Investments Trade Log

OurLifeInc. · Post by **OurLifeInc.** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 3:36 am

Weren't dividends taxed as ordinary income pre Bush? I don't think companies like JNJ, PG, KO, etc are going to stop paying dividends just because tax law changes....I can't see their being mass exodus either...unless taxes went waaaaay up. But then there would probably also be a mass exodus out of the country...

George the original one · Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:05 am

Just pick up REITs paying over 6% for your Roth/IRA and don't worry about it. In your taxable account, if you're close to ERE, it won't matter because you'll be in the 15% bracket anyways.

ICouldBeTheWalrus · Post by **ICouldBeTheWalrus** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:39 am

In the past couple weeks I've:
- Sold MCD after it became a long-term capital gain for me (the last year was quite an amazing run.)

I also have a vague bias toward reducing the amount of dividends earned in my taxable account due to the change in dividend taxation in 2013 and the fact that I and my wife will likely be into ridiculous tax brackets for at least the next two or three years. Having done our 2011 taxes, I've suddenly "gotten religion" about tax efficiency.
- bought a handful of stocks out of the Magic Formula screen. After some further research, not so happy with the ones I bought, but they're small positions and I'm not unhappy with them either.
- sold gold, bought silver
- in one of my IRAs, bought DTEGY, DDAIF, TOT (I think these sectors are set to do reasonably well and they pay substantial dividends)
- bought ATVI
- And in the very closely-watched category: bought a couple AAPL calls in my IRA, sold one at a nice profit, probably going to hang on to the other through earnings later this month.

Post by **jacob** » Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:42 am

Anyone familiar with LINE?
(Just popped up today. Thought it looked interesting.)

Hoplite · Post by **Hoplite** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:24 pm

I was interested in LINE due to their acquisition of nat gas assets, a patience play that I've been following due to the gas price collapse and, IMO, an eventual recovery. Caveat is that LINE is popping up on business media as an income play, and I'm probably too contrarian to bite. If smiling faces on TV tell me it's a good buy, I figure someone is getting ready to do something to somebody

George the original one · Thu Apr 05, 2012 4:06 pm

LINE shows up on my radar about once a quarter and I always pass... can't remember exactly why, but I find other things that are more interesting to me.

Obadobadope · Post by **Obadobadope** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 6:14 pm

LINE earned a grand total of about 1.00 net per share since 2004, but they paid out 13.00 worth of dividends over that period. That's an automatic no in my book.
I just bought some SVU. Not my favorite pick, but I know you guys go crazy for tall dividends. The losses are all writing off of good will following a poor acquisition a few years back. I think nearly all the damage has already been done, and there's only 1.3B of goodwill left on the books anyway. What's left is a weaker, but still healthy company with a P/E of 5 and a 6% dividend.

Obadobadope · Post by **Obadobadope** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 5:15 pm

Added more TEF today. Between their statement on shareholder remuneration, and my analysis of their fundamentals, I think the dividend is rock solid, and the company should even continue to grow.
"The dividend for the year 2011 is maintained at 1.60 euros per share, having fulfilled already a first payment of 0.77 euros per share in November. The remaining amount (0.83 euros per share) will be distributed in May 2012, though the combination of a cash payment and a payment in-kind, the latter through the distribution of treasury shares of the Company for a maximum amount of 0.30 euros per share, and subject to market conditions.

Total shareholder remuneration for the year 2012 will amount to 1.50 euros per share, including the payment of a cash dividend of 1.30 euros per share and a share buyback for the remaining amount. Treasury shares acquired will be amortized and the share buyback shall be completed by May 2013."
So basically about 2 Euros of cash dividends between now and May 2013, with an ongoing planned dividend of about 1.30-1.50 Euros.

George the original one · Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:05 pm

I took another bite of TEF yesterday, too. I'm not as strongly positive as you are on TEF, so it's not a significant part of my portfolio.
Now OHI & MSFT & INTC & GE... very happy about them! (just wish I had pulled the trigger on GE, but you can't own them all)

Obadobadope · Post by **Obadobadope** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 6:55 pm

Hey George. They are a small stake for me too. Just over 1% of my portfolio. When I say the dividend is "rock solid" I should clarify that I mean I think they can easily carry out their shareholder remuneration plan through 2013 as described. After that my crystal ball is kind of foggy. It's very likely that they will pay out about 65% of normalized earnings as their long term dividend/buyback strategy. I think their normalized earnings is about 1.95 Euros per share right now, which would give a sustainable dividend rate of 1.25 Euro, and a yield of 11%.
Long term, I am positive though. Over 50% of TEF revenue, and a higher % of their profits, come from Latin American operations, which still have room to grow. The L.American division is very healthy and growing at a clip. Only the European division is struggling, but still profitable every year anyway. Also... the telephone industry is not going away any time soon. It may actually continue to grow for many decades - as phones become more and more computer-like, the data transfer and communications networks will continue to become more valuable.

GandK · Post by **GandK** » Fri Apr 20, 2012 8:53 pm

Put in limit sell orders for my recently acquired positions in IAU and UGA at ~12.5% above cost basis. I think they will each hit the specified mark at some point between now and November.

DividendGuy · Post by **DividendGuy** » Sun Apr 22, 2012 2:50 am

I bought 60 shares of SBSI for $21.63 and 25 shares of RTN for $51.16 per share a couple weeks back.

jennypenny · Post by **jennypenny** » Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:38 pm

I've been busy, mostly adjusting our AA (still way too much cash though). Added to F and CAT. Sold AVP--sorry Larry, I looked at it when you mentioned it and bought 200. Never sold DNDN, decided to gamble on the merger rumors. Bought a small amount of GLD. I'm buying physical gold and wanted something to use for rebalancing when needed.
I forget who bought MSFT (George?)--saw a piece on how they will be the next Apple. Hope you bought a lot

Wasn't there a time when Apple was the new Microsoft?
What's the consensus here? When a company announces a huge buyback, does that drive the stock up? down? just a short pop?

larry · Post by **larry** » Tue Apr 24, 2012 1:24 pm

Hey JP,
Yeah I was kicking myself after avon had that buyout offer and shot up to $23 in one day. Of course I sold earlier for a small profit, but missed out on a much bigger one. I'm still long 53 shares of AVP.
I'm upside down on Arch Coal (ACI) and Hecla mining (HL), commodities have been hit hard recently, but I think we'll see more stimulus in the future and then these two will come roaring back. Until then they are paying dividends and reinvesting in new shares every quarter.
Oh well.
Did anyone pickup WMT on the dip yesterday?
I grabbed 23 shares at $59 and change. It may go lower. I figured it was a good entry point for a starter position.
Larry

jennypenny · Post by **jennypenny** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 2:24 pm

@larry--been there! I bought DKS last fall @32. It hit $50 this week. Do I still own it? Nope. I also bought SAP at 48 and sold after $10 gain. It hit $72 last month. *sigh*
Curious to see what the market does with all of the earnings news. Seems like many companies are beating estimates but missing revenue targets. That's bear-ish in my book, but what do I know.

BennKar · Post by **BennKar** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:31 pm

I am not an active trader, mostly doing "buy and hold" in my Roth IRA. Among other stocks I have 100 shares of KO. News today is they are looking to split this fall. There are a number of articles saying this might be the time to buy in. The profits have gone up nicely this past year along with the stock (I bought in at $55 two years ago (@ $75 now) and already have gotten $4.15 in dividends per share)

George the original one · Wed Apr 25, 2012 8:42 pm

> Seems like many companies are beating estimates

> but missing revenue targets. That's bear-ish in

> my book, but what do I know.
Agree that it is not the greatest of news, but certainly far from the worst. The markets have been coming down since mid-March (as much as 5%), so these results may already be baked into current prices.

jennypenny · Post by **jennypenny** » Thu May 03, 2012 2:34 pm

I'm just venturing into gold and other commodities. I thought this article was interesting (if you missed it) http://seekingalpha.com/article/551841- ... ssive-debt
Check out his asset allocation at the bottom of the article. Not something I've seen over at the bogleheads forum

larry · Post by **larry** » Fri May 04, 2012 12:51 am

Added 50 shares EMR today. Yield 3.2%. Dividend Champion.
Now, the bad news.
Really regretting that Arch Coal (ACI) purchase, but still holding. Can anyone say "falling Knife" They slashed the divy by about 75%. Lost $110 per year in dividend income on that one. I should have seen it coming with all the downgrades and warnings.
I think at this price Arch Coal becomes a "buyout target" or at least sells some of it's assets to generate cash and pay off debt.
Long term earnings estimates are still positive but I think alot of it depends on the state of the economy here and the rest of the world. They are into thermal coal for power generation, but they also have a large metallurgical coal base for steel production.
Natural gas use has really hurt coal. I don't know how long that will last.
Plus, I think if Obama gets elected again, it will be bad for coal in general as an energy source. If Romney wins; then maybe less environmental regulation is a positive for coal. So it may be closer to November before I see any positive out of this trade.
Larry

Hoplite · Post by **Hoplite** » Fri May 04, 2012 3:45 am

Energy has been generally a tough call. Have been seriously considering KYE, a blend of energy MLPs and securities with a low coal exposure; currently yielding about 6.93