Sneaky, sneaky!!

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

So this morning, I get an email from Fidelity about my Verizon stock.  Last year, I started using Dogs of the Dow for investment of my Roth IRA, so this is the first time I have dabbled in specific stocks.  In a nutshell, there are 10 Dogs announced every year and I divvied up my $6500 Roth deposit between the 10 stocks.  It's usually recommended that you invest a lot more, and I will when I roll over my 403b, but I will need to recharacterize part of it.  You only rebalance it yearly, and change to new Dogs.

Anyway, I only have 12 shares of Verizon stock, so I get an email from Verizon via Fidelity that there is a corporate action on my few shares.  They want to divest themselves of investors that have less than 100 shares (it's trading at $46/share today, about the same where I bought it last April).  Fidelity wants me to deposit $56/share to bring me up to 100 shares, or ?  This is the reason why I called Fidelity.

Other than the fact that they wanted to charge me $10 more per share than the going rate, AND charge way more than Fidelity for stock transactions, I was trying to figure out what to do if I couldn't keep this Dog.  If I couldn't keep it, I was just going to sell it off (via Fidelity) and just leave it in cash until I make my next deposit again this April and rebalance totally.

So I call Fidelity and as it turns out, despite the way that they worded this letter, Verizon cannot make me sell my 12 shares.  I can keep them in the Dogs and just let it ride until next time.

FWIW.....with the dividends, my Dogs this year have done over 8%.

[mollyanna58]

That happens occasionally. A company will offer to buy small holdings or sell you shares to get up to a round lot of 100, but it's not mandatory. 

The interesting question would be did Verizon set the $56.00 per share price or did Fidelity?

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Verizon set the price.  The rep I spoke to at Fidelity was surprised at it, and said many times that the company will give you a discount as an incentive to buy more stock.  Not in this case.

[mollyanna58]

Depending on the transaction fees, maybe you can sell them the shares for $56.00 and buy them back on the open market for $46.00.  It would work better for a larger number of shares than for 12

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Dec 19, 2014 15:20:08 GMT -5 mollyanna58 said:

Depending on the transaction fees, maybe you can sell them the shares for $56.00 and buy them back on the open market for $46.00.  It would work better for a larger number of shares than for 12

LOL.....I asked Fidelity that.  However, if Verizon bought back my shares, they'd be bought at market rates (it was in the letter), so about what I paid for them earlier this year.

[mollyanna58]

Darn.

[Plain Old Petunia]

Dec 19, 2014 15:00:56 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

So this morning, I get an email from Fidelity about my Verizon stock.  Last year, I started using Dogs of the Dow for investment of my Roth IRA, so this is the first time I have dabbled in specific stocks.  In a nutshell, there are 10 Dogs announced every year and I divvied up my $6500 Roth deposit between the 10 stocks.  It's usually recommended that you invest a lot more, and I will when I roll over my 403b, but I will need to recharacterize part of it.  You only rebalance it yearly, and change to new Dogs.

Anyway, I only have 12 shares of Verizon stock, so I get an email from Verizon via Fidelity that there is a corporate action on my few shares.  They want to divest themselves of investors that have less than 100 shares (it's trading at $46/share today, about the same where I bought it last April).  Fidelity wants me to deposit $56/share to bring me up to 100 shares, or ?  This is the reason why I called Fidelity.

Other than the fact that they wanted to charge me $10 more per share than the going rate, AND charge way more than Fidelity for stock transactions, I was trying to figure out what to do if I couldn't keep this Dog.  If I couldn't keep it, I was just going to sell it off (via Fidelity) and just leave it in cash until I make my next deposit again this April and rebalance totally.

So I call Fidelity and as it turns out, despite the way that they worded this letter, Verizon cannot make me sell my 12 shares.  I can keep them in the Dogs and just let it ride until next time.

FWIW.....with the dividends, my Dogs this year have done over 8%.

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is up over 12% for the year.  Just sayin'.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Dec 19, 2014 16:28:50 GMT -5 Plain Old Petunia said:

Dec 19, 2014 15:00:56 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

So this morning, I get an email from Fidelity about my Verizon stock.  Last year, I started using Dogs of the Dow for investment of my Roth IRA, so this is the first time I have dabbled in specific stocks.  In a nutshell, there are 10 Dogs announced every year and I divvied up my $6500 Roth deposit between the 10 stocks.  It's usually recommended that you invest a lot more, and I will when I roll over my 403b, but I will need to recharacterize part of it.  You only rebalance it yearly, and change to new Dogs.

Anyway, I only have 12 shares of Verizon stock, so I get an email from Verizon via Fidelity that there is a corporate action on my few shares.  They want to divest themselves of investors that have less than 100 shares (it's trading at $46/share today, about the same where I bought it last April).  Fidelity wants me to deposit $56/share to bring me up to 100 shares, or ?  This is the reason why I called Fidelity.

Other than the fact that they wanted to charge me $10 more per share than the going rate, AND charge way more than Fidelity for stock transactions, I was trying to figure out what to do if I couldn't keep this Dog.  If I couldn't keep it, I was just going to sell it off (via Fidelity) and just leave it in cash until I make my next deposit again this April and rebalance totally.

So I call Fidelity and as it turns out, despite the way that they worded this letter, Verizon cannot make me sell my 12 shares.  I can keep them in the Dogs and just let it ride until next time.

FWIW.....with the dividends, my Dogs this year have done over 8%.

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is up over 12% for the year.  Just sayin'.

This is just one of the funds I have, my 'play' money.  My 403b (which is in TIAA and Fidelity) has done a bit better.  TD is doing this and last year his Dogs did over 20%.

[Plain Old Petunia]

Last year, Total Stock Market returned over 33%.  Still just sayin'. 

It was sneaky.  I wonder if anyone paid $56 per for more shares. 

[Deleted]

You could save commission fees, by buying the ETF (SDOG) ALPS Sector Dividend Dogs, when you rebalance.