Bert’s December Dividend Stock Watch List: 3 Stocks To Buy

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Luis Alvarez

The final month of the year is usually an insane month for the holidays. Family, food, football… it’s the best! Let’s make sure that December is also going to be an excellent month for dividend investing as well. Lanny recently published his December Dividend Stock Watch List, featuring 3 great dividend stocks. You know what? Now it is my turn. Here are Bert’s 3 Dividend Stocks to Buy on his December dividend stock watch list!

The month of December was a frustrating month for dividend investors. Many of the discounts we saw over the last couple of quarters disappear. In November, the S&P 500 increased over 9%. The market is once again well over 4,000. The way December is starting, it is looking like it is picking up where November left off.

Market

This week, Jerome Powell suggested that the interest rate hikes may slow down earlier than anticipated, causing the market to soar. That, coupled with other headlines indicating that inflation may be easing, left investors feeling great and the market soaring.

Still, despite the increase in the market, there are still plenty of buying opportunities out there. There may not be a ton of screaming buys out there and it may take longer to find them. However, there are many great stocks if you look hard enough and stick to your personal investment philosophy and dividend stock screener. That’s why Lanny and I are always building watch lists. To find ways to put our hard-earned cash to work. Time to keep focusing on building our passive income stream by buying more dividend growth stocks.

Dividend Diplomat Stock Screener

To find and analyze undervalued dividend stocks, we use 3 simple metrics to evaluate every dividend stock. The goal of our stock screener is to identify if a stock is an undervalued dividend growth stock to buy.

Here is a rundown of the 3 metrics of our stock screener:

1.) Price to Earnings Ratio Less than the S&P 500. Currently, the S&P 500 is trading at a P/E Ratio of 19.83X.

2.) Dividend Payout Ratio Less than 60% (Although we think a perfect payout ratio is 40% – 60%). The payout ratio measures the safety of the dividend. This ensures the company can continue growing its dividend during good times and bad. That’s why it is a critical metric in our stock screener that we must evaluate!

3.) History of Increasing Dividends. We review this metric by reviewing the company’s five-year average dividend growth rate and consecutive annual dividend increases. Since we are long-term investors, it is important that a company increases its dividend consistently!

Bonus: Dividend Yield. We like to also throw in a bonus metric to our dividend stock analysis. Yield does not drive our decision; however, we would be lying if we said we completely ignore dividend yield.

Dividend Stock #1: Citigroup (C)

Citigroup has been a staple in my wife’s portfolio over the last year. We started purchasing last year when the price was in the high $50 – low $60 per share range. Once inflation spiked and talks of a recession picked up steam, the company’s stock price fell. Now, like Warren Buffett, my wife and I keep adding slowly to our Citi position. At the time of this article, my wife owns 54.967 shares. She receives over $100 in annual dividend income from Citi. We would love to continue building this position and eventually receive 1 share per quarter via DRIP. Let’s see the metrics.

Citi’s stock price is $47.24 per share at the time of this article. The company’s forward EPS is $6.39 per share and the annual dividend is $2.04 per share. Let’s see how the metrics shake out.

1.) Price to Earnings Ratio: 7.39x.

2.) Dividend Payout Ratio: 31.9%.

3.) History of Increasing Dividends: Citi’s 5-year DGR is 16.27%, although this is slightly misleading. The company has not increased its dividend since the pandemic started in 2020. The dividend growth was front loaded.

4.) Dividend Yield: 4.32%.

Bonus.) Price to Book Ratio: .51X (This is extremely low. We consider a bank undervalued if its Price to Book ratio is 1X or 1.1X or lower).

Dividend Stock #2: Qualcomm (QCOM)

Qualcomm is another tech stock that has been one of my favorite purchases in 2022. Qualcomm dropped into the low $100s a month or two ago. After a recent appreciation in the stock price, the stock price has settled in the $120s per share. Now, we have built our position to 14.122 shares in total. Driving this position up to 20 shares in a short period of time would be great.

Qualcomm’s stock price is $125.66 per share at the time of this article. Qualcomm’s earnings per share is $10.23 per share and the company’s annual dividend is an even $3.00 per share. The company’s metrics are as follows:

1.) Price to Earnings Ratio: 12.28x.

2.) Dividend Payout Ratio: 29.3%.

3.) History of Increasing Dividends: Qualcomm has a 5-year average dividend growth rate of 5.52% and has increased its dividend for 11+ consecutive years.

4.) Dividend Yield: 2.39%.

Dividend Stock #3: Realty income (O)

One position that I’ve wanted to add to over the last few years, but never have actually purchased is Realty Income. A long time ago, I amassed a position of 121 shares in my Roth IRA. The monthly dividends have been great, adding over $20 each month. This company is the GOAT in the REIT sector and the gold standard for dividend growth investors. Therefore, I continue asking myself… why have I not just increased my position to at least 150 shares!

Realty Income’s stock price is $62.90 per share at the time of this article. Since Realty Income is a REIT, we will use Realty’s Funds From Operations (FFO) instead of earnings per share to evaluate the stock. FFO is the standard metric in the REIT industry! Realty Income’s FFO is $3.99 per share and the company’s annual dividend is $2.98 per share. The company’s metrics are as follows:

1.) Price to FFO Ratio: 15.76x.

2.) Dividend Payout Ratio: 75.6%.

3.) History of Increasing Dividends: Realty Income is a newly crowned Dividend Aristocrat and has increased its dividend for 25+ consecutive years. Realty’s 5-year average dividend growth rate is 3.93% as well.

4.) Dividend Yield: 4.74%.

Summary – December Dividend Stock Watch List

Now that we know the 3 dividend stocks on my December dividend stock watch list, what am I going to do? Which dividend stock on my watch list is my favorite? Simple. I actually like all 3 stocks and I’m strongly going to consider adding to each of the positions next week. The metrics are solid. They are great dividend growth stocks. So why not just buy all 3 companies? It seems like a pretty simple answer to me. Sometimes with investing, we need to remember to keep it simple and buy stocks when they are showing signs of undervaluation.

What do you think of the 3 stocks on my December dividend stock watch list? Do you like Citi, Qualcomm and Realty Income? If not, what other stocks do you prefer instead?

Bert

Original Post

Editor’s Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.

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