Looking back I see the last update I made on recent purchases was in April which you can find here.  During that time I’ve made one other purchase and that was to an existing position, TEF.  Some may feel I have absolutely lost my mind still investing in TEF with its recent cancellation of the dividend and horrible performance over the last two years.   You could be right.  It is yet to be seen whether the buyers or sellers will come out on top when it comes to TEF.  I’m taking a wait and see approach and accepting that at this point what I have in TEF is dead money.

The additional shares of TEF were purchased from the dividends received back in May.  I practice selectively re-investing dividends and decided the price of TEF warranted dividend re-investment.  39 shares were purchased at a cost of 11.28 a share.  My position in TEF consists of 731 shares at an average share price of 15.69.  At the moment I have no plans of increasing my position.

The lack of additional purchases has not been from lack of desire.  I would like to expand my holding to include a few new positions.  As you may have noticed my portfolio is still concentrated more than what many investors would feel comfortable with.  Adding a couple of new companies is the goal in the coming months.  With the overall market remaining over 13000 for most of August many of the stocks I’m watching have not provided entry prices that I would be happy with.  This may sound uncomfortably similar to the feared market timing, however there is much to be said for patience when it comes to investing.  I’ll continue to sit on my cash position until better opportunities arise.

In the next post I’ll share with you guys what is on my watch list.

Anyone else sitting tight or are you continuing to make purchases?  Leave me a comment and let me know why you are for or against making purchases at current market levels. 

Update:  I wrote this on Thursday of last week and on Friday I purchased a few shares of INTC for 24.17.  These shares are held in a retirement account and I don’t keep track of stock performance or dividends from those stocks on this blog.  However, in the spirit of being open with you guys I will mention purchases for the account when they occur.

Since my return home there has not been much action within The Stoic’s portfolio.  Little capital has been added and few stock purchases have been made.  However, the portfolio has been doing  a great job in regards to one of its main objectives: generating income.  This post will look at the total sum produced year-to-date, as well as a monthly breakdown of which stocks contributed to the total.

Total dividends received as of August 31st 2012 is $1921.81.  This is an increase of approximately $700.00 for all of 2011.   The following are totals for each month:

January: 0

February: 399.50

March: 113.30

April: 0

May: 851.73 *

June: 132.28

July: 25.50

August: 399.50

Below is the contribution from each company to the total:

NYB: 802.50

T: 396.00

MCD: 99.40

SFL: 146.18

TEF: 452.23 *

NJR: 25.50

* As part of its shareholder remuneration TEF paid part of the dividend as cash and part as shares.  I received 17.75 shares of TEF in addition to the cash dividend.

With about 15% of my portfolios value sitting in cash and the cancellation of the remainder of TEF’s dividend for this year; I may not hit the lofty dividend goal I set for myself earlier this year.  Even if that is the case I will be doing much better than last years total and it’s interesting to watch the portfolio mature.  I’ll provide another dividend update at the close of the year.