In week three of the 10K Saving Challenge, I am saving $75. 

Seventy-five dollars is significantly less than last weeks $150, but I was still going to try to make the most out of it. In checking my sector allocation, I found that my health care sector was low, so I started looking at Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE). Being that it is in pharmaceuticals and with the COVID-19 vaccine going around, I felt that it would be one worth picking up. Their ex-dividend date is coming up on 1/28/2021, meaning I will be able to receive the dividend that will be paid out on 3/05/2021.  

I noticed my information technology allocation was also very low and as a result, I decided to add another share of Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO). Even though I missed the ex-dividend date for this stock,  I still added to my position because I want to increase my information technology sector.  The price it was selling at presented me the opportunity to buy it without going too much over my cut off point for this week’s goal. 

Final Thoughts: 

Pfizer has been a stock that I have seen in a lot of people’s portfolios and with good reason, because Pfizer has a strong pipeline with their oncology and cardiovascular drugs. They also have hospital business unit; Upjohn, which includes the company’s solid oral dose brands along with an over-the-counter medicine business. These three links have given this company a good coverage in their sector.  

I feel Pfizer had a good long-term outlook allowing not just capital gains but also receiving a solid 4.25% dividend yield. From the research I was able to find on them, they have a track record of one year of consecutive dividend growth and has been paying dividends since 1980  

Then, we have Cisco System Inc. engaged in designing and selling a range of technologies across networking, security, collaboration, applications, and the cloud. Recent research has found Cisco to be a very attractive buy. In the past 60 days, the stock has increased by 8.9% and Cisco was able to beat Q1 earnings. Seventy cents per share that was expected by analysts and they were able to hit .76 cents per shares which is a +7.37% difference from the expectation.  

Cisco may not have grown like many other stocks that are in the cloud and technology sector, but I feel that they will be able to stay a strong competitor over time. They may not have a long history of dividend payments but they have been paying dividends since 2011 and have paid every quarter while also increasing their payout. 

Every week I hope to give more information as to why I am making these picks to hopefully give the reader better insight to the world of investing and what to look out for.  

As always, have a great day and keep learning and moving towards your goals, never stop pushing!