Shares: 18
Predicted annual dividend income: £32 (this purchase) and £59 (entire holding)
A couple of you may have noticed that the sad economic plight of Greece has had a teeny-weeny effect on the global markets. The UK market was no different. The FTSE 100 index dropped about 2% on 29 June with a further 1.5% on 30 June. Pretty hefty.
But, of course, the FTSE 100's different constituents each got hit by the sell-off to different extents. Some got hit harder, some less so. But what about my recent buy, AstraZeneca?
Well, AstraZeneca got hit even harder over this period after a fairly consistent price slide in recent times. On 29 June it dropped 2.31% with another 1.9% shed the next day. Pretty shocking to see as a shareholder.
I bought into the company in May after its share price slide--post-Pfizer bid--had seemingly been well developed. From its high of about £49 it had slipped to £44. I must admit that I had not expected to see it a little over a month after dropping to its 52 week low just above £40.
However, these are the opportunities that a long-term dividend investor is looking for.
It actually took me two days to hit the buy button. First because I wanted to see how things developed as it was clear that markets were not finished selling off yet. But also because so many opportunities had shown themselves. My options, really, boiled down to this:
- Top-up my AstraZeneca holding (down 9% since purchase);
- Top-up one of my insurer holdings. Either Legal & General (down 8%), Old Mutual (up 6%) or--less likely--Amlin (down 6%).
- Open a new position. Rolls Royce, in particular, caught my eye.
In the end, I went for option 1 and bought AstraZeneca on 30 June. But why? Let's take a look.
