Latest stock purchases — AT&T and Kroger

My latest two purchases are additional shares of two companies that I already own.

On 5/30/2017, I purchased 200 shares of AT&T. While this slightly increases my cost basis, I feel that this is still a great entry point. AT&T is transitioning from being a slow growth telecom company functioning like a utility to a more high growth media company with recent purchases of Directv and the upcoming purchase of Time Warner. While I recently switched my cell phone carrier to Verizon since it is being paid for by work, if I had the choice I would still pick AT&T. AT&T’s data network had been much faster and more reliable than Verizon in all but a few locations. 

This AT&T purchase adds $392 in annual dividend income. It also brings my total share count up to 312 shares, in case I ever want to sell covered calls in the future.

The second purchase was one that looks like has been quite popular among dividend investing circles. I already had owned Kroger prior to Amazon’s announcement. But, when it was knocked down by 14% or so, I thought this was an excellent opportunity to dollar cost average down. On 6/16/2017, I purchased 150 shares of Kroger. This adds $72 in annual dividend income.

As of today, my forward 12-month dividend income is $7988.13. I just recently got paid and will be looking at some more purchases to finally crack that $8000 barrier. BAC’s recent dividend increase of 60% really helped as well, increasing my annual income by a whopping $73.12. BAC has been a great purchase in my Roth…I’m up 73.2% in it so far.