Despite all the alarms around this company, I bought a few stocks of a company called TICC.
Main reason for this was: I had not enough capital left to buy a blue chip stock, but the 12% dividend also looked very attractive.
This extremely high yield obviously has its reasons. The stock has been declining ever since I bought it.
Bought it at $9.80 and I sold half a year later for $7.44.Total dividend paid: $1.16. Net result: -$1.20.
Lessons learned: don't invest in companies with extremely high dividend yield. Not even when they have more than 10 years of dividend paying history.
Despite the loss, this lesson seems to be much more valuable than this single dollar.
Have you had any risky operations going?
Thanks for reading!
It's known that high yield always is a red flag trigger especially when it is in double digits. Never heard of TICC and I think it's wise you jumped ship and should use your money to buy lower yielding, higher dividend growth companies instead. It's not often we read about sales on the dividend blogs. Just goes to show that sales are usually of dividend dogs. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi DivHut,
DeleteThanks for your thoughts.
I think you're right. A DGI portfolio should be one to buy and hold.
I'm glad I've seen the light in time.. and cheaply :)
Best wishes, DfS
Thanks for sharing this experience with us. I hope you don't feel burned by it! I made this mistake a few times when I very first started investing. I didn't really know very much! A high yield is always a warning that something is dodgy in the stock or even the sector as a whole sometimes (e.g. British supermarkets right now).
ReplyDeleteBest to stick to safer companies. If you want 'high yield' you could try looking to utilities and telecomms as they typically pay higher than average yields, but not to high as to be really threatened by crazy prices and cuts.
Cheers
DFS,
ReplyDeleteIt is all about learning and growing as an investor. Nobody has a perfect record, even if they won't admit it! I learned relatively quickly to not get caught chasing yield. Instead, find companies that are fundamentally strong and are in a position to continue to grow their dividend for years to come. If you run your screener and analyses and find out that a high yield stock is the best option, then perfect! If not, there are plenty of great lower yielding companies to add to your portfolio.
Best of luck. Luckily this lesson wasn't too expensive for you.
Bert, One of the Dividend DIplomats