After selling RIM (thank God!), I’ve taken a few weeks to look at my portfolio. I was pretty happy with the companies I bought since the beginning of this year (HSE, CVX, JNJ, BNS, and a covered call etf; ZWB). While the market is moving sideways, I’ve built a solid core of great dividend paying stocks. In fact, the average dividend yield of these stocks on the market is 4.91% (thx to ZWB at 10%…).
More trades during the summer
I’ve debated this for a long time before making any moves on Paladin Energy (PDN). I do believe in uranium and nuclear energy but since what happened in Japan, I feel that the stock will be left for dead for a few years. As I truly want to move forward and build a solid dividend portfolio, I’ve decided to sell it as well.
I was heavily invested in both RIM and PDN at one point and it had hurt my investment returns in 2010 and again in 2011 to date. I am now ready for a fresh new start and I have looked at other possible trades.
Diversifying my portfolio once again
After analyzing KO (Coca-Cola) and PEP (PepsiCo), I decided to add a position in KO. I consider Coca-Cola as solid as municipal bonds for the moment ;-). Since bonds are paying peanuts, I would rather buy a great dividend aristocrat! If I could, I would have bought more shares of KO but I wanted to diversify my portfolio more than anything else. In fact, I had been hit seriously enough by RIM and PDN that I don’t want to have my portfolio concentrated in a scant few stocks anymore!
So I made another move!
This time, I looked on my side of the border; into Canadian Dividend Stocks. You already know that I am a big fan of Canadian banks. But there is another market structured as an oligopoly (only a few big players); telecom!
The biggest telecom players in the Canadian industry are as follows:
Rogers: RCI – 3.80% dividend yield
Shaw: SJR – 4.30% dividend yield
BCE: BCE – 5.50% dividend yield
Manitoba Telecom: MBT – 5.40% dividend yield
Telus: T- 4.10% dividend yield
As you can see, they are all pretty good dividend payers. My pick was Telus as they are showing interesting growth and a well diversified portfolio of products and services. They are pretty active in the industry and have a strong balance sheet too. I thought that telecom would certainly be an interesting sector to add to my portfolio. In order to do so, I sold all my Canadian index fund units. I don’t expect to put more money into my retirement account until January when I usually make my annual RRSP contribution (coming from my year-end bonus, yeah!).
I’ll update my dividend holdings in the upcoming weeks to disclose my current portfolio.
I’m sure you’re glad to be out of RIMM!
Coke is a fine addition. Excellent company, one of the best.
Yeah!
I’m also glad that I have made other trades so I’m not tempted to trade RIM again thinking it has at its bottom.
Mike,
Have you made a recent post about your portfolio allocation, where you keep what? Why put your Canadian dividend-paying stocks in your RRSP?
@My Own Advisor,
I should definitely do a post reviewing my current asset allocation, it’s been a while!
my non registered investments are all in my online company so I don’t have non registered money. My dividend holdings are all in my RRSP.
I used to trade more aggressively (with a lot of success between 2003 and 2007) but I don’t have enough time to do it now. This is why I prefer building a “lazy” dividend portfolio ;-D
I have to agree with @Dividend Mantra you must be really breathing a sigh of relief over RIM. I know that it was a struggle for you to finally let go and pull the trigger on the sale.
I’m curious about your decision to take Telus over BCE. With a 1.5% dividend yield difference do you really think Telus will outperform BCE by that much in the next 18-24 months?