I was stuck in a terribly long meeting last week where I didn’t have to pay attention to close so I decided it would be as good of a time as any to review my holdings in my favorite part of my financial empire hut.

First and foremost, I couldn’t believe how many positions I had! Right off the bat, I decided that if I were to sell any I would reinvest it partially into my growing two ETF positions ($SCHD and $VIG) and/or some of the results from my most recent dividend growth undervalued screen.

  1. ADM
  2. AFL
  3. AROW
  4. ATO
  5. BEN
  6. BUD
  7. CAH
  8. CARR
  9. CB
  10. CHRW
  11. CINF
  12. CLX
  13. CSL
  14. CTBI
  15. DOV
  16. EBTC
  17. EMR
  18. GD
  19. IAC
  20. IMPUY
  21. MCY
  22. MGRC
  23. MMM
  24. MS
  25. NC
  26. NWFL
  27. ORI
  28. OTIS
  29. PH
  30. PPL
  31. RBCAA
  32. RTX
  33. SCHD
  34. SJM
  35. SON
  36. T
  37. THFF
  38. VIG
  39. WBA
  40. WEYS
  41. WLK
  42. XOM

Identifying those Companies that Should be Sold

I wanted to make sure that every holding was either a dividend aristocrat, dividend champion, dividend contender or had a damn good reason they were not. This left me with the following companies to figure out what happened:

  • OTIS – Spin off from UTX and RTX merger. Since spinning off they have raised their dividend, and while that is only two years I like the idea of the company being in the very boring but necessary elevator industry.
  • CARR – Again a spin off from UTX and RTX merger. Again, they have increased their dividend since spinning off, and are in a very boring but needed business (HVAC).
  • MS – Received when Eaton Vance was acquired by Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley has 8 years of dividend increases, so once again, I decided to keep the position.
  • T – They cut their dividend when they spun out WBD. I decided to sell this position because of the cut, and with a 71% payout ratio I am not too sure I want to stick around waiting for another cut.
  • WBD – Spun off from T. I do not understand the streaming service game. It feels like it is a race to spend more money, and really, beyond HBO, no one I know cares that much about their other streaming services.
  • WEYS – This shoe manufacturer lost its dividend champion status after 39 years of dividend increases when it froze the dividend during covid. While freezing the dividend during covid seems reasonable, the other dividend champions did not, so I sold it.

I ended up buying additional shares in:

  • SCHD
  • XOM
  • EBTC and
  • RBCAA

I have taken the approach as of late that once purchased, I am going to try and hold on, as all the companies on the list have had their ups and downs but kept their dividends intact. Notwithstanding, I should have known about those dividend cuts/freezes years ago! I will need to keep up on that a bit more.

Dividends

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