March 2018 - Investment 22

Since my last investment I had also received the following dividends:

 £31.92 from GlaxoSmithKline
£30.51 from  National Grid Plc
£29.97 from BT

Additionally since the last investment I have been trying decide which my next investment should be.  The market has dropped generally, and I have quite a few existing holdings producing good dividend returns against the costs of my original investment. Some are showing capital losses, so it could be considered a good time to top up. Especially as the reason for investing is for long term dividend return over capital profit.  Generally the news from the companies I am watching have not been positive enough for me to be confident to choose one particular company over another, so I will just have to keep watching each one until I am either ready to invest or find something else which catches my eye.

By mid March 2018 the market was still very volatile, so I decided to take a look at a share I already had, which was not doing very well even thought it was producing a good dividend return.  So I decided to top on on National Grid.  I just used the balance of cash I had in my trading account to purchase another 137 shares, bringing my new holding to 334 shares.

https://www.nationalgrid.com

December 2017 - Investment No 21

The main issue with investing in shares is keeping up with developments of the companies which you hold as a shareholder.  Fortunately I am a long term member of a website called MoneyAm (www.moneyam.com) where I keep a Stockwatch portfolio list of my holdings so I can see at a glance if there is any news. I try to take a look at it at least once a day, ideally in the morning to make sure I don't miss something really important.

In mid December I noticed there was news on "Board Changes" with Persimmon, in which I held 78 shares. The announcement was that the Chairman was going to resign and on the previous day another senior member of the board had resigned. Also generally the announcement tried to put a positive spin on what had happened, but it was over the Long Term Incentive Plan in 2012 which did not include a CAP.  It was due to this omission they tendered their resignation.  I did wonder what the implication of this would be, but decided not to wait until the companies trading up date due at the beginning of January 2018. So I decided to sell my 78 shares in Persimmon for which I received £2,035.95.  This produced a profit of 63% on shares held for just under 18 months. Including the dividends received the overall profit was 66%.  So now I am sitting on over £2,000 in cash.  A very nice position to be in.

Since my last investment I had also received the following dividends:

Centrica  £16.20
Dyson Group £13.14
Royal Dutch Shell B £31.16
BP £48.30

I am not good at leaving money sitting in my dealing account, so I thought I need to make an investment while the market was quiet.  Looking at my portfolio I did think I should consider a bank, to have more diversification, but taking a look at the choice I just could not bring myself to invest in any of them.  So I decided to take a look again at my existing shares.  Centrica was languishing.  Currently down 40% but paying good dividends, although no more in the current financial year.  I noticed the CEO, Iain Conn had purchased 100,000 shares early in the previous week for more than the share was currently trading. In fact he had also purchased 100,000 shares back in October 2017, when the shares where a lot higher.

centrica.com

 Centrica has steadily been dropping in price.  The company was very much trying to be a one stop shop to for its customers and the company figures to year end Dec 2016 were pretty good, after a couple of questionable years.  I wondered in Iain Conn thought the year end Dec 2017 figures were going to be better and had purchased the shares? Of course I could be completely wrong so I would have to wait and see.

In the meantime I purchased 820 shares in Centrica for £1,148.89 leaving £1,000 in my dealing account towards my next purchase.

November 2017 - Investment No 20

I have watched my portfolio grow well now, and am disappointed that I have not been able to add as much new money into it as I had originally planned. On occasion it has been easier to sell and existing share which is in profit to finance the purchase of another share. 

So I have tighten my belt, and found another £1,075 to add to my Self trade accounts. This will bring the total money I have personally put into the account to £13,000 instead of the £15,000 as my original plan. I have no idea how I am going to catch up. 

Since my last investment in the previous quarter I have received the following dividends:

BT Group plc £65.19
Royal Dutch Shell "B" £32.28
BP plc £49.46
SSE plc £86.26
GlaxoSmithKline £13.68

My dividend income to date is already more than the amount I received for the whole of the previous year so I am looking forward to finding out the final figures for this financial year.

The market is quite high, so I have decided to top up by putting all the money I have in the account into a share which I already own and receive quarterly dividends each month - GSK.

The share price has dropped a bit - about 5% from my original purchase in June 2015 - Investment No 6, but I think this is because  because the market as a whole has dropped.  2016-17 I received a return of 7% on dividends, so for a long term investment I think I'd like to buy more. And they are also due to go ex-dividend next week, payable in January 2018 so that is an unexpected plus.

So I purchased an additional 96 shares in GlaxoSmithKline plc. This brings the number of shares held to 168.

 http://www.gsk.com

July 2017 - Investment No 19

Although I have been topping up on existing shares recently, I found I share which pays a dividend in August.  This is the only month in the year I currently do not receive any dividend.  I have actually missed out this year, as I found the share a little late. The shares paid a special dividend back in June, and the shares also went ex-dividend in June. But c'est la vie, there is another ex-dividend date in November with a payment in January and of course there is always August 2018 when the payment should also be paid.

However since my last investment a month ago, I have received the following dividends:

BP plc £50.33
Royal Dutch Shell "B" £15.96
Centrica £37.80
Persimmon £85.80
GlaxoSmithKline £ 13.68

I decided to sell the balance of my 184 shares in Antofagasta.  After dealing costs I received £1,873.49 This was a total of 23% on my original investment, 75% from the balance of shares purchased in July 2017 and 5% from the shares originally purchased in March 2014. The dividend income this was producing was disappointing and I had another share I wanted to purchase.

This share was in National Grid plc, in the Gas, Water & Multi-utilities sector and is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world.

https://www.nationalgrid.com/

As the timeline of my posts are starting catching up on reality, I am going to space them out a little until they actually catch up.  Thereafter they will be soon after I each investment is made.