June 2017 Update

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June was an interesting month in that the Tech sector hit a rough patch, some IPOs had trouble getting out the door and financials had a second wind.  Frankly I think a lot of the action had more to do with repositioning as some funds/traders’ positions didn’t perform as anticipated and are now playing ‘catch up’ during the last half of the year.  The S&P ended the month up 0.48% while my portfolio recorded a gain of 1.44% largely on the heels of the bank CCAR results.  For the first half of the year, I’m ahead of the index by 5.02%.

Headlines impacting my portfolio (bold are owned):

  • 6/12 – HYH explores sale of surgical line (infection prevention)
  • 6/12 – SBSI acquires Diboll Bancshares
  • 6/14 – OUT acquires Dynamic Outdoor
  • 6/23 – IBTX sells 9 Colorado branches to TBK
  • 6/23 – CM completes PVTB merger
  • 6/23 – Upon merger, POT/AGU to be renamed Nutrien
  • 6/27 – V takes stake in Klarna
  • 6/27 – XRX sells France research center to NHNCF
  • 6/29 – MET spin finalized
  • 6/30 – OCFC to acquire SNBC

Portfolio Updates:

  • Added to KSU
  • Added to CLX

Dividends:

  • June delivered an increase of 31.84% Y/Y with, once again, the vast majority of the increase being attributable to foreign dividend cycles (larger, although less frequent).  With one exception this should now be normalized.
  • June delivered an increase of 12.4% over last quarter (Mar).    The breakdown of the increase is:
    • 37.4% replacement for TIS (which paid in April (late) and suspended the div)
    • 36.2% April purchase for tax reduction
    • 14.8% foreign cycle
    • 11.3% purchases from dividends/dividend increases
    • For the second month in a row, no new cash invested
  • Declared dividend increases averaged 10.82% with 56.5% of the portfolio delivering at least one increase (including 2 cuts and 1 suspension)
  • YTD dividends received were 59.58% of total 2016 dividends which if the current run rate is maintained would exceed last years’ total in early November

Note: My portfolio additions have begun migrating back to US equities as the weakness in the US dollar has been faster than I forecast.  Unless geopolitical events occur to reverse this trend I suspect fewer foreign issues will be acquired.

Spinoffs:

MET has declared their spinoff – Brighthouse Financial (BHF) – effective August 4th.  Holders as of July 19th will be entitled to 1 share for each 11 MET shares owned.

Mergers:

AGU/POT (Nutrien), SGBK/HOMB remain pending

 

7 thoughts on “June 2017 Update”

  2. Thank you! My biggest surprise over the first half has been the US dollar weakness (even down 2% against the AUS since October). So I still have 5 internationals on my watchlist. I expect less dramatic increases the rest of the year but at least my performance was ‘front-end loaded’ so I can coast a little now! Thanks for reading.

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  3. Good results in beating the index and I’m liking the dividend increase. I did also see some unexpected international dividends myself that spiked my increase for the year – it’s always hard to predict those.

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  4. Very true on predicting currency swings, especially when intermixed with geopolitics or painful tweets. My observation is that Canada and Australia remain reasonable probably due to their resource based economies. (I’d shy away from Aussie banks though). Now that I’m through the Interim/Final cycle (ex. Singapore), I suspect I’ll complain a little about “only getting quarterly dividends”. 🙂 – but I will keep my eye on Europe if the USD strengthens.

    Thanks for visiting!

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  5. Solid update for the month of June. Nice to see double digit year over year gains too. any plans to deploy some fresh cash after a two month hiatus?

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  6. Thanks! – but not sustainable. I’m seeing fewer compelling reasons to purchase right now. Like you, I like making at least one buy monthly though recently it has simply been by redeploying dividends received generally in areas that have corporate actions pending. I’m completing a thorough review (which might be next weeks post) to decide if strategy adjustments are required (Notably in my percentages held in the Anchor, Core and Satellite components). To your question, I did add fresh cash to my MET holding this month. This was to increase my position to avoid some weird fractional shares with their upcoming spin.

    Thanks for visiting!

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