Dividend Portfolio Update

As I might not have time later this month, and because Anheuser-Busch (BUD) was bought by InBev for $70 a share, I decided to update the Buy and Hold Forever Dividend Portfolio. This and all future updates will be posted here. The spreadsheet tracking the portfolio is available on the original post and here.

I didn't think BUD would be bought at all. And if it were bought, I didn't think it would happen so soon. I said in the original portfolio rules that if a holding was bought for cash, that would count as a dividend. That feels like cheating somehow now that it's actually happened. Should BUD be replaced by Molson Coors (TAP)?

The original criterion for including stocks in the portfolio was that they are dividend paying household names. Now that BUD is gone, and I like beer so much that all brewers are equally familiar to me, I don't really know what brewer to put in its place. International companies will probably have a bigger dividend payout, but they are much harder to track. Moreover, for many investors it can be difficult to buy stocks on the international markets. The best replacement, in my opinion, would be the new company Anheuser Busch-InBev, which trades in Brussels. Rather than having a headache doing currency conversions and tracking the daily price, however, I prefer to replace BUD with TAP, if it is replaced at all. (InBev trades on the Pink Sheets too, but the dividends are difficult to track.) (If BUD's replaced, $350 will be used to buy TAP. The rest, somewhere over $40, will count as a dividend.)

There is a poll addressing this question to the right of this post. If you're reading this by email or on some other site because the post has been reproduced there (without my permission, I might add, unless it's on Seeking Alpha), you'll find the poll here. It closes on December 1.

In addition to updating the spreadsheet for the dividends received so far, I've added "Share Price Value" and "Share Price Return." This is just to keep track of the great Ponzi scheme known as the stock market. Since we're keeping the stocks forever, "Total Dividend Return" is the preferred measure. You'll notice that the "Share Price Return" is currently greater than the "Total Return," which incorporates dividends. You'll also notice that the dividend return is negative. That's because commission costs were counted as dividends when the portfolio was started (it started with a negative one percent return). Over time, "Total Return" will be greater (and hopefully positive!) than "Share Price Return."

Here are the dividends received so far (ex div dates used):

3M (MMM)
19-Nov-08 $ 0.50 Dividend *5.443 = 2.7215

AFLAC (AFL)
17-Nov-08 $ 0.24 Dividend *7.904 = 1.89696

Boeing (BA)
5-Nov-08 $ 0.40 Dividend *6.677 = 2.67

Chevron (CVX)
14-Nov-08 $ 0.65 Dividend *4.692 = 3.0498

Church & Dwight (CHD)
6-Nov-08 $ 0.09 Dividend * 5.923 = 0.533

Con Ed (ED)
7-Nov-08 $ 0.585 Dividend * 8.079 = 4.726

Duke Energy (DUK)
12-Nov-08 $ 0.23 Dividend *21.368 = 4.9146

Du Pont (DD)
12-Nov-08 $ 0.41 Dividend *10.924 = 4.4788

Enbridge (ENB)
12-Nov-08 $ 0.282 Dividend *10.116 = 2.852712

Exxon Mobile (XOM)
7-Nov-08 $ 0.40 Dividend *4.722 = 1.8888

Intel (INTC)
5-Nov-08 $ 0.14 Dividend *21.834 = 3.05676

Microsoft (MSFT)
18-Nov-08 $ 0.13 Dividend *15.674 = 2.03762

Overseas Shipholding (OSG)
5-Nov-08 $ 0.438 Dividend *9.313 = 4.079

Pfizer (PFE)
5-Nov-08 $ 0.32 Dividend *19.763 = 6.32416

Target (TGT)
18-Nov-08 $ 0.16 Dividend *8.724 = 1.39584

United Technologies (UTX)
12-Nov-08 $ 0.385 Dividend *6.368 = 2.4517

Wells Fargo (WFC)
5-Nov-08 $ 0.34 Dividend *10.279 = 3.49

If you catch a mistake, please post a comment here or email me.

I've received several requests from people who would like to use the spreadsheet for their own purposes. That is, they want something that has all the formulas, so all they have to do is put in their own tickers, share numbers, and purchase prices. I'm happy to oblige. Email me and I'll send you an Excel spreadsheet.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, I owned WFC.