Dividend Update: October 23

 

October 23

 

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

 

This quote by Robert Frost seems as good as any to summarize this month. As if the news around the world wasn't bad enough, all of a sudden the ever-boiling conflict in Israel reared its ugly head again and erupted in another war on the globe. On top of the human suffering in this region, the discussions on where to stand, how to phrase opinions and who to help causes further contention in most societies. Needless to say, this was also reflected in the stock market and most of the major indexes went down accordingly. My little portfolio is no exception and on the whole dropped by -2.9% . Amidst all of this and many other things (e.g. the US being for most part without a functioning Congress, continuing high rates, gold and oil prices rsing, etc.), the earnings seasons for Q3 started with the usual mix of results: Altria fights with fewer cigarettes being sold, Medical Properties Trust tries to reduce its ludicrous level of debt, Texas Instrument is heavily ramping up its CapEx and Microsoft, as always, is simply on steroids and produces an absurd amount of cash. On the whole, there were (so far) no hugely suprising results and it remains to be seen whether a) the recession everybody has been expecting (which reminds be a bit of Beckett's "Waiting for Gordot") or b) the end of the year market-rally everbdy is hoping for is going to realize. Most lilekly, it is going to be neither and we get the usual (though slightly less volatile) up and down of the stock market. To accumulate wealth in the stock market, one normally needs a lot of patience. Luckily, as dividend investor, you get already rewarded on the way with little treats of encouragement along the way. On the whole, I received 31 treats this month and ended up with 308,01€ in dividends, again slightly above the 300€ a month I'm aiming for this year (November might be tricky though):

 

1. TotalEnergies: 6,89
2. Coca-Cola: 1,95
3. FS KKR Capital: 8,26
4. Vici Properties: 1,39
5. Iron Mountain: 7,39
6. Altria: 13,82
7. AGNC Investment: 4,48
8. Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital:  1,10
9. Medical Properties Trust: 10,57
10. Main Street: 16,02
11. Innovative Industrial Properties: 4,92
12. Spirit Realty Capital: 0,99
13. Blue Owl Capital: 6,00
14. Republic Services: 0,32
15. Realty Income: 27,11
16. Stag Industrial: 0,42
17. WP Carey: 35,95
18. SL Green Realty: 2,08
19. EPR Properties: 2,70
20. Starwood Property: 7,63
21. Ares Commercial Real Estate: 2,78
22. Goldman Sachs BDC: 59,02
23. Bank of Nova Scotia: 5,62
24. JPMorgan: 2,97
25. Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund: 2,35
26. BlackRock Utilities, Infrastructure, & Power Opportunities Trust: 3,36
27. Blackrock Enhanced Capital & Income: 3,94
28. BlackRock Science & Technology II: 2,61
29. Coher & Steers REIT and Preferred Income Fund: 2,29
30. Calamos Strategic Total Return: 3,41
31. LTC Properties: 2,28

 

 

I also parted ways with AGNC as the poor news and reports just kept coming and I don't see really any way forward with them and a dividend coming at some point in the future. I reemployed that money into the falling Realty Income. There are a couple of conlusions that I can draw from this failed investment:

1) Not all high-yield went / is going as poorly as AGNC (e.g. MAIN, ARCC, etc.) This example shouldn't scare me of high-yields in total. They belong just as much in my portfolio as your prototypical medium yield with medium growth (say JNJ, for example) or the rather low-yielding, but hopefully highly increasing companies (e.g. ASML, MSFT, AAPL).

2) I really had not my done my homework before on this one, I must admit. mREITs are notoriously tricky, but even the dividend history should have given me a lot more pause. This one I was just blinded by the yield and the narrative of rising interests being benificial for mREITs.

3) Though ETFs are imperfect (at least the ones available in Europe unfortunately), in moments like this I'm also happy that I'm also partly investing in those (I also wrote on this in September). There may be a cost to it because of the "poor conception" of the ETFs (compared to SCHD, for example), but the cost of these "poorer" ETFs might be lower than that of the distastrous consequences that I might have goging down a rabbit hole on one particular stock and ending up losing badly (as I am currently, for example, in MPW and Vonovia).

4) This is partly a consequence of the very wide portfolio that I'm building. As I rather build a wide and not as concentrated portfolio, there is not as much detailed preparation and a rather rudimentary process of reading up going on before the first buy. Following this way, there is bound to be a bit of portolio turnover. If I am to follow this part (and I think I am), this is part of the cross that I must bear. Still, this one might have easily avoided with a bit more of preparation and a more prudent judgement.