Recent Sell

Nothing major to report but I do like to give a full update on any changes made to my portfolio.  Yesterday I closed my position in Halliburton (HAL).  Halliburton isn't exactly a dividend growth stock, although they have increased it the last few years, plus they're my employer so I don't want to be too exposed to one company since they are my job income.  Every quarter I acquire more shares of Halliburton through paycheck withholdings and luckily it's at a great 15% discount.  While the immediate 15% is nice it's really awesome in the middle of a bull market as the shares continue to climb higher.  But every now and then I like to take some of the investment off the table, actually that's how we funded the majority of our downpayment for our house purchase last year.

I originally "purchased" these shares back in April through the ESPP program at work.  My per share cost basis at the purchase was $42.51 and this past Thursday I sold them for $65.62 per share.  After commission and fees I netted $23.00 per share in profit.  That's a 54.1% gain in a little over 2 months, if only it were that easy.  Well, it's not all going to be counted as profit as the tax situation is much more complicated when it comes to shares purchased through an ESPP.  But before taxes it's a nice gain.

I'm looking forward to putting this capital to work in solid dividend growth companies.  What companies are you interested in purchasing at current prices?  Like most of you I'm not enamored with the current values in the markets but it's hard to make progress if you don't move forward.  Most likely I'll be looking to make a small purchase by either adding to a position or initiating a new one over the next week.

My FI Portfolio's forward 12-month dividends are decreased by $43.24 and are now at $4,289.39.

I've updated my Portfolio page to reflect this change.

Comments

  1. Good work buddy. We all have to capitalize on our job perks. I wouldn't mine buying at that kind of discount, especially without a lockup period. Have a great weekend
    -Bryan

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    Replies
    1. Bryan,

      The look back on the discount and the no lockup period are two huge perks to their ESPP program. It's done quite well for me so far and I'll be getting some more shares here again in July. If the share price stays at current levels I'll be looking at about $16 per share gains, including the discount. That'll be around 30% gains if I sell right away.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  2. i just brought DE today. I also like tgt, TD, arcp, and wfc,

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    Replies
    1. FFDividend,

      DE is interesting and I really liked the dividend increase even if they froze it for a quarter or two. TGT and ARCP are probably at the right position sizes for me right now but WFC could be a nice add. I'll have to take another look.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  3. It's really good that you don't have a lock in period and the 15% discount is wonderful. In my earlier employer, it was 5% discount and a lock-in period of 6 months (if I remember right). Of course, I never purchased any through that program since 5% was not too enticing with the lock-in period.
    The market right now is not presenting much opportunities to buy, but like you said, we have to keep investing at regular intervals to keep growing the passive income. I am looking at increasing my positions in PG and GIS. Also on the watchlist to initiate positions are MCD, CLX and PEP.

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    Replies
    1. DGJourney,

      I never realized how many other plans have lock-in periods, so I really appreciate it. Of course starting my current job was the first time I ever heard about a ESPP program. I can't blame you for not wanting to take the 5% discount with a lock-in period. Ours used to buy shares every 6 months with the same perks but then they moved it to quarterly which is nice since it lets me get that money out even quicker, especially in this bull market. Although I did like trading the call options on HAL when I had 100+ shares to work with.

      I'd love to add to PEP but I don't think that'll be happening anytime soon unless the markets sour a bit. I think CLX is probably next up on my list of companies to purchase so I'll probably be setting a limit order that will hopefully get triggered over the next week. I'm trying to focus more on adding to current positions but the values aren't really there to do so.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  4. Must be nice to acquire shares at the discount. You made the right move selling them and focusing on what you want instead. With the market being overvalued it would probably be best to buy into defensive stocks. I like consumer and utility stocks for this reason.

    Good Day and Grind on!

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    Replies
    1. A-G,

      Getting a discount is awesome and it's really worked wonders as we've been in a bull run in the markets. With my employer being my income source I already have plenty tied to the success of the company so I don't see much need to be overly invested in their stock as well. I've got some defensive names on my list of companies to buy but it's getting difficult because I own probably a few too many positions currently and don't have much room to add many more. So I need to be pretty selective with initiating new positions although with defensive consumer staples companies it's not as imperative to monitor them as closely as some of the more speculative names in my portfolio. There's a few positions that I might close out also which will open up some other spots in the portfolio.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete

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