January Purchases in RRSP

In January, I made 3 purchases in my RRSP, using cash generated by the sale of Harvest Energy in December, plus some money I added to my account.

First, I established a position in Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT). Who doesn't know Kraft? There is uncertainty due to the Cadbury acquisition, which is driving down the share price. I see this as an opportunity to initiate a position in the company, so I bought 100 shares. Kraft is a solid dividend grower -- the company started paying a dividend in 2001, and has increased every year except 2009. The average increase is 9% over the last 5 years. Current dividend yield is 4%.

Second, I made a small move on Brookfield Assets Management (Toronto: BAM.A). I like what I see in this company, which invest in long-life assets (properties, renewable power and infrastructure assets) throughout the world. Management has a long-term mindset that I like, and the company has a solid cash position that it is using to purchase assets from distressed companies that were not as conservatives as Brookfield. So I purchased 100 shares (a small position) and plan on purchasing more in the future. The company pays a US$0.13 dividend every quarter (even though this is a Canadian company), for a 2.4% yield.

Finally, I doubled my position in PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP). I first purchased 100 shares of PepsiCo in May 2008, before all the market turmoil began. I sold half of those shares in September of the same year, but held the remaining 50 shares through all the madness that was 2009. I felt that now was a good time to add to my position in the company, averaging down. The time when the company usually announces its dividend increase is coming (last time was in May) and I'm confident that shareholders will get another raise this year.