A portfolio of stocks I've been building since September 3 is named Volio. It will eventually hold 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.

Today I'm reviewing the first of four consumer defensive sector stocks striving to join my Volio folio. This could be the eighteenth pick for Volio!

That defensive sector includes twelve industries all related to providing convenient packaged goods we've just gotta have. Industries like: beverages, brewed, soft, or distilled; confectioners; discount stores; education & training; farm products; food distribution; grocery stores; household & personal products; packaged goods; tobacco.

My subject today is a small-cap food distribution company named, SpartanNash Co. Their trading ticker symbol is SPTN.  This is my second report on SPTN.  I last reported on this company on September 26, 2019, for this Volio portfolio.

SpartanNash Company is a multi-regional grocery distributor and retailer. The company operates in the United States and is segmented into Military, Food Distribution, and Retail.

Its Military segment consists of the distribution of products to The United States military commissaries, which provide food to active-duty, guard, reserve, or retired members of the military at discounted prices.

The Food distribution segment proves to be the principle division, deriving the revenue streams for the company.

Its retail division consists of supplying both independent grocery retailers and owned retail stores.

The company was formerly known as Spartan Stores, Inc. and changed its name to SpartanNash Company in November 2013. SpartanNash Company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I use three key data points to gauge dividend-paying equities or funds like SpartanNash Company:

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, several other keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest, or not.

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

SPTN Price

Spartan's price per share closed at $14.12 yesterday. A year ago its price was $17.18. So, in the past year, its price moved down $3.06, or over 17.8%.

Assuming Spartan's stock trades in the range of $12 to $24 this next year, it's recent $14.12 price could rise by $0.88  to reach $15.00 by late-December, 2020, assuming upward price momentum continues.

SPTN Dividends

Spartan's latest declared quarterly dividend was $0.19 per share payable tomorrow December 31st.

That $0.19 Q dividend equates to $0.76 annually and yields 5.38% based on yesterday's $14.12 closing price.

SPTN Gains?

Adding the $0.76 annual estimated dividend to my $0.88 optimistic estimate of SpartanNash Co. price upside shows a $1.64 potential gross gain, per share, which will be reduced by any costs to trade these shares.

As for costs, if we put a little over $1,000.00 today in SpartanNash Co. at its recent $14.12 price, would buy 71 shares of SPTN.

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale could cost us about $0.14 per share.

Subtract that $0.14 brokerage cost from the estimated $1.64 gross estimated gain per share leaves a net gain of $1.50 X 71 shares = $106.50 or a 10.6% net gain on a $1,002.52 investment.

Therefore, SpartanNash Company, whose trading ticker symbol is SPTN shows a possible 10.6% net gain including a 5.38% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. The actual results remain to be seen to learn if SpartanNash Company, is worth your time and money.