April brought more noise to the market with geopolitical issues front and center. The market appeared to acknowledge the fact that even with Republican control of government, a more centrist approach is necessary to accomplish much of anything. The President’s first 100 days ended with one legislative win; a Supreme Court Justice. As earnings season kicked into high gear and the French election completed (runoff pending), the markets rebounded and the S&P ended the month with a .91% gain. Including new money (mostly IRA maximization), my gain was 3.41% (2.32% excluding new money).
Loyal3 Migration
The forced move from the Loyal3 platform is essentially complete. Full shares arrived at Schwab April 27th. Fractionals did not move – basically a he said/she said scenario. Schwab says they would accept them while Loyal3 said they wouldn’t. All fractional shares on Loyal3 were sold April 28th, netting $218.59. Loyal3 was basically my ‘spare change’ broker and illustrates the benefits of investing even small amounts. The trades will settle Wednesday and Friday I’ll transfer remaining funds – after I see which direction the YUM dividend goes.
I decided to use Schwab’s synthetic DRIP for PEP, DIS, SBUX, KO and HAS to mitigate the sting of having to sell shares – even fractionals. I’ll take the cash on YUM, AMC, AAPL and K.
Headlines impacting my portfolio (bold are owned):
- 4/3 – IBTX closes Carlile merger
- 4/4 – NJR/SJI discuss merger
- 4/4 – MSGN discusses sale
- 4/7 – JNS merger date expected 5/30/2017 new ticker expected to be JHG w/ qtrly divs
- 4/10 – UNIT acquires Southern Light (pvt)
- 4/17 – CCI to acquire Wilcon Holdings
- 4/17 – BX acquires Eagle Claw Midstream
- 4/20 – UMBF sells institutional investment arm to RJF
- 4/20 – SLF acquires Premier Dental
- 4/24 – NWBI to close consumer finance subsidiary
- 4/27 –TOWN to acquire PBNC,
- 4/27 – IVZ to acquire Source UK
Portfolio Updates:
- Added to JNS
- Added to VALU
- Initiated position in PWCDF
- Initiated position in ARD
- Initiated position in HOMB
- Sold LB
- Sold UL
- Reduced (fractional positions) YUMC, SBUX, PEP, K, YUM, DIS, SQ, KO, AMC, AAPL, HAS
Dividends:
- April delivered an increase of 32.55% over April 2016. 17.25% of this increase is attributable to purchases, 48.41% a result of semi-annual cycles (Ireland, Australia) and the remaining 35.51% a result of dividend increases.
- April had an increase of 20.28% over the prior quarter due primarily to the same reasons.
- Declared dividend increases averaged 8.72% with 42.94% of my portfolio delivering at least one raise (including 2 cuts – YUM, XRX).
- YTD Dividends received were 38.1% of total 2016 dividends. If the current run rate is maintained would exceed 2016 in early November – particularly with most of my semi-annual or interim/final cycles paying during the next quarter.
Spinoffs:
The MET spin (Brighthouse Financial – BHF) remains pending.
Mergers:
Agrium/POT, JNS/HGG.L (estimated completion 30 May) and SGBK/HOMB remain pending. I did add to JNS and HOMB as both appeared undervalued versus the merger price.
Seeking Returns 