Dividend Payouts, Apple (AAPL) Worries and Automatic Investment Plans

April has been mostly good for our portfolio.  

We got paid dividends twice in April.  First, Altria (MO) paid me $4.23 in dividends on April 9, 2012.  With my Dividend Reinvestment Plan, I was able to purchase 0.1358 shares of MO at $31.15.

Second, Kraft (KFT) paid me $3.36 in dividends on April 15, 2012.  Again, my Dividend Reinvestment Plan bought me 0.0900 shares of KFT at $37.33.

This may seem peanuts to the untrained eye but that's $7.59 of free money.  Plus, I got more shares of a company which can increase in value over time.  Besides, $7.59 will not pay my bills so it might as well work harder for us in the stock market.

On top of that, WM, MO and LULU have been pulling their weight with the appreciation of our portfolio.  Apple still owns the bulk of our growth but the Cupertino company has been beaten up these past few days.  Rumors of supply issues and that mobile carriers were sick of Apple plagued the stock price which  dropped to $560 from an all-time high of $644 (04/10/2012).  I'm not worried.  It's just some profit taking and rumor-mongering (although that patent infringement judgement against them can be an issue).

Now, I have some cash to spend and I'm looking to buy more shares to add in our portfolio.  

Currently, I'm looking at Xilinx Inc (XLNX) and Waste Management (WM).

XLNX looks tempting because of it's upcoming Ex-Dividend date (May 14, 2012 with a dividend date of June 5, 2012).  I also expect XLNX to increase their net profits due to the upcoming technology purchases by consumers (back to school/college CPU purchases for example) in the near future.  Intel has also launched their IVY Bridge chips which would spur a new line of products that would come from Xilinx and it's competitors.

However, the trend of XLNX and the possible competitive arms-race may not bode well for my stock position.  Also, Wall Street's estimates does not give me confidence either.  In addition, if I buy more XLNX, my asset allocation would be heavy on Tech ahead of the summer Tech Sector slow down.  Furthermore, the PEG ratio of 4.89 would suggest XLNX would be an expensive stock to buy (AAPL is at 0.66 - my cheapest stock purchase).

Given my concerns and with Analysts' HOLD recommendation, I would seriously reconsider my plan of buying more XLNX.

On the other hand, WM has been showing better news than XLNX.

WM has seen profits grow at the average of 1.2% year-over-year.  WM has managed to capture the methane gas from their landfills and transformed it into energy for their trucks and possibly households.  Also, WM has E-Waste recycling services contracts with electronic companies such as Sony.  I've been an environmentalist even before being "Green" became cool and this news caught my attention and made me feel better with my investment. Besides, worse case scenario, people would still need WM to get rid our their trash... a sustainable business if you ask me.  Furthermore, I'm a bit underweight with my WM position (Business Services Sector at 5.83%) at $187.99 (4.6% of total portfolio).

So perhaps, I'll use the $525.00 dollars I have in cash to buy some WM...  or perhaps split it with some Energy Transfer Partners ETP as part of my Natural Gas/Greener Fuel play.

All right, I have decided:

ETP = $200 - $4 fee = $196/$47.72 as of 04/24/12 1:15pm = 4.1072 shares

WM = $225 - $4 fee = $221/$35.98 as of 04/24/12 1:15pm = 6.1423 shares

I'll leave the $100 cash in the sidelines and wait for more opportunities to get in the stock market.

Update: I've decided the use the $100 to get as much XLNX as possible.

XLNX = $100 - 44 fee = $96/$36.67 as of 04/27/12 9:38am = 2.6179 shares

Aside from the upcoming dividend payout, something tells me that XLNX will be key yo the increase of data use by smartphone users.  Especially the 4G LTE group...  perhaps, a new 4G phone from a Cupertino company?

The Automatic Investment Plan will execute on May 1, 2012.

Let us wait and see.

Automatic Investment Plan for March 27, 2012 And Some Updates

I was able to beat Kraft's (KFT) Ex-Dividend date of March 28, 2012.  My order of $350.00 worth of KFT stock posted on March 27, 2012.  I locked in 9.0937 shares at $38.49 a piece.

Also, on March 23, 2012, Waste Management (WM) paid a dividend to their investors.  I received $1.84 and reinvested it to get more shares.  The dividend bought me 0.05727 shares at $34.91.  It is so nice to get paid just by investing in a company.

To recap, our portfolio looks like this:

AAPL  = 2.1473 shares   = $1,331.11 (Market value as of 10:45 am 04/04/2012)
ETP     = 6.7367 shares   = $313.12 (Market value as of 10:45 am 04/04/2012)
GLD    = 2.1581 shares   = $338.77 (Market value as of 10:45 am 04/04/2012)
KFT    = 11.6030 shares = $443.47 (Market value as of 10:45 am 04/04/2012)
LULU  = 7.3301 shares   = $548.36 (Market value as of 10:45 am 04/04/2012)
MO     = 10.3151 shares = $321.83 (Market value as of 10:45 am 04/04/2012)
WM    = 5.2271 shares   = $182.69 (Market value as of 10:45 am 04/04/2012)
XLNX = 6.2860 shares   = $221.90 (Market value as of 10:45 am 04/04/2012)

Cash available = $225.68
Total Portfolio Value = $3,926.92 (Market value as of 10:45 am 04/04/2012)

If I were to play Jim Cramer's Am I Diversified Game where I look at my top 5 positions:
1. AAPL - Tech
2. LULU - Retail
3. KFT - Consumer Staple (Food)
4. GLD - Gold ETF
5. MO - Consumer Staple (Vice)
You will see that KFT and MO are overlapping sectors.  Normally I would have to switch out the weaker stock and replace it with either an energy, biotech of financial stock.  However, I can argue that KFT is more of a food and household pantry play and MO is more of my consumer vices play.  Also, both positions pay healthy dividends and are great recession plays.  People would still eat food (probably pre-packed like Kraft's Mac & Cheese) and addicted smokers will still smoke (as shown by my brother and sister).  So perhaps, I can get away with the overlapping sectors.

A small note:
Last week's Mega Millions Lottery price peaked at $656 Million dollars.  As millions of hopefuls lined up for hours and spent hundreds (some even thousands) of dollars on tickets with the hope of winning that record prize.  In spite of the lousy 1 to 176 million odds, people still hoped and prayed that they win the lotto.  Majority spent most of their disposable incomes (or worse, borrowed money) to gamble where the odds just plain suck.  If only they used some of the money to invest in a ROTH IRA or buying stocks, they would probably beat 99.9% of the Mega Millions hopefuls and made some money.

I for one, made some real money and only "lost" $1 in a Mega Millions Office Pool (Hey, it doesn't hurt.. All I needed was to be the 1 in 176 million).