Previous Year Performance Review
In our ongoing review of the NLO Dividend Watch List, we have taken the top five stocks on our list from August 17, 2018 and have checked the performance one year later. The top five companies on that list can be seen in the table below.
| Symbol | Name | 2018 Price | 2019 Price | % change |
| LM | Legg Mason | 31.44 | 36.53 | 16.2% |
| IVZ | Invesco Ltd. | 24.48 | 15.64 | -36.1% |
| VMC | Vulcan Materials | 110.34 | 141.80 | 28.5% |
| AMAT | Applied Materials | 43.77 | 46.63 | 6.5% |
| PBI | Pitney Bowes Inc | 8.08 | 3.46 | -57.2% |
| Average | -8.4% | |||
| DJI | Dow Jones Industrial | 25,669.32 | 25,886.01 | 0.8% |
| SPX | S&P 500 | 2,850.13 | 2,888.68 | 1.4% |
The average loss for the top five companies was 8.4% compare to the market gain of 1.4%. The largest contributor of this loss was Pitney Bowes (PBI) whose market value fell 57%. Any company with dividend yield of 6% or more should be avoid and Pitney Bowes had a yield of nearly 10%. We thought Illinois Tool Works (ITW) is ripe for accumulation and shares gained 7.7%. At the time, we didn't think that Applied Materials (AMAT) was attractive but shares managed to gain 6.5%. However, shares of Applied Materials did fall 33% to $29 before rebounding to the current level.
U.S. Dividend Watch List: August 16, 2019
The market was on a roller coaster. After reaching an all-time high of 3,025, the fear of recession and tariff took the market down by about 5%. There is an important technical level to watch out for at 2,745 so keep an eye on it as we wait and see if the market can consolidate to move higher or lower. Continue reading