March 2018 Watchlist

I accumulated some funds for my next investment and am trying to decide how to put them to work. This is my first watchlist of stocks I am considering at the moment which I hope will help me decide what to buy next. Let’s start with the list!

  1. Telia Lietuva (TEL1L).  Simply put, this company provides telecommunications, IT and TV services in Lithuania. It is part of Telia Company AB (Sweden) which holds 88% of shares. The company paid €0.03/share dividend last year. With current price of €1.085 it would mean yield of 2.7% which is respectable in US standards but quite low in Baltic market standards. However, the company increased their revenue, lowered their debt, increased free cash flow in 2017 compared to previous year. All these signs would suggest that they should raise their dividend this year. Furthermore, I am using TV, Internet and mobile phone plan from Telia so it would be great if their dividend could pay for part of my bills!
  2. Altria Group (MO). For those few who are not aware of this dividend darling, Altria Group is the parent company for Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Ste. Michele Wine Estates and Philip Morris Capital Corporation. I was always skeptical about investing to industries associated with smoking/drinking. I am not sure if I am becoming more cynical when years go by but I am no longer so categorical. I now started to think that we can find dark sides for most of the companies if we look close enough. Some of them are hurting environment (think Exxon Mobil), others are making us addicted to mobile phones (e.g. Facebook) and I could think of some sort of unethical side for dozen more companies. Perhaps the fact that Altria Group is associated with tobacco industry may serve as an advantage to investors who are only looking at numbers. A lot of people tend to avoid investing to tobacco companies and therefore miss great companies from their business side. With the recent slump in price of MO, I am considering it as one of the choices for my portfolio. Its current P/E stands at 11.88, dividend yield – 4.39%. I find this valuation favorable and think that this is a good time to enter into this position if I decide to.
  3. General Motors (GM). I’ve been following this one for a while. With all the hype of Tesla last year, I was looking at other companies from car industry. While TSLA is not paying any dividends, haven’t earned any profits yet, has loads of debt, GM is looking quite attractive to me. With it’s current price, it offers dividend yield of 4.06%, forward P/E stands at 6.06 (current P/E is not applicable as the company had one-time expenses due to tax reform, as did a lot of other companies in US and suffered loss on paper in 2017). I also like the fact that the company is investing to self-driving vehicles which should play a big role in the future. Furthermore, its electric vehicle Chevrolet Bolt sales are looking good as well. Unfortunately, electric vehicles are still not profitable for car companies but at least GM can cover the losses with sales of conventional vehicles. On the other hand, in my opinion, the economy cycle is looking at a peak in the U.S. at the moment and sales of cars could suffer in the future. Also, the trade wars may also hurt the company, as it would increase the price of metal that is used to produce vehicles. It would harm GM compared to competitors from other countries. But I am constantly following this company and it is one of the options I am considering.

 

What do you think about above companies? Do you consider buying any of them? What would you recommend to buy at the moment? I would appreciate your comments!

7 thoughts on “March 2018 Watchlist

  1. Hi there. I was invested in TEO at its good old high dividend yield times. Then there was this omnitel action which I as small dividend investor Tottaly was agains and votes with my feat. Sold the shares and sweared to my self that i will never ever buy TEO.

    MO dont like – cigarets as KO and MCD might be have issues with L/T perspective. Its could be investment into next Kodak 😉

    GM might be catching a falling knif situation. It might bounce back and could be a wonderfull investmen but it might not.

    Personaly I incested in AEP, PG and PFE in 2018Q1. I find thouse companies more boring investments but more safe 🙂

    1. Hi P2035,
      Thanks for a detailed comment and suggestions! PFE was also one of the considerations to add to my watchlist, perhaps I should give another look at this company. And I am not familiar with AEP – will need to look into this one.
      Regarding PG, I already own some of this company and would like to diversify my portfolio instead.
      -BI

  2. Neither of these companies have my appeal. Nr 2 due to personal reasons for not investing in oil/tobacco/weapons.

    I’m currently looking at BEP (I’m a sucker for green stocks), ED, GIS, PG, MAIN (although my REIT exposure is big enough), KMB (already purchased), BEN, PEP and HAS.

    1. Hi Mr. Robot,
      Thanks a lot for your opinion and suggestions! I will need to look at the companies you mentioned as well – you gave me a lot of work to do 😀 thanks again!
      -BI

  3. Haven’t considered any of those companies BI. I will say though, regarding MO that I’m generally not opposed to investing in such companies. As long as the numbers work then I’m all for it.

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