The upward trend continued this month fueled by the progress on the tax plan. If finalized, my guess is that the first half of 2018 will be good for corporations (i.e., dividends) with reality setting in later in the year that the average consumer received a raw deal and has less disposable income than advertised. That is unless trickle down really works. The wild card being the government (or lack thereof) as a second felony plea was accepted with individuals tied to the campaign or administration. The S&P index increased by 2.81% while my portfolio increased by 3.22% largely fueled by Financials. For the year I’m still ahead of the index by 3.12%.
Headlines impacting my portfolio (bold are owned):
- 11/1 – OMI buys HYH‘s Surgical and Infection Prevention (S&IP) business
- 11/2 – SBUX sells Tazo line to UL
- 11/6 – AVGO bids to acquire QCOM at $60 cash & $10 stock per share
- 11/6 – BCE acquiring ARFCF
- 11/9 – AAPL acquires InVisage Technologies
- 11/13 – GE cuts dividend by 50%
- 11/13 – AMT buys Idea/VOD Cellular towers in India
- 11/13 – VER selling Cole Capital to CIM Group
- 11/14 – Baupost Group initiates 3,565,361 sh position (abt 6.25%) in AMC
- 11/14 – MSG to sell WNBA team (Liberty)
- 11/15 – SQ launches ability to buy and sell Bitcoin
- 11/16 – PYPL sells $5.8B loan package to SYF
- 11/16 – IRM buys China assets from SFG.CO
- 11/20 – MSG acquires Obscura Digital
- 11/27 – PNC acquires The Trout Group, LLC
- 11/28 – BLK to acquire C‘s Mexican asset management business
Portfolio Updates:
- increased position in existing DRE holding
Dividends:
- November delivered an increase of 18.3% Y/Y with the about 60% of the increase being attributable dividend increases and the remainder purchases.
- November delivered a 1.0% decrease over last quarter (August) due to two payouts being moved to December.
- Declared dividend increases averaged 11.9% with 71.75% of the portfolio delivering at least one increase (including 2 cuts (XRX and YUM) and and 1 suspension (TIS)). Note: GE’s announced cut is counted as 2018.
- YTD dividends received were 109.86% of total 2016 dividends which exceeded last years’ total on October 25th.
Spinoffs:
Spirit Realty Capital (SRC) – Nov 21, Form 10 was filed confidentially with spin completion targeted for 1H 2018.
Mergers:
AGU/POT (Nutrien) remains pending with the US being the only approval pending.
Summary
My 2018 strategy is forming with the focus turning towards Consumer Staples and Utilities (existing holdings). I expect to incorporate a side strategy on lower yielding but faster growing companies which I’ll publish in the next week or two. Of course I will continue to also pursue opportunities as they arise.
And how was your month?
Seeking Returns 