Recent Buys, December 2016

Holiday Gremlin here to talk about some more recent buys.  I hope everyone is gearing up for a great holiday weekend, which will include family, fun, football of both varieties, and food of course.  It is no question that I am ready for it, and am anticipating a nice long weekend.  Christmas is the time for giving, and sometimes you need to give to yourself / family in the form of financial security.  Today I am pushing for more of that with a few buys that I was able to make fee free.  This year I have had a few extra free purchases, and these were set to expire if I did not use them, so I would be damned if I let freebies go to waste.  So anyway, lets get on with what I bought.

First, I added shares of Abbott Laboratories (ABT) in my Roth account, this is an addition to an existing position as are the other buys.  I bought 6.24 shares, with a total cost of $250.00 ($39.39 / share).  The current yield is 2.72%.    The P/E ratio for ABT sits today at approximately 17.  I really want to add more in the healthcare sector in general, and this will be a part of that.  This position is one I definitely plan to expand in the future, especially with its 48% payout ratio and 43 years of dividend growth.  This purchase will add $6.62 to my Roth totals next year.

Second, I added around three shares of VF Corp (VFC) to my Loyal3 account.  The current yield is 3.12% (on current cost).  The P/E ratio is much better than it has been around 20, but the payout ratio on the yield is a sweet 40-ish-%.  That leaves a lot of room for growth, and it is a company I really like so this just another brick in that wall.  This purchase will add $5.04 to my Loyal3 account totals next year.

Lastly, I added shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM) to my taxable account.  I bought 3.1 shares, with a total cost of $260 ($83.72 / share).  The current yield is 4.48%.  The P/E ratio is around 10.25, which is great.  The payout ratio is approximately 44%, which still leaves room for growth.  In general the big Canadian Banks provide a lot to love.  I plan on adding to my other Canadian Bank, Scotiabank (BNS), next month.  Of the big 5 Canadian Banks, CM was my first purchase and remains my favorite.  Despite currency headwinds, they consistently improve their dividend in their local currency and I see results here in the USA.  Their are critics who believe they are too highly concentrated in certain markets, especially the Canadian housing market, but I do find that their system is designed to be safer than what the USA had.  If nothing else, they looked south at us and learned what not to do.  This purchase adds about $13 to my totals next year, pending foreign exchange valuations.  
 

These purchases are the last ones for 2016.  Overall, a good way to round out a year that has been good to me.
What do you think of ABT, CM, and VFC?

I will update my portfolio page at the end of the month.

I hope everyone has their shopping done and is prepared to sit inside and drink hot chocolate for a day.  Oh wait you're not, me neither, DAMN!
- Gremlin
- Long ABT, BNS, CM, VFC