Stocks sold July 2018: ABF, Hugo Boss, Fast Retailing, CEZ, Fugro, ETF Austria, ETF Portugal

Due to the upcoming divorce I have decided to clean up my portfolio and to liberate cash. On top of this I will most likely not make any further investments for the coming half year to build up additional cash to pay for legal costs as well as to be able to transfer money to my soon to be ex-wife. The process cannot be started up until in November-January 2019 and the process will most likely take six months. So besides from building up the necessary cash to make sure that nothing further will be required it is better for me to spend money and to live a life of extravagance. It will be very difficult to convert my mindset but then again I should start dating again and that is never cheap.

I have also started to think seriously about marriage. In the past there were tax benefits, there was a protection for the housewife and the children but today in most countries these "benefits" neither exists nor are they needed. Both husband and wife are educated and earn their own living, children are protected by the society in general as well as other regulations so why should one then get married?

I will never marry again. If my, hopefully, future partner want to receive some form of security then that will be dealt with by writing a last will and testament. Both will of course write these and they can be signed in the presence of witnesses and afterwards one can have a "wedding-like" party. If the relationship will not work out then these documents can be ripped apart and in the meantime you and your partner can have a similar protection as if you were married. This is my idea to circumvent the old fashioned regulatory system that exists in most countries in the world today. Am I wrong?

Sold due to upcoming divorce as well as had being bought in a very annoying broker account that I tried out and was not very happy with.

I sold 77 shares (I still own 100 shares) that I bought for 2144.30 € and after fees I ended up with 2148.20 € on my broker account that was swiftly closed down after this sale.

This investment was made back in October 2016 which means that my holding period was 23 months and I made a 0.2% profit on this and no dividends has been accounted here.

To follow the journey of ABF please click here.

Sold due to divorce but also since they had pretty much reached the 30% profit target that I wanted them to reach on top of things.

I sold all my 35 shares that I had bought for 2136.00 € and after fees I ended up with 2701.29 € on my broker account.

The initial investment was made in January 2017 which means that my holding period was only 19 months and in this period I made a profit of 26.5% as well as receiving almost 185 € in dividends.

To follow the journey of Hugo Boss then please click here.

Sold mainly due to divorce. I also felt that I had too much in retail and could do with decreasing that quantity slightly.

I sold my 6 shares that I had bought for 2140.00 € and after fees I ended up with 2180.95 € on my broker account.

The initial investment was made in October 2015 which means that my holding period was 34 months and in this period I made a profit of 1.9% and had only received dividends in the size of 43.07 €.

To follow the journey of Fast Retailing then please click here.

Sold due to divorce. I had previously stated that I was not happy with the behaviour of the managers in CEZ especially all the dealings that took place around buying out the coal power plants and coal mines in Germany from Vattenfall. I then said that as soon as the share price had recovered slightly then I would directly sell them off. Many of the power supplying companies have recovered so it was time to get rid of it.

I sold my 100 shares that I had bought for 2142.00 € and after fees I received 2229.10 € as cash on my broker account.

The initial investment was made in April 2014 which means that I had a 52 months holding period of this company. During this period I made a profit of 4.1% and I was additionally paid out 559 € in dividends which is not so bad.

To follow the journey of CEZ then please click here.

Sold due to divorce. Probably the wrong moment to sell this company but I am not impressed with how few orders they managed to bring in considering that the oil price have been higher now for well over a year. So it felt good to clean it out of the portfolio.

I sold my 120 shares that I had bought for 2166.00 € and after fees I received 1392.70 € out as cash on my broker account.

The investment was made back in September 2014 which gives me a holding period of 47 months and during this period I have made a loss of 36% and I have received no dividends.

To follow the journey of Fugro then please click here.

Sold due to divorce. The Austrian index (ETF Austria held by DB) had increased by around 40% and have remained there for a while. It was time to leave this investment.

I sold my 80 parts that I had bought for 3083.00 € and after fees I received 4356.12 € put as cash on my broker account.

The investment was made in March 2015 and I therefore have a holding period of 41 months. During this period I have made a profit of 43.1% and on top of that I have received 215 € in dividends.

To follow the journey of ETF Austria then please click here.

Sold due to divorce. The Portugal index (ETF Portugal held by Commerzbank) have not increased enough but I needed a bit more money and for this reason I decreased my holding slightly.

I sold 380 parts that I had bought for 2264.80 € and after fees I received 2485.04 € out as cash on my broker account.

The investment was initially made back in March 2016 and I therefore have a holding period of 29 months. During this period I have had a profit of 9.7% and I have received no dividends.

To follow the journey of ETF Portugal then please click here.

My average holding period for sold shares are now at: 35 months, almost 3 years.

Any changes will be brought into the stock portfolio upon the next update in the very end of the month.

Dividends from RWE, VW, Hugo Boss, BASF, Talanx, Fast Retailing, E.On, H&M, K+S, DB and ETF Russia: May 2018

May has been a massive month when it comes to dividends but I am still far from what I need to get for securing retirement.

From my 330 shares in RWE I received in total dividends in the size of 495 €. From this the German government happily removed 130.55 € in taxes and I was left with 364.45 € as cash on my broker account.

To find out more about RWE then please click here.

In VW I have 12 shares and in total they paid out 47.52 €. Also here taxes were removed in the size of 12.53 € and I received out 34.99 € in cash.

To find out more about VW then please click here.

Also Hugo Boss paid out dividends and for my 35 shares I received in total 92.75 €. Germany once again took taxes in the size of 24.46 € and I received a total of 68.29 € as cash.

To find out more about Hugo Boss then please click here.

The wonderful chemical company BASF paid out dividends on my 80 shares in the size of 248 €. In this case I paid 38.43 € in taxes and therefore received 209.57 € paid out as cash on my broker account.

To find out more about BASF then please click here.

My only insurance company Talanx paid out 112 € for my 80 shares and from this was taken 29.54 € in taxes which left me with 82.46 € in cash.

To find out more about Talanx then please click here.

For my 6 shares in Fast Retailing I received a gift of 9.18 €. On this I paid 1.41 € in taxes which left me with around two beers or 7.77 € in cash.

To find out more about Fast Retailing then please click here.

My 400 shares in E.On gave be 120 € in dividends even though they probably could have used that money more wisely. From this was taken 31.65 € in taxes and I received 88.35€ in cash on my broker account.

To find out more about E.On then please click here.

For my 603 shares in H&M I received a total of 285.34 € in dividends. From this was taken 35.49 € in taxes and I received 249.85 € as cash in my hand.

To find out more about H&M then please click here.

My only mining company K+S paid out 84 € in dividends for my 240 shares. The German government once again comes with their little fingers and removed 22.15 € which gives me in the end 61.85 € as cash on my account.

To find out more about K+S then please click here.

These guys could and should really not have paid out a dividend but still for my 420 shares in DB I received a total of 46.20 €. From this 12.18 € went to taxes and I was left with 34.02 € in cash.

To find out more about DB then please click here.

My 550 shares in ETF Russia reinvested a total of 101.16 € and no taxes were paid out on this.

To find out more about ETF Russia then please click here.

That was everything for the month of May I wish that it would be like this every month.

To see my total dividend flow then please visit the Stock Dividends page that has now been updated.

Analysis of Fast Retailing 2018

Company: Fast Retailing

ISIN JP3802300008 | WKN 891638

Business: A Japanese retail group. They stand on a couple of brand pillars: UNIQLO (their largest brand), GU (offer low price fashion), Theory (offering fashion for the contemporary woman, launched in New York), COMPTOIR DES COTONNIERS (French origin offering fashion for women), PRINCESSE tam·tam (also French origin offering "lingerie made by women for women") & finally J BRAND (Californian origin offering fashion denim).

Active: Highly brand based but with their biggest one Uniqlo they are present in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, USA, UK, France, Germany, Russia and in Belgium. 

P/E: 37.5

The P/E is far too high for me with 37.5 and the P/B is also obnoxious with 8 which gives a very, very clear no go from Graham.

Their earnings to sales still need to improve because it is down at 6% but I am happy to see the change that has happened since last year. The ROE has also been pushed up slightly and is now at an excellent 21%. The book to debt ratio is also great with 1.8.

in the last five years they have managed to have a yearly revenue growth rate of over 10% which is great which then gives us a motivated P/E of 26 to 29 which means that they are still over valued by the market.

They pay out a tiny dividend of 0.8% which shockingly correspond to 33% of their earnings so they better start making more money soon.

Conclusion: Graham very clearly says no and so do I. The P/E is too high and the dividends are too low. I hope that 2017 was the year that changed Fast Retailing and that we will only see stronger and stronger improvements but I am afraid to make any such claims of it actually being the case. The e-shopping is a far too powerful movement at the moment. I will remain as a shareholder.

Fast Retailing annual report 2017

It is not their "true" annual report but it is from the publication that they made with the results.

For the report in full please go here, to find out more concerning Fast Retailing then please visit analysis of Fast Retailing 2017.

As can be seen in the income statement below Fast Retailing have started to do much better again. They had some hard years and hopefully they have finally managed to turn it around. The biggest problem they had was with their domestic market, so in Japan, where they were forced to shut down a couple of stores but now it seems as if they have managed to push up the margins again due to this. The revenue increase is only so, so with +4% but the profit increase is excellent with +148% which tells more about the sorry state that they were in than what it has to do with the earnings really being spectacular. Still it is a good start!

Conclusion: I hope that this was now the turning point for Fast Retailing. That they have closed down the majority of stores that they needed to deal with due to over expansion + the staggering increase of sales over internet. I will remain as a shareholder.

Dividend from Deere and Fast Retailing: November 2017

For my 30 shares in Deere I received 15.43 € in dividends. From this was taken 2.31 € in taxes and I was left with 13.12 € in cash on my broker account.

To find out more about Deere then please click here.

For my 6 shares in Fast Retailing I received 7.93 € in dividends. From this was taken 1.22 € in taxes and I was left with 6.71 € in cash on my broker account.

To find our more about Fast Retailing then please click here.

To see my total dividend flow then please visit the Stock Dividends page that will soon be updated. 

Dividends from Deere, VW, Fast Retailing, K+S, Talanx, BASF, DB & Hugo Boss: May 2017

Sorry for the long title but plenty of companies have paid out dividends during the last month and since I no longer have so much time I just try to bunk them all together as much as possible.

For my 30 shares I received 16.44 € in dividend. From this was taken 2.47 € in taxes and I was left with 13.97 € as cash on my broker account.

To find out more about Deere then please click here.

For my 12 shares in VW I received a total of 24.72 € in dividends. From this was taken 6.51 € in taxes and I was left with 18.21 € as cash on my broker account.

To find out more about VW then please click here.

For my 6 shares in Fast Retailing I received a total of 8.47 €. From this was taken 1.30 € in taxes and I was left with 7.17 € as cash on my broker account.

To find out more about Fast Retailing then please click here.

For my 240 shares in K+S I received in total 72 € in dividends (awful!). From this was taken 18.99 € in taxes and I was left with 53.01 € in cash on my broker account.

To find out more about K+S then please click here.

For my 80 shares in Talanx I received in total 108 € in dividends. From this was taken 28.48 € in taxes and I was left with 79.52 € as cash on my broker account.

To find out more about Talanx then please click here.

From my 47 shares in BASF I received a total of 141 €. From this was taken 37.18 € in taxes and I was left with 103.82 € as cash on my broker account.

To find out more about BASF then please click here.

From my 420 shares in DB I received 79.80 € in dividends. From this was taken 21.04 in taxes and I was left with 58.76 € as cash on my broker account.

To find out more about DB then please click here.

From my 35 shares I received 91 € and from this was taken 24 € in taxes which leaves me with 67 € as cash on my broker account.

To find out more about Hugo Boss then please click here.

To see my total dividend flow then please visit the Stock Dividends page that will soon be updated. It should be mentioned that this will not become a good year for dividends for me.

Analysis of Fast Retailing 2017

Company: Fast Retailing

ISIN JP3802300008 | WKN 891638

Business: A Japanese retail group. They stand on a couple of brand pillars: UNIQLO (their largest brand), GU (offer low price fashion), Theory (offering fashion for the contemporary woman, launched in New York), COMPTOIR DES COTONNIERS (French origin offering fashion for women), PRINCESSE tam·tam (also French origin offering "lingerie made by women for women") & finally J BRAND (Californian origin offering fashion denim). My interest was aroused due to an UNIQLO store that appeared in Berlin.

Active: Highly brand based but with their biggest one Uniqlo they are present in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, USA, UK, France, Germany, Russia and in Belgium. 

P/E: 83.4

The P/E of Fast Retailing is crazy high with over 80 and the P/B is also not good with 6.7 which gives a very clear no go from Graham. Their earnings to sales I find very, very low with 3% and the ROE has taken a deep dive and is now down at 8%. The book to debt have significantly changed since last year and it is now down at a ratio of 1 which means that they have almost doubled their debt and one need to start to wonder what the shareholders got for that.

in the last five years they have grown their yearly revenue by 14% which is really good and due to this we receive a motivated P/E of around 33 to 36 which means that fast Retailing is highly overvalued on the market today. Last year was however not a good year for them.

They pay a silly dividend of 0.9% which badly enough correspond to 77% of their earnings so it is very clear that they need to push up their earnings.

Conclusion: Graham says a very clear no to Fast Retailing and I am also not very happy of the development. They have very clearly problems on their home market which is such a large part of their business that even if things are going well internationally they are not able to compensate for the ground losses at home in Japan.I hope that this is a temporary fashion issue that can be turned around within an acceptable timeline. I will remain as a grumpy shareholder.

Fast Retailing annual report 2016

For the report in full please go here, to find out more concerning Fast Retailing then please visit analysis of Fast Retailing.

In the financial statement below we see that 2016 was not a great year for Fast Retailing. They had a very, very moderate revenue increase which is very bad and what makes it even worse is that the earnings are far from where they should be. The last time they were down at this level in earnings was in 2009. The sale area did also not improve with an impressive value and year to year sales, especially in Japan, is not something to brag about.

Conclusion: Fast Retailing is currently having a tough time and Japan, their oh so important home market, are not delivering as one would have hoped. That should today be a cash cow that should support the expansion everywhere else in the world but instead stores needs to be closed down. I am not very happy with the development in Fast Retailing but I will remain as a shareholder for the time being because I do believe that they will have a bright future with their cloths and their store concept.

Dividend from Deere and Fast Retailing: November 2016

For my 30 shares in Deere I received a total of 16.28 € and from this was taken 2.44 € in taxes which left me with 13.84 € in cash on my broker account.

To find out more about Deere then please visit analysis of Deere 2015.

For my 6 shares in Fast Retailing I received in total 8.55 € and from this 1.31 € was taken in taxes which left me with 7.24 € on my broker account in cash.

To find out more about Fast Retailing please visit analysis of Fast Retailing.

To see my yearly dividend earnings then please visit the Stock Dividends page that will shortly be updated.

Retail report Q2 2016

This group is complicated to report on since almost all of them are running broken years and additionally I decided to bring in ABF into retail even though they are still so much more than retail... either way here goes...

Adidas

I am very certain that this report was well accepted. The share price has gone from around 110 EUR up to 155 EUR before it dropped down a little again to 145 EUR which it is at today. The report is excellent and yet there are difficult matters in it.

For the report in full please go here and to see my previous summary please visit Adidas report Q1 2016 and to find out more regarding Adidas then please go to  analysis of Adidas 2016.

The financial statement below is impressive. The net sales are up by 15% but they have managed to control their costs and for this reason we end up with a net income that is up by almost 70% in comparison to 2015. Impressive! With the Olympics etc. in 2016 it has turned out to be a very strong sports year. The sales in the USA as well as in China has completely exploded! So many signals have indicated that the US consumer is careful... well... apparently not for buying Adidas products.

Still... South America as well as Russia showed very weak results. Additionally, Reebok, TaylorMade-Golf and CCM-Hockey did not perform at all. All the strength and sales came from the Adidas brand and I must say that the Adidas products that I saw in the Olympics simply looked good. Well designed and beautifully made not like the Puma Switzerland football shirts that got ripped apart when the wind was blowing a little in the European championship.

Conclusion: Adidas have already in the first half of this year made as much money as they did for the full year of 2015. People have started to collect their earnings as would I have done if I would have had more of a focus. Still... if South America takes off and Russia as well... Hmmm... and China have started to buy the real brand and not fake versions... yeah, the journey has probably still not ended and I just managed to buy them at the very insane low price which makes me want to bring home my profit but I will suck a little more on my thumb here.

Associated British Foods

ABF have arrived with two reports in the meantime and only one of them, their half year report, contains numbers and their so called trading reports are just a bit of a chit chatting to be honest.

The report in full can be found here and for the previous report please visit ABF report Q1 2016 and to find out more regarding ABF then please check out the analysis of ABF 2015.

In the financial statement below things are looking ok but that is also all to say about it. The revenue is down and due to some cost control the earnings in the end is a bit up compared to last year. They keep coming with their adjusted this and that which I do not like but it seems to have decreased a little... could mean that things are actually looking better but well... who knows.

Conclusion: The most disturbing thing with Primark here in the UK is that they do not look more active, with their sales, than a normal H&M. They are far, far away from how it was in Berlin when I saw the stores there. Sure, normality always arrives and it is stale. Still, they are expanding hard and as long a company does that they will also keep growing their revenue and most likely their earnings.

ABF also arrived with their Q3 report and in it the only things mentioned of interest is that sugar seems to start to improve mainly due to increased prices but also due to cost control. They also expect to get mixed benefits due to Brexit and decreased valuation of the GBP.

Conclusion: In their Q3 report, which is a three pages report, there is not much to say. I was disappointed that the growth of Primark is not increasing by more than 7%. That disturbs me.

Fast Retailing

Fast Retailing and Uniqlo is another one of those companies with a broken year and for this reason the report concerns Q3 2016. The report is bad and I am not impressed.

For the report in full please go here, to read the previous summary then please click on Fast Retailing report Q2 2016 and to find out more concerning Fast Retailing then please visit analysis of Fast Retailing.

In the financial statement below we can see that they keep paying in earnings for their push in revenue and market share. Their 6% increase in revenue gives -47% decreased earnings. On top of this poor performance they even had to change their projections for the full year 2016 to much, much worse from something that already from the start was not very impressive at all.

Conclusion: Fast Retailing needs to tie up their costs and here we have yet another one of those companies that are pissing around with derivatives. Well done guys! I love their stores and I find that their cloths look good but they need to shape up!

Gerry Weber

Ooooh... wooow! This report is smashing! It follow the exact same trend as were seen in the Q1 report and already that one was amazing. Ralf Weber, please resign and please board give the position to the Hallhuber guy that seems to have some clue about the business.

To see the report in full please go here,  to take a look at the previous summary then please click on Gerry Weber report Q1 2016 and to find out more regarding Gerry Weber please visit analysis of Gerry Weber 2016.

In the financial statement below there is nothing to be happy about. Nothing. They keep living on the shoulders of Hallhuber and on their own they are losing money. Unacceptable.

Conclusion: Ralf Weber is not the right man for the job so please kick him out. They are pushing a new silly program called "FIT4GROWTH"! Are they little computer kids from the 90s? Adults should be able to write out proper words. Put the Hallhuber guy in charge and clean out the trash. 

TJX

The American giants they just keep on delivering. It is almost always an enjoyment to dig into the reports and also in this situation I am pleased.

To read the report in full please go here, for my previous summary please visit TJX report Q2 20156and to find out more about TJX then please click on analysis of TJX 2016.

In the financial statement below we see a consistent increasing revenue and even better we see a consistent increased earning and dividend payment. On top of this they also increased the guidance for the full year and this is in a period when the value of the USD has strengthened.

Conclusion: TJX is doing well and I am happy to be a shareholder in this American giant. They will keep growing in Europe and they will keep pushing for getting into those 40 billion USD revenue!

Overall Conclusion Retail: These companies are stretching from major home market being in Asia and Japan to Europe and going further to the US. Adidas is showing that Asia is doing but Fast Retailing shows that Japan is doing badly. ABF indicates that UK is not doing so good but the rest of Europe is ok. From Gerry Weber we can not extract any information since the CEO is useless and Germany is actually doing very well which we did not see from that report. TJX is showing that US is doing pretty good as did Adidas so that is good news to me especially since ABF is establishing themselves there more and more with now three opened stores.

Dividend from Fast Retailing: May 2016

The Japanese retail chain with Uniqlo as the most important brand decided to pay out a dividend that they really should not even bother doing. They do however pay out twice but still... they should use all of it for expansion.

For my six shares I received in total 1,110 JPY which gets converted to 8.94 €. From this I had to pay 15.315% (1.37 €) in taxes and I ended up with 7.57 € on my broker account. I cannot be bothered to calculate the YoC but its bad.

To find out more about Fast Retailing please visit analysis of Fast Retailing.

To see my yearly dividend earnings then please visit the Stock Dividends page that will shortly be updated.