That portfolio of stocks I've been building since September 3, 2019, named Volio, now holds 52 dividend dogs. Volio is the fifth portfolio I've built (at a one dividend dog per-week pace) since 2014. Five portfolios = V for Volio!

Day by day starting the day after Labor Day I'll start building a new portfolio of 52 dividend dogs at a one stock per-week pace until September 2022! That new portfolio, named Vista, will become the sixth portfolio I've assembled over the past six years.

Today we'll review the second of five Dogs of the Year top finishing stocks that have performed the best during their one-year stint in each of my first five portfolios. We'll look at where the stock is now. 

Perhaps one of the stocks I discuss this week could be one you'll want to buy and hold forever.

My subject today is a small-cap thermal coal supplier named, Natural Resources Partners LP. Its trading ticker is NRP. This is my first report on the very first runner up for dog of the year (DOTY) selection from 2017. 

Natural Resources Partners LP is a diversified natural resource company. It is primarily engaged in the business of owning, managing and leasing a diversified portfolio of mineral properties in the United States, including interests in coal, trona and soda ash, crude oil and natural gas, construction aggregates, frac sand, and other natural resources. 

The company leases coal reserves to experienced mine operators under long-term leases that grant the operator the right to mine its coal reserves in exchange for royalty payments. The company operates in two reportable segments namely: Coal Royalty and Other, and Soda Ash. The majority of the revenue is generated from the Coal Royalty and Other segment. The business activity of the group is primarily in the United States.

NRP (GP) LP serves as the general partner of the company. 

Natural Resource Partners L.P. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

I use three key data points to gauge dividend equities or funds like Natural Resources Partners LP:

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Those three basic keys best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money. 

NRP Price

NRP's price per share closed at $11.40 yesterday. A year ago its price was $26.00. Price fell $14.60 or over 56% last year.

Assuming Natural Resources Partner's stock trades in the range of $9 to $15 this next year, its recent $11.40 price might rise by $1.60 to reach $13.00 by September 1, 2021. 

NRP Dividends

Natural Resources' most recently declared semi-annual dividend was $0.45, paid August 26th. The resulting annual $0.90 dividend yields 7.89% at yesterday's $11.40 share price. 

NRP Gains?

Adding the $0.90 annual estimated dividend to my $1.60 optimistic estimate of Natural Resource's price upside shows a $2.50 potential gross gain, per share, to be reduced by any costs to trade the shares.  

If we put little over $1,000.00 today in  Natural Resources Partners LP at $11.40, we would buy about 88 shares of NRP stock.

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale could cost us about $0.11 per share.

Subtract that $0.11 brokerage cost from my estimated $2.50 gross gain per share results in a net gain of $2.39 X 88 shares = $210.32 for a 21% net gain on a $1,003.20 investment.

Thus, Natural Resources Partners LP shows a possible 21% net gain including a 7.89% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.     

The above speculation is based on past performance and supposition. Only time and money invested will tell if Natural Resources Partners LP is worth it.