Looks like July will close out on strong footing as the market on the whole is looking healthy and flirting with all time highs often. Of course, as we all know, even though the market may look strong there are always individual stocks that are lagging and may present us with good buying opportunities. Honestly, this month I could not identify a clear cut choice for a buy(s) but I still managed to put some fresh capital to work as I have been doing every single month no matter what the financial, political, weather, etc. headlines might read. I still firmly believe that consistency with buying and simply dollar cost averaging into positions over weeks, months and years are your best bet to create that ever growing passive income via dividends. Sure, we’ll all pick a seeming stalwart at times only to find out it’s a big time dud (thank you GE, KHC and others) but with adequate diversification those duds can me mitigated with overwhelming growth in other stocks we may hold. With that being said:
I have added to my taxable account 10 shares at $48.13 for a total investment of $481.30 in Altria Group, Inc. (MO). With this recent purchase my taxable account holdings in MO now totals 164 shares with a market value of $7,954.00. I also hold 27 shares of MO in my ROTH account with a market value of $1,309.50.
I have added to my taxable account 12 shares at $38.94 for a total investment of $467.28 in Pfizer Inc. (PFE). With this recent purchase my taxable account holdings in PFE now totals 61 shares with a market value of $2,366.19.
In all, I added $948.57 in fresh capital for the month of July. While I have been busy adding to my MO for several months in 2019 it has been a very long time since I added a bit of PFE to my portfolio. Ideally, I would like to increase some of my smaller positions I hold to bring more income parity in my portfolio. Long term I do not want to become too reliant on just a handful of stocks for the majority of my passive income.
In other news, I may have to cap my new purchases going forward as Mrs. DivHut’s car finally bit the dust and we’ll be buying a new car which will require some budgeting adjustments. No laughing… she got great usage from her 1997 Ford Escort. Kudos to her for keeping a car for 22 years. I guess we were both cut out of the same frugal mold. As always, I’ll continue making monthly buy(s) but the total amount put forward may be smaller. At least with zero commissions it’s possible.
What do you think about my recent stock buys? Are you picking up some shares too or sitting on the sidelines? Please let me know below.
Disclosure: Long MO, PFE, GE, KHC
Nice Keith
Im still on the fence on mo but Pfizer would be a solid addition in my opinion.
Congrats on your wifes car. While it sucks to get a new one, 22 years is a lonnng time. How many km/miles were on it?
Anyways keep it up Keith.
cheers
Passivecanadianincome recently posted…Putting The Cash To Work – New Buy
Hi Passivecanadianincome,
I like PFE a lot long term but in the near term there is some uncertainty regarding its merger/spin off plans with MYL and how that will impact the PFE dividend if at all.
Getting a new car is bittersweet. Sure, we’re not excited about car payments but knowing how my wife drives and is religious about car care it will be worth it if we can keep it for two decades plus. The car had about 155,000 miles.
I bought PFE in April on a dip, looks like another opportunity to pick up some more.
Nice Work
Passive Cash recently posted…New Brokerage / Trading Platform
Hi PC,
I think there is a lot of uncertainty with PFE regarding the merger/spin off set to occur as PFE merges it’s Upjohn business with MYL then spin it off. Not sure how it will impact the dividend going forward but I still like this recent nibble of mine.
I heard something about the recent news with the phizer merger that they will cut their dividend slightly and have the cut made up by the Mylan shares we will be issued ?
Hi Alex,
There is a planned merger/spin off. PFE is planning to merge its Upjohn business with MYL and spin it off into a new company. There is a good article on SA explaining the details https://seekingalpha.com/article/4280149-pfizer-might-cut-dividend-3-things-investors-need-know?ifp=0
Love your buys. Respect to Mrs. Hut 1997 is when I graduated high school. Maybe we can squeeze some more years out of our 2010 Corolla.
Hi DS,
Thanks for those words. A 2010 Corolla should have many more years of life left. I can tell you that Mrs. DivHut was religious about maintenance and repair. The second a warning light turned on it was straight to the mechanic. We still would have kept the car but it started to have one problem after another for several weeks in a row. Sometimes you have to just fold. By the way, we’re looking at the 2020 Corolla actually.
I like the purchases. Both are larger holdings of mine and throw off big cash dividends. MO used to be my largest holding, but MSFT took over that spot. Not much yield left on MSFT with the rise in the stock price. Tom
Tom @ Dividends Diversify recently posted…Webull Review – Free Online Stock Trading Platform
Hi DD,
Happy to be a fellow shareholder with you. MO is already getting to be a large portion of my portfolio but seeing it under $50 is still very tempting. Congrats on holding MSFT. That has been a big winner in recent years.
I was going to say I was impressed by your consistent investing once again, but I’m far more impressed by that 22 year old (Ford) Escort. That’s amazing! Especially considering how often many people end up buying new every couple years. My goal is at least 10 years out of the Hyundai Tucson that we bought in December. MO is still looking tempting here and I just might have to add some more shares to build up the position a bit more. I’ll have to take a look at PFE since I don’t have much pharma exposure.
JC recently posted…Dividend Increase | The J.M. Smucker Company
Hi JC,
When we buy cars, we intend to hold them till the end. Mrs. DivHut clearly did that with her 1997 Ford and I already have ten years on my Honda. Buying a car is such a waste of money in some respects but if you can take good care and maintain your vehicle religiously it can pay off by running for a couple decades or more. MO is still on my watch list for August. What can I say? I like it under $50.
Both beaten down additions to your portfolio. Hopefully they turn around and provide some solid dividend income for decades to come. Both MO and PFE are towards the top of my watch list.
Hi FF,
I like my out of favor stocks. More often than not it’s usually the best time to buy in. MO continues to be the stock everyone loves to hate but in the meantime it just throws cash to shareholders.
DH –
Nice job continuing to make those moves. I’ll have to see what PFE has been doing/what they are planning on doing.
-Lanny
PS – 22 years is incredible. Gives me home : )
Hi DD,
PFE is still a bit of a question mark going forward but I still like the business and their merger/spin off plans. We’ll see. Be religious with your car maintenance as she was and you too could keep a car for over two decades.
DH,
Nice job adding more income! We are almost done with our car payments, and I am looking forward to be finished with those for the next dozen plus years!
– Gremlin
Dividend Gremlin recently posted…July Review / August Preview, 2019
Hi DG,
Still no shortage of some good stocks out there to pick up. Seems like every time the market gets to new highs we see a sell off giving us some good buying opportunities. If you’ll be like Mrs. DivHut you’ll have no car payments for almost two dozen years 🙂
Hey Keith,
I’ve been taking a closer look at PFE lately. I saw it was down a fair amount one day recently when the U.S. government announced it was looking at buying cheaper drugs from Canada. Looked more like a buying opportunity than anything, so it’s on my watchlist.
Great job by your wife to hang onto her vehicle that long. I’ve had my Silverado since I bought it new in 2012 and am now enjoying having no vehicle payments (and thus having more cash to funnel to my portfolio). I’m not looking forward to the day when that situation changes.
Take care,
Ryan
Get Rich Brothers recently posted…July 2019 Portfolio Update
Hi GRB,
It will be interesting to see what will happen to PFE and its dividend going forward after the merger/spin off of Upjohn with MYL. I still like anything health long term. That car served us both well for all those years. We never expected to keep it as long as we did but it kept on moving. Thanks for commenting.