Dividend Ex-Dates in the Philippines in the Next Three (3) Months as of 02-Mar-2015

Here's our monthly dose of upcoming dividend ex-dates in the next three (3) months. 

"Dividend Ex-Date" is the actual ex-date already announced by the company.

"Next Estimated Ex-Dividend Date" as the name implies, is the estimated next dividend ex-date of the company based on their historical trend of dividend releases.

If you want additional items to be added on this table hit the comment button below and we'll try to get them included next month.

Enjoy!

Ticker	Short Name	Market Cap (PhP)	Last Price (PhP)	Dividend Ex-Date	Next Estimated Ex-Dividend Date	Dividend Yield
MFC PM Equity	MANULIFE FIN	1,450,000,000,000	735	2/20/2015	5/15/2015	2.98
SLF PM Equity	SUN LIFE FINANCI	826,000,000,000	1347	2/20/2015	5/25/2015	3.78
SM PM Equity	SM INVESTMENTS	703,000,000,000	880	5/27/2014	5/26/2015	1.18
TEL PM Equity	PHILIPP LONG DIS	683,000,000,000	3162	8/22/2014	3/12/2015	4.37
SMPH PM Equity	SM PRIME HLDGS	571,000,000,000	19.76	5/12/2014	5/11/2015	0.96
ALI PM Equity	AYALA LAND INC	532,000,000,000	36.25	3/3/2015	9/7/2015	1.15
BDO PM Equity	BDO UNIBANK INC	397,000,000,000	111		3/9/2015	1.08
AP PM Equity	ABOITIZ POWER	327,000,000,000	44.4	3/20/2014	3/16/2015	2.84
MER PM Equity	MANILA ELECTRIC	316,000,000,000	280	3/18/2015	8/18/2015	1.31
AEV PM Equity	ABOITIZ EQUITY	315,000,000,000	56.85	3/20/2014	3/16/2015	2.23
MBT PM Equity	METRO BANK & TR	254,000,000,000	92.55		3/4/2015	1.08
GLO PM Equity	GLOBE TELECOM	253,000,000,000	1905	2/13/2015	5/20/2015	1.09
JFC PM Equity	JOLLIBEE FOODS	234,000,000,000	219.8	11/24/2014	5/4/2015	0.81
ICT PM Equity	INTL CONTAIN TER	228,000,000,000	112.1	4/23/2014	4/22/2015	0.76
DMC PM Equity	DMCI HLDGS INC	210,000,000,000	15.8	5/27/2014	5/26/2015	1.52
SMC PM Equity	SAN MIGUEL	184,000,000,000	77.5	12/29/2014	4/23/2015	1.81
EDC PM Equity	ENERGY DEVELOPME	166,000,000,000	8.85	10/15/2014	3/11/2015	1.15
SCC PM Equity	SEMIRARA MINING	166,000,000,000	155.6	5/12/2014	5/11/2015	2.57
MPI PM Equity	METRO PACIFIC IN	150,000,000,000	5.4	3/20/2015	4/2/2015	1.39
RLC PM Equity	ROBINSONS LAND	115,000,000,000	28	5/26/2014	5/25/2015	1.29
PCOR PM Equity	PETRON CORP	95,813,566,464	10.22	4/3/2014	4/2/2015	0.49
MWC PM Equity	MANILA WATER	64,213,389,312	31.85	3/3/2015	10/15/2015	2.56
PX PM Equity	PHILEX MINING CO	40,511,270,912	8.2	3/6/2015		0.48
PSE PM Equity	PHILIPPINE STOCK	26,050,041,856	355	3/20/2015		1.55
TA PM Equity	TRANS-ASIA OIL	11,000,000,000	2.26	3/4/2015		1.76
EEI PM Equity	EEI CORP	10,984,584,192	10.6	11/26/2014	4/6/2015	1.89
CHIPS PM Equity	CIRTEK HOLDINGS	6,530,000,000	21.2	3/5/2015		1.62
BLFI PM Equity	BDO LEASING & FI	5,211,565,568	2.41	3/6/2015		7.29

Source: Bloomberg

DISCLAIMER: 

This is not an investment advice and the author shall not be responsible or liable for any trading or investment decisions made based on this information.

The author hereby expressly disclaims any responsibility for any error or inaccuracy in the information.

The Cost of Trading Stocks in the Philippines with Sample Computations

Below is a sample computation of the trading cost incurred when you buy and sell a stock listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange with your online stock broker. The numbers presented are based on the actual (rate of) brokerage/tax/handling fees as presented by COL Financial Group Inc. Enjoy!

Breakdown of computation assuming you buy and sell EDC:

Stock Ticker: EDC

Company Name: Energy Development Corporation

Number of shares bought/sold: 20,000

Price bought/sold: PHP 5.00*

*The current market price of EDC as of this writing is 8.65, we used 5.00 in our sample computation for demonstration purposes.

Description (Buying)	Formula/Computation	Breakdown (PHP)
Number of Shares	# of shares bought	20,000
Stock Price	price bought	5
Trade Value	Stock Price * Number of Shares	100,000
Buying Cost 1: Commission	0.0025 * Trade Value	250
Buying Cost 2: VAT	0.12 * Commission	30
Buying Cost 3: PSE Trans Fee	0.00005 * Trade Value	5
Buying Cost 4: SCCP (Clearing Fee)	0.0001 * Trade Value	10
Total Cost of Buying (TCofB)		295
Total Cost of Buying as % of Trade Value		0.30%
Description (Selling)	Formula/Computation	Breakdown (PHP)
Number of Shares	# of shares sold	20,000
Stock Price	price sold	5
Trade Value	Stock Price * Number of Shares	100,000
Selling Cost 1: Commission	0.0025 * Trade Value	250
Selling Cost 2: VAT	0.12 * Commission	30
Selling Cost 3: PSE Trans Fee	0.00005 * Trade Value	5
Selling Cost 4: SCCP (Clearing Fee)	0.0001 * Trade Value	10
Selling Cost 5: Sales Tax	0.005 * Trade Value	500
Total Cost of Selling (TCofS)		795
Total Cost of Selling as % of Trade Value		0.80%
Description (Total Buying and Selling)	Formula/Computation	Breakdown (PHP)
Total Cost of Buying AND Selling	(TCofB + TCofS)	1,090
Total Cost of Buying AND Selling as % of Trade Value	(TCofB + TCofS) / Trade Value	1.09%*

*Assuming you bought and sold stock EDC at the same price, you will lose 1.09% of your money due to the cost of trading - This is precisely the reason why newbie Traders, or even the experienced Traders should really avoid over-trading. 1.09% may seem a little, but do it 10 times (assuming you bought and sold at the same price) and you've lost 10%, do it 50 times and you've lost 50% - of course I'm simplifying the math, but you get the point. =)

So what can we do to minimize the transactions costs? Bearing in mind that a LOT of small things is actually a LOT.

If you observe carefully, the biggest chunk of all the cost of trading is from the Sales Tax. Almost 50% of your trading (buying/selling) cost is from the Sales Tax and as name implies this only applies when you sell your shares of stocks as seen in the breakdown above.

Hence one of the best strategies to minimize your cost of trading is the Buy-and-Hold strategy, this strategy is a simple strategy to buy strong, fundamentally sound stocks at an attractive price and hold it for as long as the "strong fundamentals" haven't change. This is the investment strategy being implemented by the investment greats such as Warren Buffet, Philip Fisher, John Bogle etc. 

I remember a quote from W. Buffet saying,

 "Our favorite holding period is forever".

If we take Buffet's example to the extreme, buying a very strong, fundamentally sound company and holding it forever, this means Buffet will never have to pay any Sales Tax for the rest of his life! Compare this with a very active trader always getting in and out of a stock, every time he gets in and out - he has to beat that 1.09% hurdle just to break-even and he has to the beat that hurdle on every trade for the rest of his trading career - Just to break-even.

But of course even Buffet himself does not hold ALL of his stocks forever - it's just his ideal scenario. He sells from time to time, but after a pretty long holding period maximizing his cost of trading - of w/c when you check the math, actually makes a lot of sense.

Happy investing.

DISCLAIMER: 

This is not an investment advice and the author shall not be responsible or liable for any trading or investment decisions made based on this information.

The author hereby expressly disclaims any responsibility for any error or inaccuracy in the information.

Stock Broker Comparison: COL Financial vs BPI Trade

I encountered a detailed comparison between  BPI Trade and COL Financial by G. M. Domingo and thought it was pretty detailed hence It would be useful to guide the Filipino Investors out there in making their decision on choosing their first online Stock Broker.

Enjoy his comparison between the two from his personal experience. Cheers!

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I have accounts on both BPI Trade and COL Financial. Sadly, as much as I like the bank, BPI Trade has caused me lots of headaches, whereas COL is better in almost all criteria. I sincerely hope BPI does some bold moves to fix their processes.

Here are their comparisons based from my personal experiences:

BPI Trade

• Application: So hard and so complicated (this is the most tiring part, believe me -- you apply online, print, bring the form personally to any branch, wait for weeks for their email to arrive, then the email arrives but everything is confusing and you still won't be able to open your account, then finally you call their hotline to ask for the initial password. And as additional surprise, you still have to enrol your BPI Trade Account Number to your BPI Express Online so you can do fund transfer. To do this, you have to again enrol online, print, bring form to the bank then wait for days again until you see it in your Express Online account. Note that all of these take about 3-5 weeks to finish.

Investment and Life Lessons - Part 2

Here's Part 2 of my previous post regarding the lessons/quotes I've encountered in my various readings. My list is getting too long again hence I'm sharing it with the Filipino Investors out there for them to learn a thing or two. Cheers!

1. You are supposed to do original research, but if you get to original, they don't know what’s going on - Maury Osborne
2. When you're buying, appear to be selling. When you're selling, appear to be buying - Lucio Tan
3. Money isn't lost or made it was simply transferred from one perception to another - Gordon Gekko
4. The illusion has become real and the more real it becomes the more desperate they want it - Gordon Gekko
5. Both poverty and riches are offsprings of thought - Napoleon Hill
6. Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting - Napoleon Hill
7. A positive mental attitude is an irresistible force that knows no such thing as an immovable body - Napoleon Hill
8. Your vision and your dreams are the blueprints of your ultimate achievements - N.H.
9. Demography is Destiny - Auguste Comte
10. The long term economic fortunes of a nation requires these ingredients: a. A large population b. Young and productive citizens c. Growth of the "aspirational" or middle class d. A supportive environment for growth
11. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy
12. No matter what your status in life is, be grounded. When you start believing that you’re the best, that will be the start of your downfall. You have to keep working hard and learning new from other people - Wilson Sy
    

Ten Investment Advice for the Newbie Investor

This post was inspired by the Reader question below:

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Hi Filipino Investor Admin,

I'm John and I happen to come across your blog. I got interested with investing in the stock market a month ago and I can't help but read and learn everything I can. The thing is I am in Qatar working. I started saving enough to start my investments. Any advise you can give? More powers!

Regards, John

______________________________________________________________________

Hi John,

Thank you for query. I think a lot of new guys to investing have the same questions. Having this said. I'll answer your question through a blog post (and here it is. Haha).

The following are more of a general rule of thumb that I followed in the last 4 years of investing the PSE and it has served me relatively well. I hope you learn something valuable in one of them.

Top Twenty Five (25) Cheapest Stocks in the Philippines as of 14-Oct-14

The "Top 25 Cheapest Stocks in the Philippines" is a monthly publication to give Filipino Investors a sense on what are the cheapest stocks at the current market prices. 

This will be particularly useful to value investors a.k.a those investors who like to buy companies whose current market price is selling cheap relative to quantifiable metrics such as earnings, sales, book value, dividend etc.

We would like to remind the readers of this website to do due diligence before investing specially on the more iliquid names. Cheers and enjoy!

Note:
1. P/E, EV/EBITDA, P/B, P/S were arranged from lowest to highest (lower the numbers means they are cheaper)

2. DY was arranged from highest to lowest (higher numbers are better/cheaper)

3. Data as of 14-Oct-14

Dividend Ex-Dates in the Philippines in the Next Three (3) Months as of 14-Oct-2014

We're a little late this month due to some deadlines we have to prioritize. Anyways here our monthly dose of upcoming dividend ex-dates in the next three (3) months. 

"Dividend Ex-Date" is the actual ex-date already announced by the company.

"Next Estimated Ex-Dividend Date" as the name implies, is the estimated next dividend ex-date of the company based on their historical trend of dividend releases.

If you want additional items to be added on this table hit the comment button below and we'll try to get them included next month.

Enjoy!

Ticker	Short Name	Market Cap (PhP)	Last Price (PhP)	Dividend Ex-Date	Next Estimated Ex-Dividend Date	Dividend Yield
JFC PM Equity	JOLLIBEE FOODS	197,303,648,256	186	5/5/2014	11/25/2014	0.81
AC PM Equity	AYALA CORP	411,342,307,328	687	7/7/2014	12/15/2014	0.70
BPI PM Equity	BANK PHILIPPINE	368,941,596,672	93.9	7/9/2014	12/25/2014	1.92
MFC PM Equity	MANULIFE FIN	1,421,705,347,072	765	8/14/2014	11/14/2014	3.25
GLO PM Equity	GLOBE TELECOM	214,474,768,384	1620	8/14/2014	11/15/2014	2.31
SLF PM Equity	SUN LIFE FINANCI	948,012,253,184	1550	8/20/2014	11/24/2014	3.72
SECB PM Equity	SECURITY BANK	80,779,370,496	134.5	10/10/2014		0.74
IPO PM Equity	IPEOPLE INC	8,537,839,104	11.4	10/13/2014		2.11
FGEN PM Equity	FIRST GEN CORPOR	83,929,645,056	24.95	10/13/2014		1.40
RFM PM Equity	RFM CORP	17,782,050,816	5.08	10/13/2014		1.29
STI PM Equity	STI EDUCATION	7,725,749,248	0.79	10/14/2014		2.53
SMC PM Equity	SAN MIGUEL	183,116,546,048	77.9	10/14/2014	1/13/2015	1.80
EDC PM Equity	ENERGY DEVELOPME	134,999,998,464	7.37	10/15/2014	3/11/2015	1.36
MWC PM Equity	MANILA WATER	57,443,852,288	28.5	10/16/2014	3/2/2015	2.83
WEB PM Equity	PHILWEB CORP	7,292,017,152	5.09	11/18/2014		7.86
EEI PM Equity	EEI CORP	11,378,370,560	10.98	11/26/2014	4/6/2015	1.82
BDO PM Equity	BDO UNIBANK INC	336,602,267,648	96	12/4/2014	3/9/2015	1.25

Source: Bloomberg

DISCLAIMER: 

This is not an investment advice and the author shall not be responsible or liable for any trading or investment decisions made based on this information.

The author hereby expressly disclaims any responsibility for any error or inaccuracy in the information.