Portfolio Value Update - July 2020

Welcome back, guys! Wow. It’s already August. Are you kidding me? July is gone and we’re heading towards the end of summer again. That’s nuts. We’re skipping out on a lot of activities this summer because of the pandemic. Montreal is the worst hit city in the country so we avoid all non-essential travels and activities for now. Anyway, let’s see how my stock portfolio performed in July and how much dividends I received.


Portfolio Value
In July, my stock portfolio value increased by $4,003 and closed at $87,373. I added $3,000 worth of new stocks, the rest of the increase came from capital gains. I’m only a few grand away from all-time high of $91,000 that I had in January 2020. The stock market gained some traction in July. Let’s see if it will continue to do well in August. The Q2 reports are coming out. They are ugly, but I don’t think that investors will negatively react to the bad quarter reports. We all understand that the economy will rebound as soon as A: we have a vaccine or B: we have an effective treatment or C: the spreading stops naturally, just like all other pandemics in the past. 

New Stock Purchase: Telus Telecommunications

Hey guys. Today, I would like to share my new stock purchase. I started a new position in Telus by purchasing 135 shares at $22.88 per share. This is the first telco stock in my portfolio and I gave my preference to Telus instead of Rogers or Bell. Eventually, I will buy the other two companies, but for now, I believe that Telus has better outlook given the current environment.

Telus pays a quarterly dividend of $0.2913 per share which translates into a 5.1% yield. It’s a high quality blue-chip stock so 5.1% is very nice! I’m happy that I was able to lock that in. The purchase of 135 shares will add $39.32 per quarter or $157.30 per year to my forward dividend income.

 

Company’s Profile:

Telus is one of the big three wireless service providers in Canada, with its 9 million mobile phone subscribers nationwide constituting almost 30% of the total market. It is also the ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier; the legacy telephone provider) in the western Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, where it provides Internet, television, and landline phone services. It also has a small wireline presence in eastern Quebec. In recent years Telus has moved to bring fiber to the home over most of its wireline footprint as it upgrades its legacy copper network, leaving it able to compete on more equal footing with cable providers. Telus’ other businesses include international business services, health data records, and security.

Portfolio Value Update - June 2020

Portfolio Value
In June, my stock portfolio value increased by $11,398 and closed at $83,370. Most of the increase came from new stock purchases. I added $9,299 worth of new stocks. The rest of the growth came from stocks appreciation.

The Second Wave of Bargain Shopping - AQN, SRU, NFI, ENB, BNS

Today I pulled the trigger and finally bought more stocks. The last time I bought stocks was 3 months ago. I must admit that prices in March were lower due to the uncertainty about the economy. Back then nobody knew how bad the pandemic would damage the economy. Now that most places are back to business, the general sentiment about the economy has improved. Even the demand for gas has improved and gasoline prices are almost back to normal.

Not sure if now is the best time to buy stocks. We may have better deals in fall. Nonetheless, I decided to get back into stock buying and will continue to do so for as long as possible. 

Portfolio Value Update - May 2020

Portfolio Value
In May, my stock portfolio value decreased by $855 and closed at $71,972. I was expecting my portfolio to drop even more because of the shutdowns and high unemployment rate. Our economy is already starting to open so this might be a positive catalyst for the stocks in June. However, I’m not too excited to jump into stocks until Q2 reports are out in August. The Q1 was bad for most companies, but that only includes a few weeks of shutdown in March. The Q2 will reflect April – May shutdowns and June recovery. That will be interesting to read.