I must admit that since my last stock purchase (Seadrill) in February, I was having a hard time deciding where to deploy capital. Looking back at the first half of 2014 from today’s angle, there have definitely been some buying opportunities when Dow Jones and DAX incurred a minor correction in February and March. However, for some reason I don’t remember anymore, I missed this opportunity. That’s too bad, because since then stock markets broke one record after the next.
In parallel to the stock market rally, the ECB base rate recently hit another all-time low of 0.15% which I perceive as nothing else than a raid on my savings account. With a current outlook of several years of low-interest policy to come, I decided to buy another stock position. But, as already mentioned above, it’s not only the ECB policy which was supporting me in this decision:
- One of the top globally diversified consumer products companies in the world
- Exposure to emerging markets (40% of total sales)
- More than 55 years of consecutive annual dividend increases
- Market capitalization of ca. EUR 236bn
- Aa3 upper investment grade Moody’s rating
- Sales of USD 84bn and operating profit (EBIT) of USD 14.5bn in financial year 2013
- Ca. 60% dividend distribution ratio
- Comfortable Equity ratio of 50% and moderate Total Net Debt / EBITDA of 1.4x
- Added 20 stocks at EUR 58.42
