Well, for my first post, February draws to a close and we are already two months into 2010.
My portfolio value currently stands at £177,030 which is exactly flat year to date. However, income received is up 37% year on year for the first two months of the year.
Even though the total for the week stands at £66.59 (well below my full year target of £172 per week), February is traditionally one of the quietest months of the year in terms of my portfolio for dividend payments.
I received some dividends from my US holdings, including Health Care REIT and HCP which were up year on year. Also, today I received the start of my monthly payments from my corporate bond funds.
In terms of purchases, I made small top ups to Imperial Tobacco, AstraZeneca and Aviva. All of which I intend to grow substantially.
Next on my radar for top ups in the next couple of weeks are Glaxo and Royal Dutch Shell. Even though they are numbers 3 and 5 in my largest holdings both well in excess of £4000 worth each I am happy to keep adding for the quarterly income received from both stocks. Glaxo should grow faster than Shell, but I am happy to take the current income from Shell for some time going forward as I am buying on a 6% yield.
One new purchase is on my radar - Reckitt Benckiser. This was the second ranked company from the FTSE 100 for shareholder returns in the last decade and I have no doubts it will remain shareholder focussed in the future. I am hoping for a dip in the share price to coincide when I have sufficient funds to open the position - hopefully in the near future.
