Dividends, Annual Returns, Lululemon's Future and 2014

Hello again.

 

(Photo credit: http://sistersgrimm.wikia.com/wiki/File:Miss_me.gif)

Did you miss me?

It has been a while (again) since my last post.  I have school, travel and many essays to blame for that.  Safe to say I am a busy person but what matters now is that I have a few hours free to right this simple and short update.  I have an upcoming buy. I have a free credit from my broker that allows me to get a free automatic investment plan transaction. So, without further ado, here is my dividend update:

Ticker Symbol	Date	Dividend payout	Dividend per share	Shares bought	Price per share
MO	01/10/2014	$9.41	$0.48	0.2526	$37.25
MDLZ	01/14/2014	$3.72	$0.14	0.1057	$35.19
AAPL	02/13/2014	$6.77	$3.05	0.0126	$537.30
ETP	02/14/2014	$11.18	$0.92	0.2065	$54.14
XLNX	02/27/2014	$2.33	$0.25	0.0447	$52.13
WM	03/21/2014	$4.69	$0.38	0.1142	$41.07
KRFT	01/17/2014	$2.14	$0.53	0.0391	$54.73

 

Here's the ex-dividend update:

 

Ticker Symbol	Ex-dividend date	Dividend per share	Payout date
KRFT	04/09/2014	$0.53	04/25/2014
MDLZ	03/27/2014	$0.14	04/14/2014
XLNX	05/12/2014	$0.29	06/04/2014

And for other news:

I still believe in Lululemon (LULU). LULU just had a horrible 2013. The sheer yoga pants issue. The departure of CEO Christine Day. The founder's controversial comments that hurt the sentiments of its core customers.  LULU is down 50% from its 52-week high and the yoga apparel competition continues to heat up.  The weather and the polar vortex did not help either.  But with this long list of troubles, why would I be bullish on LULU?  First, the stock is now cheap.  It's PEG ratio is at a low of 1.42 (with 1.0 being the magical "under valued" ratio). Besides, I think the stock is or close to bottoming out and that the initial fear and loathing of LULU is subsiding.  LULU is also launching a new apparel collection called &Go.  The new line includes sun dress, pants and tank tops that should resonate well with LULU's target market.  As expected, this new line would have premium prices which should help with profit margins. 

I am cautiously optimistic on LULU.  I hope to buy a few shares at close to $47/share when the automatic investment transaction executes on Tuesday. 

I am also planning to buy more Waste Management (WM).  I need to balance out the portfolio. I also expect the spring season's that would bring out more trash and by products that would need WM's services.  I am a bit disappointed that I just missed the Ex-dividend date (Dividend payout is today). I could sleep at night knowing that WM is one of my more "productive" positions.  The PEG ratio is a bit more than LULU (making LULU the "cheaper" stock) at 2.54. The dividend and the stock's strong performance give me the confidence that our money is not wasted in WM.  I hope, we'll get a slight pull back so I can get WM at around $40/share.

2014 so far has been a bullish time for the Market.  Yes, we've had some pullbacks and down days but in general, it does seem that the bull market is still alive and well.  Am I concerned.  A little. I have been hearing whispers that say we're due for some market correction.  Yet, with the recent IPO fever. The Market has been experiencing in recent months, I think the Market still has enough juice to carry us through 2014.  Ending on a slightly related note, I might look into Disney and Netflix for 2015. 

Well, my friends, that would be it for now.  I wish I can promise more regular scheduled posts. But I will update whenever I have the time and any notable news and opinions.

Dividend Payments and the Facebook IPO Fizzles

My favorite natural gas position just paid me a dividend.

ETP paid me $9.53 (May 15, 2012) which I reinvested back to get 0.2065 shares at $46.15.

I really love dividends.

Just an update, XLNX's Ex-Dividend date was May 14, 2012.  Dividend date is on June 5, 2012.

Now for the news of the day...

Unless you've lived under a rock for the past few weeks, you would know that the Market has been tanking due to the reported European woes that focused on austerity measures and the possible Greek bank defaults.  

A lot of people may be worried and panicking while I am grinning from ear to ear because this massive sell-off may just give me another chance to buy more stocks for our stock portfolio.  It also inspired me to get more shares of my mutual funds for my Roth IRA.  Europe may be in trouble but as long as the USA does not collapse along with our European brothers and sisters, I'm very optimistic that this "bear" market is the second chance I've been praying for some time.

In other news, there's this small social networking company that went IPO today.  

Facebook (FB) was priced at $38/share and opened at $42.  The initial pop went up as high as $45 but that quickly dropped to just over $38.

Currently, FB is holding steady at $40-$41 (as of 11:41 am PST).  

My brother asked me if I'll buy FB today.  He even told me he can spare $10,000 to buy at the opening only to sell it at the end of the trading day.  I declined his offer and told him that I think FB was overpriced and that I do not invest in companies that does not show a positive cash flow (FB has yet to report their financials publicly... I'll check again later).  

With only an hour of trading left, I think I just saved my brother $10,000.  Can you imagine if I took his $10,000 and bought FB at the opening price of $42?  I would have lost him $476!  I guess I turned out to be a financial genius this time.  

Jim Cramer had warned his viewers to avoid FB in the after market (at the opening $42 valuation).  He also said that at $38, FB was way overpriced and that they should have kept the price at around $28-$30.  

Comparing FB to LinkedIn (LNKD).  LNKD opened at $45 and closed at $94.25.  LNKD outperformed FB's performance on IPO day.  There was even a time that LNKD was over $100 (Today, LNKD is at $100.18).  

What went wrong with Facebook?

Here a short video from the LA Times: 

I think the delay of the initial trading (I checked at 7am today and there was no info on any FB trading), high IPO price, GM pulling out of Facebook ads, Eduardo Saverin renouncing his US Citizenship to allegedly avoid taxes and the high amount of stocks being sold (trading volume) hurt Facebook (FB).  I guess the massive hype did not help FB and it probably disappointed a lot of investors.  I took a bet that the upside of getting the IPO will not make up for the downside of the IPO disappointing Wall Street.  I could not afford losing that much over a profit so insignificant the fees and taxes alone would eat it.  

This time, I was right.