited financial statements for this period in light of the fact that the Company's former Chief Financial Officer and former Chief Accounting Officer had key roles in the preparation of those financial statements.

Management does not expect this matter to impact any previously announced transactions, including the sale of Cole Capital to RCS Capital Corp. (NYSE: RCAP), which the Company expects to be completed next week and the sub-advisory agreement with ARC Global II. The identified potential adjustments would not affect the Company's compliance with the financial ratios in its debt covenants.

The Company also announced that effective immediately, Michael Sodo has been named Chief Financial Officer of the Company, replacing Brian Block. Mr. Sodo will report directly to David Kay and the Audit Committee. Mr. Sodo previously served as Senior Vice President, Director of Financial Reporting and Treasury. Mr. Sodo joined ARCP from Capital Automotive where he served in a number of roles of increasing seniority, most recently as SVP, Director of Financial Reporting and Treasurer. Gavin Brandon will serve as Chief Accounting Officer, replacing Lisa McAlister and reporting to Mr. Sodo. Mr. Brandon previously served as a Senior Vice President of Accounting where he oversaw acquisition accounting and property on-boarding, lease accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable and process treasury services. Mr. Block and Ms. McAlister have resigned effective immediately.

In light of the preliminary findings of the Audit Committee's investigation, the Company is re-evaluating its financial reporting controls and procedures. The Company intends to make the necessary changes to its controls and procedures to remediate any control deficiencies that are identified through the Audit Committee's investigation.

The Company will work with the Audit Committee and the Audit Committee's independent advisors to determine the adjustments required to be made to the Company's previously issued financial statements, including the calculation of AFFO, as expeditiously as possible. Upon completion of this process, which could identify further required adjustments in addition to those discussed above, the Company will restate prior financial statements and amend its prior periodic filings to the extent required and update its earnings guidance at that time.

The Company will file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2014 after the amended filings have been made.

Source and Potential Adjustments: http://ir.americanrealtycapitalproperties.com/file.aspx?IID=4280143&FID=25831896

CNBC.com  Faber Report: ARCP accounting errors: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000325564

It is hard to make any conclusions about this matter, since you cannot be sure how much it will affect the company's future financials, is all the bad news here or will there be more to come? 

Let's look at the positive things now or things that can be considered positive after that news.

- The bad accounting personnel has gone.

- The company says on the press release: No impact on first quarter Net Income First and second quarter NAV, Revenues, Net Operating Income and real estate property metrics are unaffected for relevant periods
- Dividend: Previously announced annual dividend rate is not affected by the estimated reductions in AFFO

- No impact on the Company's balance sheet or the assets managed for Cole Capital® non-traded REITs

Also Regarding these issues, ARCP's new CEO, David Kay noted that:


"The accounting issues are unacceptable and we are taking the personnel and other actions necessary to ensure that this does not happen again. As disappointed as I am, I do not believe that this impairs, in any meaningful way, what is important about our Company the high quality and diversification of our real estate assets, the depth and strength of our management team, the strong and predictable cash flows from our leases, the strength of our balance sheet and the size of our market opportunity,"

Obviously this will affect trust between ARCP and investors and there is a lot of fear on this stock right now, but for my point of view it is too late to sell, and I rather sit on this one and wait for what's coming next. If they are able to keep the current dividend ongoing then I have no doubts that this company is able to move forward. So I'll just sit back and wait for new news and hope for the best.

cheers!

Recent Buy

Have been busy writing job applications since I lost my job, this is a big setback for me but it should not keep my for fighting towards my financial independence.

I can't believe how lucky I was, what comes to my timing on my selling frenzy. Just few weeks after that the stocks plummet, I did make some buys before the dip, but I still had some money left to be invested.




So I bought 12 shares of Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX)


Chevron (CVX) is currently trading $114.40 | it has a P/E of 10.94 | EPS 10.48 | Market cap 214.22B and Dividend/Yield 1.07/3.73%

This purchase will add $51.36 to my annual dividend income, with current dividend and yield.

Chevron Corporation (Chevron) manages its investments in subsidiaries and affiliates and provides administrative, financial, management and technology support to the United States and international subsidiaries that engage in fully integrated petroleum operations, chemicals operations, mining activities, power generation and energy services. Upstream operations consist primarily of exploring for, developing and producing crude oil and natural gas; processing, transportation and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas; transporting crude oil by international oil export pipelines; transporting, storage and marketing of natural gas, and a gas-to-liquids project. Downstream operations consist primarily of refining crude oil into petroleum products; transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment and rail car, and manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses and fuel and lubricant additives.


Even with the falling oil price I think Chevron is a good long term hold and brings good value for my portfolio. Chevron (CVX) has increased dividend for 27 consecutive years, has a low payout ratio around 40% and 10 yr. DGR of 10.6 (DGR=Dividend Growth Rate).

If you are interested, here is some articles about Chevron (CVX)

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2572995-time-to-buy-chevron

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2092893-8-reasons-to-buy-chevron

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2532975-chevron-value-stock-with-a-price-target-of-150

I updated my portfolio to represent the current changes.

I do hope I'll be able to get some kinda work soon, so it won't hurt my compounding too much, but in meanwhile I may have to look things more carefully and I have to save some cash for bad times. So i have to use some consideration there.

Conclusion: Long CVX 

cheers.

Tough Times

I'm sorry guys, haven't been able to write for few weeks now. This is because I did loose my job.
Our company did not perform so well in this tough market so me and few others got their contract terminated. After 9 years of service this is how you get paid. So never stop kissing your boss's ass. But perhaps its a good thing to move forward.

So i have been busy trying to get another job, but no luck yet. This may have to do with the fact that Finland in overall does not have performed any good and a lot of people have lost their jobs lately. So there are Lot's of people applying the same jobs, so getting a job is not a guaranteed by any means.



I'm not happy about loosing my job, but that is not the worst thing that bothers me. Because I do get payed by our social security system, it's not as good that I would get by going to work but it's something you can live with. The thing that I hate the most, is that this is a huge setback to my compounding. I did some math and with social security calculators and  I wont be able to invest so frequently as I have get used to. I will maybe be able to invest once every three months, and that is not what I'm looking for. So i have been constantly applying every job that I think I could do, and even to some that are not so.. how you would say.. "sweet".

I have still 2 months left on my contract, and I'm not sure do I invest those or should i just save them. Because I cannot be sure when do I get new job or do I get a job at all. But I will probably just have to have some faith for my self and invest some of that money. And the market have just created few good deals so it is hard to me to pass these.

So wish me luck as I go write some more applications.
Cheers.



picture: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ By iosphere

Dividend Income: September & Other

A lot of changes happened to my portfolio at September, lot of sales and lot of buys. I'm currently very pleased by this portfolio, it just feels a lot better and more dividend oriented, after my sales. And I still have some money left from the sales, also my payday just passed. After i payed all my bills for the future month I ended having little bit less money that I have get used to. This is because i had to pay my Diesel tax for half year, welcome to Finland. But with the money left at my sales and few bucks from the monthly pay check, is enough for me to make a small purchase during this month if I like to do so.

On other events Euro (€) has been falling quite a bit recently, for me this means that I get less Dollars ($) When I change my Euros (€). Falling Euro (€) is a good for someone and bad for others. For example some EU companies that have all or most of their cash coming from other than Euro (€) countries, will get a little bit boosted earnings, as they receive more when they change, an example from USD to EUR, they will get more Euros (€), and that brings little bit bigger earnings. Other way around off course is not that good. I have a small fear that Euro will soon be just 1 USD, even if this would bring my current USD holdings bigger Euro value, in long term if I plan to buy more USD shares it will be a negative thing for me and hurt my long term value. I don't want to bet too much on these currency changes because they are usually more speculations than facts.

Okay back to the main subject: Dividend Income.

On September I received 2 dividend payments from:

Unilever N.V. (UN)  $23.05

&

American Realty Capital Properties Inc. (ARCP) $9.33

My total third (3) quarter dividend income was $104.43 

cant retire yet.. damn

Overall I'm pleased with this progress, as i start to see my dividend income dropping every month, I can all ready see that my next month is looking promising. I'm also very eager to see how this develops next year.

I also Updated my portfolio to represent its current value, and I updated my dividend income sheet.

How was your September? Any Dividends? Does EUR/USD worry you?

picture:By cooldesign http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Recent Buy

Today i was fortunate enough to add an another company to my portfolio. After my resent selling tsunami, I have been moving more towards the portfolio that I wanna hold on, for longer period of time.



Let's play a little game, try to guess what company this is.

1. Moves about 1.3 Bcf per day of CO2
2. Liquids terminal capacity of 125 MMbbl
3. Transports about 2.3 MMbbl of petroleum products per day
4. Only oil sands pipeline serving Canada’s West Coast,moving crude from Alberta to British Columbia and Washington
5. Dry bulk terminals store and handle more than 100 million tons per year of materials
6. Owns an interest in or operates approximately 80,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals

Yes it's Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE: KMI)

Kinder Morgan is the largest midstream and third largest energy company (based on enterprise value) in North America.

I bought 53 shares of Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE: KMI) this stock is currently trading at: 

• Price: $38.47
• P/E: 33.33
• Dividend: $0,43 (Quarterly)
• Yield: 4.47%
• EPS: 1.15  

This purchase will add approximately $91.16 to my annual dividend income.

Recently Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI) Announced following.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 10, 2014-- Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: KMP), Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (NYSE: KMR) and El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (NYSE: EPB) today announced that KMI will acquire all of the outstanding equity securities of KMP, KMR and EPB.

• KMP unitholders will receive 2.1931 KMI shares and $10.77 in cash for each KMP unit. This results in a price of $89.98 per unit, a 12 percent premium based on the Aug. 8, 2014, closing prices. This is a premium of 11.4 percent based on the July 16 closing price reference date used by the parties during the negotiation of the transaction.
• KMR shareholders will receive 2.4849 KMI shares for each share of KMR. This results in a price of $89.75 per share, a 16.5 percent premium based on the Aug. 8, 2014, closing prices. This is a premium of 16 percent based on the July 16 reference date used by the parties in the negotiation. The parties negotiated consideration for KMR shares equal to the consideration for KMP units, using the July 16 reference date.
• EPB unitholders will receive .9451 KMI shares and $4.65 in cash for each EPB unit. This results in a price of $38.79 per unit, a 15.4 percent premium based on the Aug. 8, 2014, closing prices. This is a premium of 11.2 percent based on the July 16 reference date used by the parties in the negotiation.
• Both KMP and EPB unitholders will be able to elect cash or KMI stock consideration subject to proration.

After this announcement i got rely interested about the futures of this company, so i started to learn more, I did all ready have my eye on it before few times, but I didn't have the capital to make the purchase back then and that is too bad, since after this announcement every stock on KMI enterprise got more valuable, and i did not wanna pay too much premium, because of the merger. No the stocks have been settling for a while and I decided to make the move and bought it.

What comes to dividend, it just gets more interesting. Kinder Morgan's merger and announcement about dividend plan means a $2/share dividend in 2015 growing to $3.22/share in 2020. This would mean above 8% yield on today's price, and that kind of dividend growth is likely to bring strong capital gains. Will be interesting to see, if they are able to meet with these goals. Now i can just sit back and hope for the best.

thanks for reading.

photo: http://freedigitalphotos.com/ By cuteimage

Recent Buy

After my recent portfolio changes, I decided it is time to go shopping again. And after going through several companies and rethinking about the direction of my next investment, I decided to get some more of those monthly dividend payers. As I'm moving towards more dividend growth investing type of portfolio and getting those little monthly dividends every month, It just feels rely good to receive those monthly payments, and i don't have to do anything.



After going through different corporations, I made my purchases:

88 Shares of American Realty Capital Properties Inc (NASDAQ:ARCP) total value of $1092
This increased my position in this company from 112 shares to 200 shares. And this purchase will increase my one year dividends for around $84,48. Now the total cash i get every month is around $16.

"American Realty Capital Properties, Inc., is a real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company owns and acquires single-tenant, freestanding commercial real estate primarily subject to medium-term net leases with credit quality tenants."

Well that wasn't it i also bought 46 shares of  Realty Income Corp (NYSE:O) it seems that this company can be found on almost every dividend bloggers portfolio, with the decent yield of 5.37%
it looks like to be a good catch. Also the company is paying the monthly dividends, and with 530 dividends payed and 77 total dividend increases since 1994 it feels quite good buy. This purchase increases my annual dividend stream by $99,36.

"Realty Income Corporation (Realty Income) is an equity real estate investment trust (REIT). The Company is engaged in acquiring and owning freestanding retail and other properties that generate rental revenue under long-term lease agreements (primarily 10 to 20 years). The Company has in-house acquisition, leasing, legal, credit research, real estate research, portfolio management and capital markets."

There was few other companies that also took my attention, one of them is Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) and other was Prospect Capital Corporation (NASDAQ:PSEC) both of them offers quite a generous monthly dividend, Whitestone 8.18% and Prospect 13.03%. Both stocks seems to carry little bit of more risk than ARCP or O but they could pay off, these companies could be something you should look into, if you fancy monthly dividends like I do.

Got some cash left after my stock dumping frenzy and after these two purchases, will be looking into more companies that could join in to my portfolio. I will update my portfolio at the end of the month. So till the next time: cheers!

photo: http://freedigitalphotos.com/ By cuteimage

Recent Sale

I spend around 5 hours on last Sunday to rethink my positions in different companies. What comes to investing or portfolio management, for me it means Risk Management. Managing your risk, by allocating and diversifying your portfolio, it is one of the main thing what comes to investing that everyone should do. This of course varies by what kinda of investing tactic or strategy you choose. There are many different tactics and strategies what comes to investing and I cant list them all, because I don't know or understand even half of them, for me it is enough to understand the principal of trading and dividend compound investing.

 So I had around $7000 invested in different companies that i consider to be "growth" companies. For me that was way too much compared to my portfolio size (around $32,000). So I ended up to close some of my positions and move that money towards safer dividend investing and that way to reduce my overall risk. I'll list these companies below with some information why I did sell them and so on.


First I closed my position of Starbucks (SBUX) This company did not produce anything for me, it have been trading close to flat around a year for now, I did get some dividends from it but because of my low $ position it was not ideal to keep. I did get pretty much same amount that I went in with, if you calculate the dividends.

Second I sold my position on Coloplast A/S (COLO-B) this trade was more like i was looking for, my shares gained around 15% increase in around 1 year period, did make a few bucks there. Overall i think it is a good company but lower dividend, high P/E got me turned away, also I may buy into similar company and I don't want to keep two positions in this sector.

Third was Novo Nordlisk A/S (NOVO-B) Recently Novo Nordlisk gained a big upscale because few of  its drugs got passed in EU, so shares soared quite a bit, so i decided this would be a good place to exit, Novo also gives a small dividend yield around 1.16% with current price, that is too low for me. I think the company will go higher but because of my small position it would not give me so huge boost, and i felt the risk could be higher moving on. I decided that its better to choose steady dividend income, than a change that it may go higher. I gained around 45% increase for my original investment plus one dividend.

Fourth was China Ming Yang Wind Power Group LTD (MY) This was one of my riskiest investments, but it did pay off. Need to make some calculations but i made around 70% profit on this one so it was rely good for me, now i don't expect to see these kind of numbers everyday. I got lucky, I read the right pages at the right time and made my move, nothing else.

Fifth was Yahoo! (YHOO) this sucked, I made my investment last week and I was counting on increase because of the Alibaba IPO, and i was wrong.. it happens. This is one of those things you can learn from and grow as an investor. I did what i learned from one video I saw on the net. One of the big hedge fund managers who had make millions of dollars on their career, he sad something like this:" if you take a position and it will go wrong way what you were counting on, you just need to fuc**ng sell it and not stay on it and risk loosing more money. You need to suck it up and take your losses and move on" And that's what i'm doing.

Overall i'm looking good positive numbers on these trades, now i have a bunch of cash that can be invested in new companies. I will updated my portfolio when i have more time in my hand.


Any thoughts ? Did i make right choice? 



picture: http://freedigitalphotos.net/ By Stuart Miles

Recent Buy

Few days ago i made a small purchase of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO). There has been a lot of talk about this company recently, mostly because of the stake it owns at Alibaba (NYSE: BABA).
At the recent IPO of Alibaba Yahoo is looking for around $5.1 billion after tax and they still own around 16% of Alibaba. Yahoo has stated that it will use this cash to improve it's business and distribute around half of the cash to shareholders due dividend's or share buybacks. By improving business, rumor says that Yahoo will most likely make an acquisition, Lot's of talk towards AOL Inc (NYSE: AOL).

I bought 31 shares of Yahoo Inc (YHOO) worth around $1320

I also updated my portfolio.

There also has been lot of talk about Yahoo being a target towards an activist investors, such as Carl Icahn or Bill Ackmann.

John Brown at CNBC sad:

“I think this is bait for an activist. I actually think this is the number one target now for activist shareholders, hedge funds, in America. There is absolutely no way, in my opinion, they’re going to allow this management team, this board of directors, to take $6 billion, do a buyback, and then have another free $6 billion in cash to experiment; it’s not going to happen,”

This would not be new situation for Yahoo. At 2011 Dan Loeb began taking a huge stake at Yahoo somewhat around 60 million shares, got a seat at company's board, did his thing and after two years later he sold majority of his position, gave up his seat and walked away with around $1 billion profit.


Yahoo needs to do some smart moves from now on to convince the investors. There are a lot of different scenarios for this one, and no one rely knows how it plays out. I'm eager to see what is going to happen, will some big buck investor come and make a big buy, and how all the money will be spend. Also the upscale could come from a success of Alibaba as Yahoo owns around 16% of Baba, So there are definitely a lot going on.

Some websites states that Yahoo is currently undervalued, some says it comes crashing down since there is not a lot of trust towards the Yahoo's core business and the management team, but you rely cant tell.

As a dividend investors point of view, this might not be an ideal deal. Since Yahoo does not pay dividend at all, except the current situation that they might pay a dividend or do a share buyback, if the do pay full amount of dividend (half of $5.1 b) we should be looking for around $2.50 more or less.

One smart man once sad that" It's better to be in the game, than out of it." So I'm in and next few weeks will tell me more what I'm going to do about this position.
And if it's not playing out well for me then at least i can say they have a hot CEO.

What do think about this? Did you buy Yahoo or Alibaba?

Thanks for reading
Anha

Company Review: Munich Re (MUV2)

 On my last post i did an review of a company called Allianz SE (ALV) to add some comparison i decided to do another review of an yet another insurance company.


Muenchener Rueckversicherungs Gesellschaft AG in Muenchen is a Germany-based holding company engaged in reinsurance and insurance business fields. The Company diversifies its operations into reinsurance, primary insurance, Munich Health and Asset management. The Reinsurance business comprises five divisions: Life; Europe and Latin America; Germany, Asia Pacific and Africa; Special and Financial Risks, and Global Clients and North America. The business covers a range of products from traditional reinsurance products to solutions for risk assumption. The Company's primary insurance activities are combined into the ERGO Insurance Group (ERGO) and offers direct insurance, life, property-casualty, health, legal expenses and travel insurance products. It covers the Company's international health reinsurance business and health primary insurance outside Germany and engages the risk management services. The Asset management business handles the investment activities of Munich Re and ERGO.

Munich RE is a reinsurance company, this means that other insurance companies moves some parts of the responsibilities of an insurance to Munich RE. In other terms Munich RE sells coverage to insurers such as Allianz SE or Axa SA to help them shoulder claims. 

Munich RE (MUV2) is currently trading at €153.30 with an P/E 7.73 | EPS 19.84 | Market Cap 26.51B | Div/Yield €7.25/4.73%

Dividend And Dividend Policy

Dividend policy is designed to give shareholders an appropriate share in the company’s success. The minimum amount set aside for the dividend is 25% of the consolidated result. The actual basis, however, is the current dividend level of €7.25 per share, which we will strive not to undercut in future dividend payments, depending on the actual results and the capital position. There have not been any cuts in dividend since 1970.

Dividend has been on a increasing trend

In 11 year period dividend has increased from €1.25 to €7.25  this represent an increase of 480% and a average increase of 43.66% annually. But if you make same calculation on a 5 year period the increase is only 26.08%  (€5.75 to €7.25) an average yearly increase of 5.21%.

On other hand the company also buys back shares. In 11 year period the total share amount has decreased from 229,580,233 to 179,341,212 that's around 21% less shares out there than 11 years ago. 

The dividend payout ratio (graph below).

Shareholders

One of the cool facts about this company and a one thing that makes it just a little bit more interesting is that, one of the biggest shareholder in this company is Mr. Warren E. Buffet.

¹ 11.6% of the share capital are attributable to Warren E. Buffett and are held by several companies of his group (Berkshire Hathaway Inc., OBH Inc., National Indemnity Co.). According to the notification dated 15.10.2010 the investment serves the purpose of making trading profits and not of implementing strategic objectives.

Full Disclosure:

The stock itself have not moved at all during this year, this makes me wonder what's going on. So i did my research and it seems that there is some pressure in the industry right know and it looks like there is not going to be any relief anytime soon. As i was scouting around the world wide web i found this and it quite frankly tells me not to buy this one yet, even the head line says it: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-03/worst-market-in-memory-to-weigh-on-reinsurance-rates.html But on other hand, Mr Warren Buffet seems to hold on to it. Could this stock be one of those "buy when others don't want to", it could. So the stock haven't moved but the good dividend yield with a good low payout ratio and the words on the company's website under Outlook 2014 that says "Uplifting annual guidance after strong half-year performance" plus share buy backs, it is a company that deserves to end up on my watchlist, and i may buy it before the dividend release if the price is right.

thanks for reading!

What do you think of this review? Any help? Have you been watching insurance companies lately?

sources: http://www.munichre.com/en/homepage/index.html  | http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-03/worst-market-in-memory-to-weigh-on-reinsurance-rates.html

Company Review: Allianz

I'm always on the lookout for new companies, where I can put my little capital to produce income for long or short term. Stocks or companies that get to my portfolio will go through my watchlist. My list contains several companies that i may buy when the time and the price is right.

Allianz  (ALV)

Allianz SE, headquartered in Munich in Germany, is among the top 15 financial groups in the world. It was founded in 1889. Allianz was involved in deal with CommerzBank in 2008-09 and currently holds a stake of about 14% in the bank. With approximately 148,000 employees worldwide, the Allianz Group serves over 83 mn customers in more than 70 countries. On the insurance side, Allianz is the market leader in the German market and has a strong international presence. In fiscal 2013 the Allianz group achieved total revenues of approximately 110.0 bn euros. Allianz is one of the world's largest asset managers, with third-party assets of 1,361 bn euros under management at the year end 2013.

As on December 31, 2013 source: http://allianz.com

Insurance Operations

Allianz offers a wide range of insurance and asset management products and services to its customers. Insurance operations such as Property-Casualty and Life/Health insurance. Allianz is a leading property-casualty insurer globally and rank among the top five in the life/health insurance business. Most of the insurance markets are served by local Allianz companies while selected business lines are run globally such as Global Corporate Customers, Credit Insurance, Assistance Services, Worldwide Care, Global Automotive and Reinsurance.

Asset Management

With approximately 1,770 billion euros assets under management, Allianz is one of the largest asset managers in the world managing assets with active investment strategies. Asset Management business has been split in to two investment management businesses, PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI). Both units operate under Allianz Asset Management (AAM). Particular strongholds include the United States, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Asia-Pacific region. As of December 31, 2013, Allianz managed 1,361 billion euros of third-party assets of which the share from institutional clients amounted to 63% while 37% came from retail clients.

Allianz Strengths 

Allainz strengths as listed at company's fact sheet.

• Leading Property and Casualty insurer globally
• Top 5 in Life insurance business globally
• Worldwide leader in credit insurance
• One of the leading Asset Managers globally
• Strong ratings: Standard & Poor's: AA | Moody's Aa3 | A.M. Best A+
• Combined ratio 2013 94.3% and Solvency ratio 2013 182%

Revenue & Operating profit Allianz Group 2013

Within a five year period (2009-2013)Allianz Operating profit has increased from EUR 7 bn to EUR 10.1 bn increase of 44,28% and Shareholders equity EUR 40.1 bn to EUR 50.1 bn increase 25,25%

 

Dividend And Dividend policy

Dividend policy:

"Within the scope of our results and the need for adequate capitalization we aim to provide our shareholders with an attractive dividend. Our dividend policy is one of continuity. In addition, we endeavor to return excess capital that is not needed to finance growth to our shareholders, either by way of a dividend payout or by buying back shares. As a rule, the actual dividend proposal is announced on publication of the results for the fiscal year."

Between 2003 to 2013 Allianz has increased their dividend from €1.50 to €5.30 this represent an increase of 253,33% average of 25.33% yearly.

Pricing 

Xetra:

Allianz SE (ALV) is currently trading at EUR 133.05, P/E 9.97, EPS 13.34 and Div/yield €5.30/3.98% With current dividend and EPS the payout ratio is 39,73%

In the U.S. Allianz shares are traded in the over-the-counter (OTC) market via American Depositary Receipts (ADR). The Allianz ADR are quoted on OTCQX under the ticker symbol AZSEY.

Disclosure: I will ad Allianz SE to my watchlist to follow the company's future development.
 

How about you? found anything lately? | How do you like my review? Are you planning to invest European companies?
 

Source: https://www.allianz.com/ | google.com/finance

How to save on Groceries

Living a frugal life comes with saving everywhere you can. And what is a better place to start saving some money than food. There are millions of websites about this subject. Many of them are just like "save money on food 50 top tips"  or "this is how you save on groceries" anyway I'm just going to tell you how i do it nothing less and nothing more. This is just my way of doing it.

Shopping list?

- I never ever ever make a shopping list when i go to my local supermarket, even though there are hundreds of websites that make these "tips" the first thing they mention is "make a shopping list" and everyone tells that you save money that way, i say there is no point doing that if you know:

1.  What you need.
2.  How much is the average price of that item.
3.  How much is that item worth. 
4.  You know/remember what you got back home.
5.  You know how to cook with an improvised touch.

Going to store 

My shopping trip is just a basic routine, i go to our local big supermarket that i know has a good discounts from time to time and have cheaper than average priced common food products like milk and good variety of veggies, meat, bread and so on.  

Going to walk you through my basic shopping routine now.

So i got to my local supermarket, big up shopping basket and head to veggies section, i check if there is any discount on lettuce, cucumber, tomato etc. I pick some up if they are good priced i try to buy seasonal products because these are the cheapest. At this point i all ready know what i wanna eat tomorrow so i pickup some potatoes these are usually cheap or fairly good priced depending on season 0.78€/kg to 2€/kg. So i pick some up. Then i head to get some milk usually 2 liters 0.90€/l and check if there is a yogurt on discount if not i will head on. Meat and Fish section, i first check if there is any discounts on either one of these, fish is usually expensive to my taste 10-20€ / kg depending on the type of the fish. No fish today, then the meat. There is a minced beef discount today so i buy 800g (2.95€ / 1 package 400g) then i head to buy some bread, i buy one package of rye bread 1.95€ this last around 1 week. Then cheese this one is quite expensive also, don't have cheese home so  i buy 1 kg of cheese for 6.95€ its a big back.

Everything else that i need to make me some awesome food i already have at home. I try to stack up as much as i think is reasonable amount, example i buy pasta, rice, canned stuff (crushed tomatoes, pineapple, tuna etc) on discounts and i buy them a lot, last time i bought like 8 packages of pasta (500g) because of a good discount and because these preserve a long time.

The total trip cost was 18.05€ 

There is big variety of different type of meals you can make with potatoes, minced beef and a can of crushed tomatoes. Now its only up to my skills how do i wanna prepare my meal, quickly i can figure out 4 to 5 different ways.

Usually my food costs for a month around 100-180€ (depending do i stack on discounts or not) and that feed 2 people. (me and my gf)

I often buy stuff like toilet paper, soaps, laundry detergent etc on other shop because these things are cheaper there, and a buy big backs on discount. There was this very good deal of toilet paper few moths ago i i think i bough like 8 big package of toilet paper that lasts quite some time and i saved around 16 Euros, that's almost the same amount i bough food with. 

How to save on Groceries

• Learn how to cook with an improvised touch, this helps you quickly figure out what to buy while you are in store and see all the stuff that are on discount today.
• You have to know an average price of that item to shop frugality and how much that item is worth, so you don't pay too much. Sometimes the shops try to Trick you! if it says Discount 3.50€ only today buy now, and store close by sells same item 2.95€ all the time, then you can't rely call it a discount can you? So knowing the average prices helps you decide is it a discount or not.
• Know what you have at home comes always handy so you don't buy too much of something that spoils easily.
• Buy big packs of items that don't spoil easily or doesn't spoil at all such as toilet paper.
• Stack some rice, pasta, canned food.
• Freeze stuff and buy frozen packs of veggies that preserves long time.
• Go to buy your groceries when it fits your other plans, save some gas money or just walk.
• Grow your own veggies and herbs. I do this summer times and i try the leftover herbs and put them in jars for use in the winter time.
• Cook big pile of food once you start cooking, i usually make food for three or four days.
• Make a veggie meal vegetables are usually cheaper than meat.

How to you save in groceries? Any good deals lately? Did this post help you?

Thank you for stopping by.

picture By Ambro http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Goal Archieved!

Yesterday i completed one of my goals for year 2014. I reached market value above $30,000.
This is awesome! Achieving these goals is very important to me, it helps to have some sort of goals to complete on my way of my financial freedom. It also helps me to track my progress on my journey.
Portfolio

One of my goals that has yet not been completed is to earn dividend income of $1200 between Jan-Dec of 2014, I'm currently in a good position i have earned $948.81 so far and still got 4 months time to reach this goal. I hope i will!


I have also been trying to achieve the "lose weight" goal but i had huge setback on my exercise routine. because i was sick for like 1.5 weeks and did and couldn't do anything, stupid flu. But today could be my first day to enter my 5 km running path and complete this with honor. And hopefully tomorrow is a soccer day with friends.

My "Own 15 or more different stocks"  should not be to hard to complete since i currently have positions in 14 different companies. I actually had this completed earlier but i sold out on my Priceline group (PCLN) position, yeah the whopping 1 share position. I also have few positions that I'm not sure what to do with, Starbucks (SBUX), Nike Inc (NKE), Coloplast (COLO-B) but i will make another post or series of posts about my positions, so you can see where I'm going for in each position.

Made a poll (rightbar) where you can vote the company that you like the best, currently telecoms, so Vote it's free, interesting to see how it turns out!

Anyway have to head out and do some training. Cheers!

Have you reached any goals this years? Do you think setting goals is good?



image: By David Castillo Dominici http://freedigitalphotos.net

Recent Buy

I recently made 3 smaller purchases to increase my dividend income. I also sold out my position of whopping one share of Priceline Group Inc. (PCLN)
did earn some money there and i'm happy about it.
Just felt the need to release some capital from my "growth" stocks to my dividend stocks.


I also decided to save up some money so i can go and do some bigger purchases, or if i see a good opportunity out there, so i have capital that i can use.





So i had some fun and did some shopping, here's what i did.


I bought 26 shares of AT&T Inc (T) this will increase my position to 80 shares. This will also increase my one year dividends around $48.00.
AT&T Inc (T) P/E 10.24 | Div/Yield 0.46/5.28 | EPS 3.40

I have to say i am a big fan of Mobile Operator business, as they pay good dividends and people will most likely not stop making phone calls anytime soon. And mobile data just keeps going up. I will most likely buy Verizon (VZ) or Teliasonera (TLSN) sometime soon, and increase my position in Telenor (TELO). I'm hoping these will bring me steady cash flow to my portfolio.


On my second purchase i increased my position in The Coca-Cola Company (KO) I'm currently owner of 80 shares of this dividend increaser (20 more shares). After that i went to my local supermarket and bought me some Vanilla Coke yamm.. The Coca-Cola Company (KO) P/E 22.26 | Div/Yield 0.31/2.93 | EPS 1.87 This purchase will increase my yearly dividends by $24.80


My third purchase was an position increase as well as the others. I bought 16 more shares of
Laclede Group Inc (LG) Not so popular company as it should be? I think the management team is doing wonderful job buying new companies and increasing shareholder value. Laclede Group Inc (LG) is also a company in dividend contender list (10-24 Straight Years Higher Dividends) maintained by David Fish LG has payed 11 Years of Higher Dividens. Oh btw i'm an Utility fan too.


Here is some more info:

"The Laclede Group, Inc. (Laclede Group) is a utility holding company. The Company operates in two segments: Regulated Gas Utility and Gas Marketing. The Gas Utility segment includes the regulated operations of Laclede Gas Company (Laclede Gas or the Utility), Laclede Group's subsidiary and core business unit. Laclede Gas is a public utility engaged in the retail distribution and sale of natural gas. Laclede Gas is in the natural gas distribution utility in Missouri, serving more than 1.13 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The Gas Marketing segment includes Laclede Energy Resources, Inc. (LER), a wholly owned subsidiary is engaged in the marketing of natural gas and related activities on a non-regulated basis. In September 2014, the Company purchased 100% interest of Alabama Gas Corp (Alagasco) from Energen Corp."
Laclede Group Inc (LG) P/E 18.19 | Div/Yield 0.44/3.55 | EPS 2.72
This purchase will add $28.16 to my annual dividend income


What do you think of these purchases? Have you bought anything lately?

Disclosure: PCLN soldout | LG, KO, T Long

Picture: By Stuart Miles http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/