Performance
The Family Portfolio performed pretty well in January, up +2.5% outperforming both the S&P 500 (-1.1%) and Nasdaq (1.4%). Much of this outperformance can be attributed to higher exposure to US growth stocks that have been powering higher.
As at the close of January, portfolio all-time performance stood at +7.9% (+12.3% including all-time dividends). Singapore stocks have been a huge drag on performance, so I’m hoping rotation into US growth stocks will improve portfolio performance going forward.
Dividends
Dividends were 55% higher YoY, mainly due to larger total dividends paid by Singtel (SGX:Z74) since I’ve almost doubled my position compared to last year. However, Singtel did cut their 2021 interim dividend by 25% to 5.1 cents from 6.8 cents the year prior. Other notable payers were ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), Cisco (CSCO) and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ).
I expect overall portfolio dividend growth to slow or even stay flattish this year due to companies not fully reinstating dividends that were cut last year, and the repositioning of the portfolio holdings from Singapore value/dividend stocks to US growth stocks. I expect portfolio annual dividend yield to only be around 2% because most US growth stocks I’ve been adding pay little or no dividends.
Trades
- Sold:
- Cisco (CSCO)
- OCBC (SGX:O39)
- FHT (SGX:ACV)
- SATS (SGX:S58)
- AT&T (T)
- Bought:
- Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ)
- ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK)
- Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT)
- Square (SQ)
- Sea Limited (SE)
- Apple (AAPL)
Two major themes driving my trades last month – rotation from Singapore value/dividend stocks to US growth stocks, and reducing the number of positions in the portfolio.
All 5 counters sold were complete exits, except for OCBC where I’m left with odd lot of 9 shares from the previous scrip dividend. I took advantage of a mini-rally in Singapore stocks to sell out of OCBC, FHT and SATS. I felt that we were overexposed to Singapore banks with DBS, OCBC and STI ETF (of which largest constituents are big 3 banks) so decided to exit OCBC. Sold FHT in favor of keeping Ascott REIT. I believe the hospitality sector will eventually recovery but I wanted to just have one counter. SATS had a good run, so I’m happy to take profits and close out the position. Cisco and AT&T have been underperforming for some time now and although they pay a good dividend, it is less compelling after the 30% withholding tax.
No new positions initiated last month, just adding to existing ones. Most buys were executed in late January where we had some market weakness. I will continue to dollar-cost-average into VT, QQQ, ARKK regularly at least once a quarter. Square and Sea have performed well so far, but Apple has been trading sideways since I bought them.
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