ASK THE READERS - Should I buy HCP, WMT, KMI, or IBM?

We started this series back in November of 2014 as a way to add some fun to our buying process. We plan to continue doing these Ask the Reader post once a month (except when funds are limited) and will be maintaining the stocks purchased in a separate portfolio just to see how they perform. 

For each ASK THE READER post, we will select 3-4 current stocks on our watch list that we feel are worth buying.  But to add some fun into our buying process, we have decided to put our faith in our fellow bloggers and readers once a month. 

The stocks we have chosen this month are stocks that are currently at the top of our watch list and thus stocks we would be comfortable buying regardless of the outcome.  But we thought it would be fun to get our readers input and see if collectively, we can all beat the market with this interactive portfolio. :) 

Below is a chart below of our ASK THE READER purchases to date: 



So far, this account hasn't really done too well.  Mainly due to the fall of energy and oil stocks.  But it's OK, we are long term investors and have confidence that the so-called losers here will eventually see a turn around.  We've been investing long enough to know that there are cycles in everything.  Although it may take longer than we may like, we remain confident that many of these will eventually rebound.  Meanwhile, we'll just sit back and collect the dividends. :) 

Please help us get this account in the green by spending a few minutes to vote for ONE stock from the companies listed below.  Tell us why you like the stock that you picked. 

Thanks in advance for your STOCK PICK!

STOCK #1 - HCP, Inc (HCP)

• Sector: Financials - Real Estate
• Market Cap: 16.2 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 6.46% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 29 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1990 (25 years)
• Payout Ratio: 71.5%
• P/E Ratio: 69

STOCK #2 - Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)

• Sector: Discount Stores
• Market Cap: 192.5 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 3.26% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 40 Years
• Paying Dividends Since:  1973 (42 years)
• Payout Ratio: 43.1%
• P/E Ratio: 13

STOCK #3 - Kinder Morgan, Inc (KMI)

• Sector: Energy - Oil & Gas
• Market Cap: 64.0 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 8.72% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 4 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1937 (78 years)
• Payout Ratio: 309%
• P/E Ratio: 52

STOCK #4 - International Business Machine (IBM)

• Sector: Informational Technology Services
• Market Cap: 134.3 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 3.75% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 15 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1916 (99 years)
• Payout Ratio: 34.9%
• P/E Ratio: 10

**LET US KNOW WHICH STOCK YOU WOULD PICK AND WHY**

Thank you in advance!!

ASK THE READERS - Should I buy VTR, KMI, or POT?

We started this series back in November of 2014 as a way to add some fun to our buying process. We plan to continue doing these Ask the Reader post once a month (except when funds are limited) and will be maintaining the stocks purchased in a separate portfolio just to see how they perform. 

For each ASK THE READER post, we will select 3-4 current stocks on our watch list that we feel are worth buying.  But to add some fun into our buying process, we have decided to put our faith in our fellow bloggers and readers once a month. 

The stocks we have chosen this month are stocks that are currently at the top of our watch list and thus stocks we would be comfortable buying regardless of the outcome.  But we thought it would be fun to get our readers input and see if collectively, we can all beat the market with this interactive portfolio. :) 

Below is a chart below of our ASK THE READER purchases to date: 



So far, this account hasn't really done too well.  Mainly due to the fall of energy and oil stocks.  But it's OK, we are long term investors and have confidence that the so-called losers here will eventually see a turn around.  We've been investing long enough to know that there are cycles in everything.  Although it may take longer than we may like, we remain confident that many of these will eventually rebound.  Meanwhile, we'll just sit back and collect the dividends. :) 

Please help us get this account in the green by spending a few minutes to vote for ONE stock from the companies listed below.  Tell us why you like the stock that you picked. 

Thanks in advance for your STOCK PICK!

STOCK #1 - Ventas, Inc (VTR)

• Sector: Financials - Real Estate
• Market Cap: 18.3 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 5.3% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 5 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1999 (16 years)
• Payout Ratio: 207.6%
• P/E Ratio: 44.10

STOCK #2 - Kinder Morgan, Inc (KMI)

• Sector: Energy - Oil & Gas
• Market Cap: 64.0 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 6.98% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 3 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1937 (78 years)
• Payout Ratio: 252.55%
• P/E Ratio: 55.15

STOCK #3 - Potash Corp (POT)

• Sector: Materials - Agricultural Chemicals 
• Market Cap: 18.2 Billion
• Dividend Yield: 6.95% 
• Consecutive years of dividend increase: 4 Years
• Paying Dividends Since: 1990 (25 years)
• Payout Ratio: 79.17%
• P/E Ratio: 12.08

The 3 companies we picked this month have three things in common: 1) they all pay great dividends; 2) they are all billion dollar companies; and 3) unfortunately, they all have undesirable payout ratios!!! Of the three, which company do you think has the best long-term prospects?

**LET US KNOW WHICH STOCK YOU WOULD PICK AND WHY**

Thank you in advance!!

RECENT BUY (NYSE: KMI)

WE RECENTLY PURCHASED THE FOLLOWING

KINDER MORGAN, Inc. (KMI)

Purchased 15 shares of KMI on 9/29/2015 at $27.00
Total Spent: $405.00

Company Description

From Google Finance:

“Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI) is an energy infrastructure and energy company in North America. The Company operates through six segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, CO2, Terminals, Products Pipelines, Kinder Morgan Canada and Other. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment includes interstate and intrastate pipelines and its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. The CO2 business segment produces, transports, and markets CO2. The Terminals segment includes the operations of its petroleum, chemical, ethanol and other liquids terminal facilities and all of its coal, petroleum coke, fertilizer, steel, ores and other dry-bulk material services facilities. The Products Pipelines segment consists of refined petroleum products, crude oil and condensate, and NGL pipelines and associated terminals, Southeast terminals, and its transmix processing facilities. The Kinder Morgan Canada segment includes its 100% owned and operated Trans Mountain pipeline system and a 25-mile Jet Fuel pipeline system”

Although the market finished barely in the green today, there were still many great buys found. The discounts were best found earlier in the day when the DOW dipped below 16,000 points. So as a long term investors, we took the opportunity to add a few more shares to our family's dividend stocks portfolio.  With today's purchase, we were able to lower our cost basis on another stock we currently own.  

Including the 15 shares added today, we now own 62 total shares of KINDER MORGAN, Inc. (KMI) in our family's dividend stocks portfolio. Our purchase today lowered our cost basis on KMI from $32.32 to 31.03. Additionally, our estimated forward dividends grew another $29.40, putting our yearly dividends at approximately $3,460/year (excluding our Edwards Jones account) and $3,819/year (including our Edward Jones account).

Since we had already held KMI shares in our family's dividend stocks portfolios (WF and EJ Accounts), the portfolio remains unchanged at a total of 47 different dividend paying stocks/ETFs and also 4 companies that either don't pay a dividend our has currently suspended their dividends.

Our family's dividend stocks portfolio may be found

by clicking on the link below:

DIVIDEND STOCKS PORTFOLIO

We also maintain an extensive list of stock analysis

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF STOCK ANALYSES

We also just started a list of Recent Buys by other bloggers

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF RECENT BUYS

HERE IS A QUICK FACT SHEET FOR THE STOCK I JUST PURCHASED:

KINDER MORGAN, Inc. (KMI)

P/E: 33.97
Payout Ratio: 270%
Dividend Yield: 7.49%
3 consecutive years of dividend increases
Last Ex-dividend date: 7/29/2015

Next Ex-dividend date: approx. 10/29/2015
Have paid a dividend since: 1937 (78 years)
Pays a dividend 4 times a year.
Market Cap: 60.3 Billion
52-week high: $44.71
52-week low: $25.81
Purchased Price: $27.00

What are your thoughts on of recent purchase?

What are you buying?

Collection of RECENT BUYS (Summary) - August 2015

Since I began investing in dividend stocks approximately two years ago I've been keeping a personal log of what other dividend bloggers and dividend investors are buying.  Until now, I've just done it for my own personal knowledge and it has proven to be a great resource I use when I have no idea what I should buy. 

The collection essentially highlights the Recent Buys I have discovered throughout the dividend blog community. I always like to see what others are buying.  And with this collection, one can easily see all the buys in one centralized source. I Hope everyone has found it to be a great resource!

In case you just want a quick summary of what everyone has been buying this past month, below is a chart that depicts just that! :)

(The chart and table above only includes companies with more than 4 buys)

With the recent Black Monday sale and the overall decline in the market the past month and a half, the buying activity around the DGI community continued its momentum throughout the month of August. And once again, another record was set this past month for the highest number of buys logged by the DGI community in a single month. In all, a total of 132 buys were found throughout the month of August. 

Previously, we only charted companies with 3 or more buys. However, with 132 buys logged this past month, we decided to chart only those companies with 4 or more buys.  To think back to December of last year when we began our Collection of Recent Buys post, we had only charted companies with 2 or more buys.  

To summarize, out of a total of 132 buys found around the DGI community, a total of 61 companies were purchased, with 28 companies bought more than once.

1. The most popular company this past month was Chevron Corp (CVX), which was purchased by 9 different investors throughout the DGI community. CVX was the 2nd most popular purchase back in July.  
2. In second place was Emerson Electric (EMR), which was purchased by 8 different investors throughout the DGI community. EMR was the popular choice just last month. Good to see it hadn't lost to much of its luster. :)
3. Third place was a 2-way tie between 3M Company (MMM) and Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI) with a total of 6 buys.  
4. In forth place was a BHP Billiton Plc (BBL) with a total of 5 buys.
5. And fifth place saw a 4-way tie between Proctor & Gamble (PG), Union Pacific (UNP), The Walt Disney Company (DIS), and Oneok Inc (OKE).

And although not included in the chart, the following companies each had 3 buys (6 total): 

• Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B), Phillip Morris (PM), Apple Inc (APPL), International Business Machine (IBM), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Omega Health Care (OHI).

Our family remained active during this past month.  In fact, we ended the month of August with the most buys logged in a single month as we made a total of 17 buys for our family's dividend stocks portfolio.  Details coming on Saturday in our monthly summary post.

What have you been buying?  Please feel free to share in the comments or send me a link to your Recent Buy post in case I happened to have missed it.

Don't forget to bookmark or add this page to your favorites!!

 COLLECTION OF RECENT BUYS

If you have a chance, make sure you also take a look at my COLLECTION OF STOCK ANALYSES!! As with my collection of recent buys, my goal is to make this collection also become a centralized source for everyone. It could become a place where one can get ideas on what to invest in next, to establish a desired stock purchase price, or simply to see what your favorite bloggers are buying.  Whatever your reason, my hope is that this collection proves to be a great reference tool and helps provide you that little extra advantage that you are looking for in order to succeed with your investing.

Recent BLACK MONDAY Purchases!!

As everyone already knows, this past Monday was a pretty wild ride in the market. After historic 1,000-point plunge, Dow dives 588 points at close....the 588 decline was the worst since August of 2011. As a long term investor, we were definitely happy to see the correction we've been long awaiting. Sales were to be had throughout the market and our family went shopping! 

By the time the day was over, we had 7 limit orders execute.  In no particular order, below are the 7 companies that we bought on 8/24/2015:

• Enbridge Inc - 9 shares for $37.17/share
• Union Pacific Corp - 4 shares for $80.00/share
• Occidental Petroleum Corp - 5 shares for $64.08.share
• Kinder Morgan Inc - 12 shares for $29.00/share
• Johnson & Johnson - 4 shares for $90.00/share
• Oneok Partners LP - 12 shares for $28.09/share
• W. P. Carey Inc - 6 shares for $58.00/share.

We ended up spending a total of $2,380.01 on the 7 recent Black Monday buys. Our purchase will net an estimated average yield of 5.5% with our estimated forward dividends increasing by another $132.73, putting our yearly dividends at approximately $3,219/year (excluding our Edwards Jones account) and $3,576/year (including our Edward Jones account).

Of our buys, six out of the seven buys were companies that we had already owned. We did, however manage to pick up shares of W.P. Carey Inc to add yet another dividend paying stock to our family's dividend stocks portfolios (WF and EJ Accounts). Our portfolio now stands at a total of 47 different dividend paying stocks/ETFs and also 4 companies that either don't pay a dividend our has currently suspended their dividends.

Our family's dividend stocks portfolio may be found

by clicking on the link below:

DIVIDEND STOCKS PORTFOLIO

We also maintain an extensive list of stock analysis

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF STOCK ANALYSES

We also just started a list of Recent Buys by other bloggers

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF RECENT BUYS

What are your thoughts about my recent purchase?

What are you buying?

RECENT BUY - (NYSE: KMI)

WE RECENTLY PURCHASED THE FOLLOWING

KINDER MORGAN (KMI)
Purchased 12 shares of KMI on 8/5/2015 at $32.25
Total Spent: $387.00

On Wednesday (8/5/15), we pick up 12 more shares of KMI (Kinder Morgan). With our recent purchase, we now own 35 total shares of KMI in our family's dividend stocks portfolio.    

With our purchase of KMI, we added $23.52 in forward dividends to our family's dividend stocks portfolio. This puts our yearly dividends at approximately $2,985/year (excluding our Edwards Jones account) and $3,343/year (including our Edward Jones account). 

Since we had already held KMI shares in our family's dividend stocks portfolios (WF and EJ Accounts), the portfolio remains unchanged at a total of 44 different dividend paying stocks/ETFs and also 4 companies that either don't pay a dividend our has currently suspended their dividends.

Our family's dividend stocks portfolio may be found

by clicking on the link below:

DIVIDEND STOCKS PORTFOLIO

We also maintain an extensive list of stock analysis

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF STOCK ANALYSES

We also just started a list of Recent Buys by other bloggers

that can be access through the link below:

COLLECTION OF RECENT BUYS

HERE IS A QUICK FACT SHEET FOR THE STOCK I JUST PURCHASED:

Kinder Morgan (KMI)

P/E: 41.74
Payout Ratio (DPS/EPS): 252% ($1.96/$0.77)
Dividend Yield: 6.00%
4 consecutive years of dividend increases
Last Ex-dividend date: 7/29/2015

Next Ex-dividend date: approx. - 10/29/2015
Have paid a dividend since: 1937 (78 years!)
Pays a dividend 4 times a year.
Market Cap: 70.4 Billion
52-week high: $44.71
52-week low: $31.09
Purchased Price: $32.25

What are your thoughts about my recent purchase?

What are you buying?

Recent Buys - (NYSE: SDRL, VZ, KMI, DE, TIS)

 

WE RECENTLY PURCHASED THE FOLLOWING:

SEADRILL LTD (SDRL)

• Purchased 15 shares of SDRL on 9/11/14 at $32.48
• $60.00 added to annual dividends

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC (VZ)

• Purchased 5 shares of VZ on 9/10/14 at $48.45
• $11.00 added to annual dividends

KINDER MORGAN INC (KMI)

• Purchased 8 shares of KMI on 9/9/14 at $38.50
• $13.76 added to annual dividends

 DEERE & CO (DE)

• Purchased 3 shares of DE on 9/5/14 at $83.00
• $7.20 added to annual dividends

ORCHIDS PAPER PRODUCTS CO (TIS)

• Purchased 10 shares of TIS on 9/5/14 at $26.10
• $14.00 added to annual dividends

Of the recent stocks purchased, only SDRL was a new holding as we already own shares of VZ, KMI, DE, TIS in our family's dividend stock portfolio. 

 

With the recent purchase of SDRL, our family's dividend stocks portfolio now has a total of 26 dividend paying companies. More importantly, the recent purchases added $105.96 to our family's annual dividends which is now estimated to be $1,960.20 a year.

Our family's dividend stocks portfolio may be found by
clicking on the link below: 

Dividend Stocks Portfolio

We also maintain an extensive list of stock analysis

that can be access through the link below: 

Collection of Stock Analyses

HERE IS A QUICK FACT SHEET FOR THE STOCKS WE JUST PURCHASED:

Seadrill LTD (SDRL)

• P/E:
• Payout Ratio: 72%
• Dividend Yield: 11.70%
• Dividend Growth rate (5yr AVG): 18.11% 
• 0 consecutive years of dividend increases
• Last dividend Ex date: 9/4/2014
• Have paid a dividend since: 2010 (4 years)

 

Verizon Communications Inc (VZ)

• P/E: 10.66
• Payout Ratio: 45%
• Dividend Yield: 4.50%
• Dividend Growth rate (5yr AVG): 2.87% 
• 9 consecutive years of dividend increases
• Upcoming dividend Ex date: 10/8/2014
• Have paid a dividend since: 1984 (30 years)

 

Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI)

• P/E: 33
• Payout Ratio: 145%
• Dividend Yield: 4.50%
• Dividend Growth rate (5yr AVG): N/A 
• 2 consecutive years of dividend increases
• Last dividend Ex date: 7/29/2014
• Have paid a dividend since: 2011 (3 years)

Deere & Co (DE)

• P/E: 9
• Payout Ratio: 24%
• Dividend Yield: 2.9%
• Dividend Growth rate (5yr AVG): 14.03% 
• 10 consecutive years of dividend increases
• Upcoming dividend Ex date: 9/26/2014
• Have paid a dividend since: 1937 (77 years)

Orchids Paper Products Co (TIS)

• P/E: 17
• Payout Ratio: 109%
• Dividend Yield: 5.30%
• Dividend Growth rate (5yr AVG): N/A 
• 2 consecutive years of dividend increases
• Last dividend Ex date: 7/31/2014
• Have paid a dividend since: 2011 (3 years)

What are your thoughts about my recent purchase?

What are you buying?