The U.S. equities extended their first-quarter gains by adding a gain of 5.3% last month on top of the 6% in Q1-21. The investor’s sentiment was driven by robust earnings and improving economic fundamentals. Also in Europe, major indices extended their gains. The S&P Europe 350 rose 2% in April, increasing the year-to-date return to 11%.
Our International Dividend Portfolio gained 4.9% in US$ and 3.8% in euros in April. Year-to-date the performance is now 12.1% in euros for this Dividend Portfolio.
April Performance
Since its inception in 2009, the portfolio has returned 372% in US$ and 448% in euros, excluding reinvesting dividends.
Last month’s performance dashboard shows again positive month with several stocks up. Top performers are SAP (+11%), McDonald’s, and Realty Income. Year-to-date ten stocks are already above a 9% return and this is excluding dividends received.
The chart below displays the portfolio value from 2020 to April 2021 in USD.
Dividends
Dividend growth is a key element of our dividend portfolio. In March, Realty Income (O) declares $0.235/share monthly dividend (ex-div March 31), a 0.2% increase from the prior dividend of $0.2345.
L’Oreal (OR.PA) will pay in April a dividend of 4.00 euros per share, an increase of +3.9% compared with the dividend paid in 2020. The dividend has been paid on 29 April 2020.
In April, next to L’Oreal, also the European holdings SAP and Wolters Kluwer paid a dividend.
The dividend growth rate since inception is 7% and our International Dividend Portfolio has now experienced one dividend cut since the start (RD-Shell).
Getting started
We created the International Dividend Portfolio, so customers can follow a selection of international dividend stocks. Some investors could mirror the portfolio holding for holding, but others use the list to generate investment ideas and make sense of trends and risk/returns in their own portfolios.
If you decide to mirror the portfolio, our recommendation would be to invest equally across all holdings. This provides diversification between stocks, sectors, and currencies. Preferable the value of one individual stock is always below 5%-8%. Some holdings may appear undervalued and some overvalued, so we provide some guidelines/rules when to buy or not to buy. Please take into account that there is currency risk.
More details and the dividend stocks in portfolio are available to members.
