Dividend Portfolio Holding Apple Leading the Charge by Brian Nelson, CFA
In case you missed it, IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, a source for real-time cloud-based online retail data and analysis, revealed strong online retail trends for this Thanksgiving and Black Friday:
“US Holiday shoppers once again shopped online early for the best deals with Thanksgiving Day online sales increasing by 19.7% over 2012. This momentum set the stage for a record Black Friday, with online sales growing 18.9% over the same period last year. The biggest surge came from mobile sales increasing to 25.8% of total online sales for Thanksgiving and 21.8% for Black Friday as consumers went from the dinner table to their tablets to lock in the best offers. In addition, IBM reported that New York City consumers led the way in Black Friday online sales followed by Atlanta and Los Angeles.”
The trend toward online transactions remains strong, and Dividend Growth portfolio holding Apple (AAPL) was one of the biggest winners this holiday weekend. Valuentum members were alerted to Apple in the July 24 email alert at $442 per share, where the company was also added to our Dividend Growth portfolio (see page 5). Wal-Mart (WMT), for example, reported 1.4 million sales of versions of the iPad on Thanksgiving alone, and according to CNBC, eBay (EBAY) noted it was selling an iPad at a pace of one per minute as of midnight Thanksgiving/Black Friday. Apple products continue to be in huge demand, and according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, Apple’s iOS is also dominating purchasing activity over Google’s (GOOG) Android.
It remains to be seen whether the strong iPad sales represent a pull-forward of demand. But even if that’s the case, we still like the pace of unit sales. Shares of Apple closed at $556 per share Friday, up nearly 26% (or $114) since the time of our email transaction alert in July. We have been very pleased with the firm’s performance. If you are not receiving these email transaction alerts, please contact us at info@valuentum.com immediately. To view the previous email transaction alerts of the Dividend Growth portfolio, please select the following link (login required):
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1 Dividend Portfolio Holding Apple Leading the Charge on Holiday Sales
2 Surveying 3Q Results at the Energy Majors (tickers: BP, COP, CVX, RDS, XOM)
3 Energy Transfer Partners’ Distribution Coverage Improves in 3Q (ticker: ETP)
4 Realty Income Is Our Favorite REIT Idea; It Reminds Us Why Every Month (ticker: O)
5 Our Dividend Growth Portfolio
6 Dividend Growth Portfolio Holding Emerson Hikes Dividend (ticker: EMR)
8 Medtronic Posts Better Than Expected Fiscal 2Q Results (ticker: MDT)
7 Surveying 3Q Performance at the Healthcare REITs (tickers: HCP, OHI)
9 Deere Doing Much Better Than Caterpillar (tickers: DE, CAT)
10 Stocks with High VBI Ratings and Strong Dividend Growth Prospects (see article for tickers)
11 Our Dividend Growth Watch List
12 Yields to Avoid
13 PPL Corp Reports Solid 3Q; Raises Midpoint of 2013 Earnings Forecast (ticker: PPL)
14 Disney Posts Solid 4Q Results; Sets Date for Star Wars Episode VII (ticker: DIS)
15 Home Depot’s Third-Quarter Performance Better Than Lowe’s (tickers: HD, LOW)
17 Clorox Faces Cash Flow Headwinds in Fiscal 1Q (ticker: CLX)
18 Phillips 66’s 3Q Reveals Difficult Refining Environment (ticker: PSX)
19 About Our Dividend Cushion™
22 Featured Reports: VFC, UPS, COH, HRB
26 Our Valuentum Buying Index