DIVICENTS

I’m always looking to purchase a new company. Everyday I run multiple stock screeners that do my heavy lifting. These screeners data mine the indexes looking for certain metrics that I program into them. This gives me a starting point.

Recent Purchase

2016, Moves, Uncategorized / Steve

I’m always looking to purchase a new company. Everyday I run multiple stock screeners that do my heavy lifting. These screeners data mine the indexes looking for certain metrics that I program into them. This gives me a starting point.

benjamin-graham-520x245

This screen I built uses some loose guidelines I borrowed off Benjamin Graham. His criteria is far too strict to pull up a stock in this day and age so I have to adjust here and there to even get a single stock in all North America

This shows me how expensive the market is and also shows me there might be good opportunity to purchase a company.

That company is Western Digital.

Recent purchase

WDC/NSDQ

Purchased 120 shares at a price of 47.50 USD for a total of $5700

1. (Forward) P/E under 15.

Pass 11.32. The S&P is at 25.4 right now so this is very reasonably priced.

2. Price to book ratio less than 1.5.

Pass 1.2. The closer the price is to book the better. Why pay more for a company than what they are worth in assets?

3. Market cap over 1 Billion.

Pass 15 Billion. I only want large caps that have enough volume that I can drop them when I want.

4. Current Ratio greater than 1.75

Pass 1.8. This is probably the most important metric I screen. I’ve seen so many companies that have their short term liabilities crush them when they have an unexpected earnings miss. Just look at all the oil companies, when debt comes calling you need to have the money! I would even like to have the current ratio over 2 but i’m less picky than BG.

5. Must pay a dividend.

Pass 4.2%. What can I say, I need that dividend.

6. 5 year historical dividend growth greater than 5%.

Pass 27.68% I also need that dividend to grow.

7. 5 year historical EPS growth greater than 1%

Pass 5.18% EPS growth should result in a higher stock price and a higher dividend.

8. Forward looking Payout Ratio under 75%

Pass 52%. I look at forward EPS/Payout Ratio because it gives me a picture of what I can expect coming up. Like many of the oil companies people researched, they looked and saw a current EPS and thought they could keep up the dividend payment. If they looked at the forward EPS they would have seen that they would not be able to cover the dividend without raiding the piggy bank (using credit) or slashing that dividend (i’m looking at you Conoco)

9. Must have a Moat and be relevant in 10 years

Pass. I would not normally have given this a pass because the world is quickly shifting away from HDD units. The recent SD acquisition makes a lot of sense for me as they are moving to a more SSD focused business model.

sandisk-hero2-350pxl

Disclosure. I’m long WDC and I am not a Doctor and do not give out financial advice. I only share my personal opinion which seems to be about as good as flipping a coin.

Sources: yahoo.com, morningstar.ca, zacks.com.

Recent Purchase Read More »

The Best Free Saving Tools For Millennials

2016, Financial Planning, Savings / Steve

Millennials get a bad rap for not caring about their finances.

But according to a recent Bankrate survey, these young bucks are starting to flip the script and have started saving a bigger chunk of their paychecks than any other age group.

Most millennials are starting to understand the importance of saving money, but it’s tricky to know where to start and what products to trust.

The Best Free Saving Tools For Millennials

1. Acorns

Think investing is only for guys in suits? Nope. This app rounds up every purchase you make to the nearest dolla and invests the difference into a diversified stock portfolio. Once you earn $5, the money can be transferred into your Acorns savings account. Acorns it a great way to start saving automatically with virtually no effort.

2. Mint

This is the first financial app I ever used. I still use it several years later! This money managing app securely connects your financial accounts, automatically organizes and categorizes your expenses, and helps you create a budget. It’s basically shows you your whole financial life and sums it up. Pretty legit.

3. Digit

Digit is a perfect app for someone like myself. Basically it watches your spending and sneaks away a little bit of money every now and again when it (a robot!) thinks you won’t miss it. It sticks the money into a savings account that you can access whenever you want.

4. Feex

Feex is a service that reveals all the fees that you are paying in accounts you invest with. It’s often overlooked, but these fees can be staggering. Feex finds these costs and suggests other options that can bring the fees down. A very handy tool to understand the costs involved

5. You Need A Budget

Yes, you need a budget. I don’t use YNAB because I have made my own budget software (and I love spreadsheets) but I know many bloggers who have nothing but praise for this software. YNAB lets you try their budget program for 34 days free so it doesn’t hurt to find out if it’s for you or not. As I mentioned before in my 3 Simple Steps to Becoming Rich, you need a budget one way or another so get on it!

Final Thoughts

Saving money can seem like a daunting task, especially when you have debt to pay back. The trick is to make small automatic contributions that go to a place where it is more difficult to get at and spend. Using these tools will make the path to padding your savings account that much easier.

Disclosure. I’m not getting paid to promote these. Just stuff I personally use.

The Best Free Saving Tools For Millennials Read More »

Good Bye $400’s Hello $500’s!! I received $501 in dividends in AUGUST.

AUGUST DIVIDENDS

2016, Dividends / Steve

Good Bye $400’s

Hello $500’s!!

I received $501
in dividends in AUGUST.

My year over year increase was 33.60%

My quarter over quarter increase was 9.87%

Every quarter there are 3 months or dividend payouts, this is the middle one.

My total dividend haul this year is now $3616

I’m on pace to pass my last year total next month!

With 4 more months of dividend growth, this is going to end up being a most excellent year.

I love them dividends!

Market Musings

The Dow kept on pushing record highs in August off weak earnings.

I like to use the Schiller P/E ratio to gauge the value of the overall market.

August – S&P 500 had a Shiller P/E: 27. Up (being bad) 0.1
from July

That is 61.7% higher than the historical mean of 16.7

Prof. Robert Shiller of Yale University, who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2013 – invented the Schiller P/E to measure the market’s valuation. He also predicted the crazy P/E ratios of the late 90’s would turn out to be a bubble.

I continue to move to safety.

Moves in August

Total Purchases $7393

Total Sales $4719

I sold 120 shares of AP.UN this month at $39.33 per share for a total of $4719. That equals a 25% capital gain since Feb 24, not including dividends.

AP.UN has heavy exposure to Toronto and has shot up above what I consider a reasonable level. It’s P/E, payout ratio and distribution started to look suspect.

I bought 332 shares of TSE:NVU.UN at a price of $22.27 per share for a total of $7393. This brings my total shares to 547. Hahaha, I bought this the day before the earnings report was released which I try to always avoid. I’m not sure why I never looked when the next report was due but live and learn. The new earning report was not great but is no reason for me to panic. The shares dropped the day after I bought them down to $20. Lesson! Don’t buy off old news.

Following Step #2 in 3 simple steps to becoming rich, I’ve added another $3000 into savings cash.

I’m just about $50,000 with cash and bonds now. This will supply me with what I need if the market decides to start making sense again.

Going forward

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” -Warren Buffett

I will be allocating 25% to bonds and 75% to stocks until the end of the year when I will rebalance and change directions if need be.

My plan is to buy one or two companies on my U.S. watch .

I will look to buy heavy if the DOW gets as low as 17000.

AUGUST DIVIDENDS Read More »