Welcome to May’s edition of money while you sleep. In Alberta we are starting to see businesses opening and hopefully this continues. Some sectors have been on fire such as Oil & Gas, Insurance and banks while others have been flat. Before I get into it here is what we had been up to in May.
- We got C into Baseball which at 4 years old is pretty entertaining to watch.
- Celebrated my brothers 30th and my father in-laws 69th birthdays.
- Finally hit the range to work on that slice.
Portfolio details:
This month our portfolio did not change much. We did sell off a couple underperformers that we were waiting for the right time to do so. The TSX rose from 19108 on May 1 to 19740 on May 31 which is an impressive return of 3.26%. We missed the mark as we came in at 2.17% with many growth companies staying flat and the US dollar being hit when compared to the Canadian dollar. Were confident that growth investments will have a stronger second half of the year. Its a long term game and at times as most of you know, patience pays.
Quick trades:
No quick trades in the month.
Please note: I only do this with companies I’m comfortable holding for a long period of time.
Sold:
Enerflex EFX.TO and Newtopia NEW.U
Enerflex was a small position, once Covid hit they cut the dividend substantially. We waited for the stock price to recover and moved on. Newtopia had been doing great things at the beginning of 2020 and really have disappointed shareholders over the past several quarters including lack of communication from the management team, so we decided to sell our small position.
Bought:
No buys in May
Dividend increases and decreases
- ABX announced a special dividend of $0.14 per share which is paid in June.
- FRU increased dividend 25% from $0.36 to $0.48 which is also paid in June.
2016 – 2021 Dividends received
May dividends came in at $159.77 which is a slight increase over May of last year. We set a 2021 goal of receiving $3,100. We are not only on pace to hit that target but beat it by more than 13% thanks to some dividend increases and new contributions. If the banks and insurance companies can get the green light to start increasing again we may just see a number larger than that.
Dividends received
| Stock List | Dividend | Drip | Account |
| FRU.TO | $3.51 | No | TFSA 1 |
| EXE.TO | $7.44 | Not this month due to stock price | TFSA 1 |
| CSH.UN | $16.17 | Yes | TFSA 1 |
| ALA.TO | $5.58 | No | TFSA 1 |
| PLZ.UN | $10.27 | Yes | TFSA 1 |
| NPI.TO | $14.10 | No | TFSA 1 |
| SIS.TO | $5.40 | No | TFSA 1 |
| EIF.TO | $6.84 | No | TFSA 1 |
| RY.TO | $32.40 | No | TFSA 1 |
| BMO.TO | $54.06 | No | TFSA 1 |
| ENGH.TO | $4.00 | No | TFSA 2 |
| Total: | $159.77 | |
Current economy conditions
Canada unemployment rates % have started to rise again. As you can see from the chart below we hit unemployment of 7.5% in March and have slowly started to rise again. This may have to do with government unemployment pay, which ends September 25th 2021. Why go back to work when you can collect I guess.
Gold Prices
We saw Gold prices rise again above $1,800 USD. I know that Governments have come out and said that inflation is not an issue however anyone who is making their daily purchases may disagree with this, including me. I see Gold outperforming in the second half of the year. I’d expect we will see similar patterns in other precious metals.
Market
I’m very bullish on the market as we start to see inflation almost everywhere. This will provide additional revenues for most companies at least over the next several months. As the economy opens fully and prices get back to normal with less shortages we may see revenues lag in 2022. It will be very important to continue to watch the financials of the companies you own or that are on your watch list as sometimes an increase in revenue does not mean net income will be improve. Distributors are passing on the increase in product from the producers to us meaning many may not hold a lot of inventory so that they don’t get stuck with product they cannot get a return on. This remains to be seen how it plays out.
Sectors I like
- Financials
- Communications
- Healthcare
- Technology
- Utilities
- Basic metals
- Renewables
Current watch list
- Telus
- Enbridge
- Verizon
- Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp
- Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P.
- Fortis
Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment!
Invest in yourself
Brian
Disclosure: I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. Please ensure you do your own research.
