Tuesday 10 April 2018

March 2018: Portfolio Update.

March proved to be a decent month for dividends but not enough to turn the tide of market sentiment which pushed the FTSE and my portfolio down by -2.42% and -1.63% respectively.
Year to date, the pullback has now recorded -8.21% for the FTSE and -6.27% for my portfolio with more global political disruption to come from international trade wars, and political sanctions amid further breakdowns in international relations and communications.

Just 3 shares in  positive territory for the month, and those just recovery bounces: National Grid at 8.35%, SSE at 4.16%, and BP at 0.81% (yes, I'm taking 0.81%!).
But, in the year to date, not taking dividends into account (not that they would make a difference), every holding in my portfolio is down.

Dividends have contributed a positive 0.77% in the first quarter though, but going back to my opening line, not enough to turn the tide of market sentiment.

March dividends came in from SSE, Berkeley, Royal Dutch Shell, Imperial Brands and BP.

I held back on my musings to bring in Direct Line for Vodafone (Musings: Vodafone and Direct Line.), ahead of Direct Line's ex dividend date but thats not to say that I am not still considering changes.

Anyway with a number of holdings continuing to fall, I again made small additions to Imperial Brands and National Grid.
Galliford Try officially launched their cash call and the nil paid rights are currently sat in my portfolio and I expect the new shares to be showing in April's update.

My forward yield forecast now sits quite high at around 5.39%. I think that normally, I would only see that kind of figure when constructing a new portfolio so it remains to be seen if the forecasts are cut with the general pessimism that now permeates markets.
On the plus side, when markets are pessimistic its generally the best time to be buying and there are candidates in my portfolio and outside that I will continue to be interested in topping up or adding. As ever, in times like this the problem is having the funds available for all these opportunities which probably makes it a good time for those new investors with the right preparation, to start investing to build a portfolio of solid shares with solid yield records that will run along nicely for a number of years.

Worth noting as well that, with sterling recovering, there are long term targets amongst US shares that I wouldn't mind adding.

Merchant Adventurer's Index
Forecast 1 month YTD All time
Price % holding Div. yield % gain % gain % gain
Lloyds 65.00p 27.87% 5.89% -5.52% -4.50% 5.27%
Aviva 496.00p 13.56% 5.88% -1.90% -2.07% 38.67%
Berkeley Group 3789.00p 11.65% 4.75% -1.69% -9.72% 61.53%
National Grid 802.00p 12.46% 5.68% 8.35% -8.11% 71.44%
BP 479.00p 11.26% 6.03% 0.81% -8.36% 15.13%
Apple ** $167.78 9.44% 1.37% -6.61% -4.46% 312.53%
BAT 4131.00p 2.96% 4.92% -3.83% -17.68% 23.16%
Imperial Brands 2426.00p 2.88% 7.76% -7.37% -27.68% 5.37%
Royal Dutch Shell 2277.00p 2.66% 5.92% -1.90% -9.23% -11.54%
Vodafone 194.00p 2.00% 6.81% -4.79% -17.45% -23.11%
SSE 1276.00p 1.33% 7.18% 4.16% -3.33% 10.87%
Galliford Try 835.00p 1.18% 10.75% -9.04% -2.02% -2.02%
Nil paid rights 267.00p 0.13%
Cash 0.63% 0.00%
100.00% 5.39%
1 month YTD All time
Virtual Portfolio gain (incl. Dividends)
- 1 month gain   2462.37  2422.18 -1.63%
- YTD gain         2583.68 2422.18 -6.27%
- 99 month gain 1000.00  2422.18 142.22%
Unit Price - £ 2.42218 (Starting price - £1)
FTSE gain (excl. Dividends)
- 1 month gain   7231.90  7056.60 -2.42%
- YTD gain         7687.80  7056.60 -8.21%
- 99 month gain 5412.88  7056.60 30.37%
Transactions:
16/03/2018 Div SSE @ 28.4p per share
22/03/2018 Buy Imp.Brands @ 2349.75p per share
22/03/2018 Buy National Grid @ 761.62p per share
23/03/2018 Div Berkeley @ 85.24p per share
26/03/2018 Div RDSB @ 33.91p per share
28/03/2018 Nil Paid Galliford Try @ 297p per share
31/03/2018 Div Imp.Brands @ 61.53p per share
31/03/2018 Div BP @ 7.17p per share
Notes: 
*     US Dividends are adjusted for exchange rate and 15% withholding tax
**   Sterling : Dollar exchange rate = £1: $1.40137 as at 31/03/18
*** Sterling : Euro exchange rate = £1: $1.13711 as at 31/03/18


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Saturday 7 April 2018

April Dividend Pipeline

So where do we sit with dividends in the pipeline at the moment?

Looking ahead:

                                              xD               Paid
SSE @ 28.4p                       18 Jan         16 Mar
Berkeley Group @ 56.75p  01 Mar        23 Mar
RDS 'B' @ 47c                     15 Feb        26 Mar
Imperial Brands @ 59.51p  22 Feb        29 Mar
BP @ 10c                             15 Feb        29 Mar
Galliford Try @ 28p             15 Mar        06 Apr
Aviva @ 19p                         05 Apr        17 May
Lloyds @ 2.05p                    19 Apr        29 May                      

Not much to be expected in April then with just a sole deposit from Galliford Try, but May looks to a good month with payouts from Lloyds and Aviva expected.