The Dividend Guy’s July Dividend Portfolio Review

I know I have not been an investor for too many cycles, but this volatility is something. I remember putting together my portfolio review at the end of June and the story was very grim. Many of my stocks were at their lowest levels that I had ever seen while being an owner in them. Shoot forward to the end of July and the story looks a little better – not great but at least a little bit better.

My performance compared to the S&P500 is not too bad considering the circumstances. My dividend portfolio is down year to date at 7.20%, compared with the dismal returns of the S&P 500 year to date of -14.20%. I take some solace in that – my portfolio is performing better than the market. The primary reason for this I believe is the diversification moves I made earlier on in the year. Spreading out into more global funds (including emerging markets), adding more fixed income, and adding some U.S. REITs certainly helped spread my risk around and proved to make my portfolio less concentrated on the U.S. and Canadian markets. Investing is all about managing risk and each of the moves I have made in the past number of months was to this end.

So how does my portfolio look as of August 3rd? Here is the breakdown:

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I am starting to sound like a broken record, but my asset allocation is still heavily weighted to the Canadian market which I am STILL trying to bring in line. The performance of Royal Bank of Canada (until recently) in the past 5 years have seen this holding double for me and as such weighted me heavily in the Canadian market. I am strategically buying other assets rather than selling any of these Canadian holdings because I still have confidence in the stocks I hold. As a result, it is taking longer to bring the Canadian asset allocation in line with my target. I suspect it will take at least another year to get things totally in order. Here is my asset allocation as of August 3rd:

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And finally, we get to sector allocation. This is an area I have also been focused on as I am heavily weighted to the banks. Over time I will be working to spread the sector allocation out over a few different industries. Here is the sector allocation:

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I enjoy doing this review every month because it helps remind me of my investment principles. I hope you too find value in reading it. Thanks for your continued support of the site!