Trades – November No-Cost Dividend Growth Portfolio Purchases

Trades - November No-Cost Dividend Growth Portfolio Purchases - French Press Pour

November, the month of change for those investing at Loyal3. The big news was of course the ending of the credit card option for funding purchases. While I comment in more detail at the post I just linked, at the end of the day I wasn’t surprised the program ended. Too expensive, and ultimately it ran its course as a customer acquisition tool. Consider it successful Loyal3, you gain me as a customer! Does that change my fondness of Loyal3? No. Loyal3 offers more than enough to keep me investing.

The real value proposition of Loyal3 is the free trades with as little as $10 per investment. Period. No fees, no cost, every time. Of course, this is only possible with Loyal3 generating revenue through social stock programs and assisting with IPOs. Which, for those interested in a little speculation, Loyal3 allows regular investors like you and I to participate in an IPO as if you were one of the big guys. Pretty neat! Simply sign-up to receive an email when they are about to have an IPO and get the opportunity to invest before the rest of the world.

So with Loyal3 still offering plenty to investors, even those like myself with a dividend growth focus, there is nothing left to do but keep on building that passive income stream. In the month of November, I went a bit higher than I ever have with Loyal3, loading up with one last push as a result of the credit card offer ending. I will be returning to a more consistent level going forward, but why not juice the returns one last time. I invested $1,500 in the month of November, split between two different positions.

November Loyal3 Trades

unilever-logoPurchased Unilever (UL): Do you go grocery shopping? Yes, than you’ve seen UL’s product lines. Do you watch TV? Then you are likely familiar with Axe, one of their more prominent brands in TV advertising. A massive consumer goods producer, UL has tremendous global reach and exposure to emerging markets. A great company to own and as a shareholder, I’m looking to expand my current position significantly over time. Like last month, I again doubled my position in UL, this time by purchasing $1,100 worth of shares.  I picked up a total of 26.9275 shares at an average cost basis of $40.85. With an approximate dividend of $1.52 per share due currency fluctuations, my yield on cost is 3.72% and adds $40.93 to my forward 12-month dividends.

sbux_logoPurchased Starbucks (SBUX): With a twist on my traditional criteria, I opened a position in Starbucks. While currently rocking a yield of less than 2%, SBUX offers growth in two areas, both capital gains and more importantly, dividends. Shares aren’t particularly cheap right now, but I plan on building this position slowly over time. A dividend challenger with five years of dividend increases, SBUX is beginning to show signs of regularly rewarding shareholders. With their most recent increase of 23.1%, SBUX currently pays out $1.28 per share. With the remaining $400 of purchases, I picked up 5.1286 shares at an average cost basis of $77.99 per share. Given the current dividend, my shares have a yield on cost of 1.64% and add $6.56 to my forward 12-month dividends.

November Loyal3 Purchase Summary

As with my previous transactions, these took two days to process from the time I put the order in till the time the transactions occurred. All transactions were made with my credit card or dividends received in the account. For those that utilized the credit card I did not receive any additional fees for the transactions, thus successfully arbitraging the process for credit card rewards one more time. Going forward I will continue to invest with Loyal3, but will likely develop a regular investment schedule and DRIP into several positions slowly. November’s purchases resulted in a total increase of $47.49 to my forward 12-month dividends and carried an overall average yield on cost of 3.17%.

My total no-cost Loyal3 dividend growth portfolio now consists of ten holdings, and has a forward 12-month dividend total of $205.11. Pretty awesome how this little portfolio has now crossed the $200 mark in forward 12-month dividends in less than a year while representing some solid companies providing strong dividend growth. I’m expecting a big month this December which will allow me to really start selectively reinvesting the dividends how I see fit. The full details of this portfolio can be seen on my Dividend Growth Portfolio page. If you’re interested in seeing what dividends this portfolio has generated so far this year, check out my 2014 Dividend Calendar.

What purchases are you looking at making in the near future? Moving on from Loyal3 because of the funding changes?

Flickr: David Wright

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Comments

  1. I don’t have a Loyal3 account, but my three sons each have one. I’m hoping to write a post soon one how they’re progressing with their investments. They’ve just started, and I think Loyal3 is the perfect way for a young investor to start.

    Take care!

    • FerdiS,

      Are your kids underage? If so, how do they have a Loyal3 account? I didn’t think Loyal3 offered custodial accounts, or at least they didn’t last time I checked.

      Best,
      DWC

    • Couldn’t agree more for young investors. It is easy, straight-forward, and limits the selection of investments, which for newer investors can be overwhelming. I’m looking forward to hearing about your children’s success.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

  2. Good way to close out the credit card use with some awesome buys! I started adding UL in my Loyal3 account in November, and plan to keep adding monthly for the foreseeable future. SBUX is a stock that I would love to eventually own, but it just doesn’t fit for me at the moment. Congrats on a solid month!

    • Closed it out with a bang, that’s for certain! The SBUX pick is more of a long-term play, as I think they will continue to mature as a company and the rewards for shareholders will follow suit. Good to be a fellow shareholder in UL, I think they are a solid core holding for many years to come.

      Thanks for stopping by SAD!

  3. W2R,

    I bought both of those in November as well and it was my first dip into SBUX. In hindsight I should have bought more as it is up roughly 15% from where I bought. Like you, I’m hoping to slowing add over time.

    Best,
    DWC

    • Good to be a fellow shareholder in both DWC. Of course, we all wish we could perfectly time the market. I’m happy to have continued building equity in companies that look to reward shareholders with an ever growing stream of dividend income.

      Thanks for stopping by DWC!

  4. Like the UL buy. I have recently started a new position in that stock a couple months ago. It has been on my watch list forever and only recently did I actually pull the trigger. I like SBUX too but not at current levels. I think it has a great long term potential and growth in its dividends just not at current valuations. Thanks for sharing these L3 buys. If I was starting out today I would definitely open an account with them.

    • I’m not too fond of SBUX right now, but will likely build a position slowly. Fortunately, I was able to buy in prior to the latest pop in price. As for UL, I’m glad to be a fellow shareholder in this global giant.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts DivHut.

  5. Love the UL buy. I’m a little bit unsure about SBUX. Every time I walk by a Starbucks it’s always packed with people so the business is doing great. However I’m not 100% sure what their growth potential is.

    I really wish we have a similar service like Loyal3 here in Canada…

    • SBUX is a bit of a reach, however I believe as they mature as a business, and their growth demands less capital, they will be able to reward shareholders in spades. UL of course is a wonderful company to own given the width and depth of their product lines and overall global reach.

      Never fear Tawcan, innovation is always happening, and at some point you are bound to see something similar. Thanks for stopping by!

  6. I’m liking both purchases! Not a fan of Loyal3 anymore, though. I only used it because of the cashback. The fact that they batched orders, and that the buying process took so long, was pretty annoying.

    • I respect your change of opinion with regards to Loyal3, however I believe there is more to their offerings than just the credit card option. For new investors or those without a ton of money to invest, it is a great way to start without incurring fees. As far as the batch ordering, that is not unusual given the no-cost nature. Think about Sharebuilder’s old offering of batch trades each week for no-cost per trade, just a flat fee per month.

      Either way, I’m glad you like the purchases. Thanks for commenting and sharing your thoughts.

  7. Can’t argue with the Unilever buy as I bought a couple months ago and just got my first dividend this week. :-o

  8. W2R,

    Two excellent businesses right there. SBUX just never seems to be cheap, but that just means the company is firing on all cylinders. Fundamentals keep moving in the right direction.

    Glad to be a fellow shareholder in UL and hope to join you at some point in SBUX.

    Keep up the great work!

    Best regards.

    • Without a doubt, SBUX is not cheap, but I like the long-term growth for this company. Fortunately, I was able to get in prior to this latest pop in price.

      I appreciate you stopping by DM, always a pleasure.

  9. I thought I’d give up on Loyal3 after they took out credit cards, but instead, I just increased my monthly buys from $10/mth to $25/mth and adding another. I wish they’d offer more dividend paying stocks, but I’ll take what I can get. I do like being able to dollar cost average in small amounts.

    • Awesome! I’m glad you are finding the value in Loyal3 wasn’t the marketing gimmick of offering credit cards for funding. I know I’ve set up some regular monthly purchases, and will likely make a discretionary purchase or two to supplement these regular purchases.

      Thanks for stopping by!

  10. The story I like behind Starbucks is they are finally rolling out their beer and wine sales nationwide. Been testing that for years. 80% of their sales come before noon so the rest of the day is essentially wasted. This will change it.
    I’ve been wanting to get back in but never did get the valuation I wanted.

    • Pretty cool diversification on the coffee shop model. Be interesting to see how this grows revenues long-term since the incremental increase in costs is minimal (buildings and staff already in place). Either way, I’ll be DRIPing into the position pretty steadily over the next year.

      Thanks for stopping by PMU!

  11. You’re really fortunate to live in a place that has so many great ways to access the markets. Here in the UK, we don’t have anything like Loyal3, although we do have similar programmes through “regular investing” (monthly pooled contributions for £1.50 per purchase) with some brokers. You are also lucky in that you can buy fractional shares, we can only buy fractional shares in mutual funds. Shares have to be in whole numbers. Sadly, this means that unless the price is very low, it is difficult to accrue more shares if using DRIPs.

    Totally with you on Unilever! They’re a fave amongst British dividend investors too.

    Cheers!

    • We are lucky to have some many investment options available to us, and I am thankful to be in a position to take advantage of that. As for DRIPing the dividends, if you’re contributing regularly to your investment account, than this won’t be too big of a deal. Obviously, if you aren’t contributing, than you lose some of your compounding power.

      M, thanks for stopping by! Good luck as you work on your journey with a young family.

  12. Good buys. I like the loyal 3 model for small purchases. Im still paying $10 a trade dammit!

  13. Nice purchases. I already hold UN. SBUX is on my watchlist that I might initiate sometime soon.

  14. Very nice purchases. I love owning companies such as UL and PG. While I am not a current shareholder of UL, I will one day. Can’t ever go wrong owning brands that customers use every day.

    Keep up the great work!

    Bert, One of the Dividend Diplomats

    • Bert, I couldn’t agree more. No matter what happens, personal care products and other staples will never go away, providing the long-term growth all DG investors desire. Thanks for stopping by!

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