Yes, you read that title correctly. DivHut officially sold some stock. In fact, this is my very first “Recent Sell” post on the blog. I even had the create a new category. Yes, I am a buy and hold investor. Yes, I own for the long haul, Yes I do not panic when the market gyrates wildly. I think you all have seen that if you have been following my blog for a while. But, one thing about being a long term dividend growth investor is that inevitably you will receive stock in new companies as a result of mergers and spin-offs. Over the years I have seen my portfolio “grow” by as much as a dozen new holdings simply by staying course. As you know it can be a challenge to keep an eye on the positions you initially wanted to own in addition to the mergers and spin-offs you never intended to own. I touched on this topic a while back with separate posts here and here.

Many of the new entities continued to perform well as well as pay dividends. Others might have performed OK but did not pay a dividend. As an income investor, it was essentially parked money that did not “feed my snowball” every quarter. Here is a list of my parent and offspring stocks that I’m considering selling in order to streamline my overall portfolio. Before any of you comment, there are some stocks listed that will be keepers.

VTR -> CCP -> SBRA
HCP -> QCP -> WELL
VFC -> KTB
ABT -> ABBV
KRFT -> MDLZ
KRFT -> KHC
BMS -> AMCR
JCI -> ADNT
YUM -> YUMC
GE -> WAB
APD -> VSM
DOV -> APY
KMB -> HYH -> AVNS
IR -> ALLE

While you might recognize and be familiar with many of the names on the left as solid dividend growth stocks, the ones listed to the right still have to prove themselves. With that being said, I felt it was time to do a little “house cleaning” and shuttle a few stocks to start.

I have sold in my taxable account 23 shares of Apergy Corporation (APY). APY was a recent spin-off of dividend stalwart Dover Corporation (DOV). APY paid no dividends.

I have sold in my taxable account 4 shares of Avanos Medical, Inc. (AVNS). AVNS was spun off another dividend stalwart Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB) several years ago. AVNS paid no dividends.

Finally, I have sold in my taxable account 179 shares of LTC Properties, Inc. (LTC). This was a legacy holding of Mrs. DivHut before going the DGI route. We still hold LTC in our IRA as I prefer to hold all REITs in tax-advantaged accounts because of the way the distributions are taxed.

What do you think about my recent sales? Do you keep or sell your stock spin offs? Other names I am considering letting go before 2019 is up is Wabtec Corporation (WAB) and Versum Materials, Inc. (VSM) as both offer very tiny current yields.