I have been thinking for a while on how to differentiate my two accounts. My ultimate decision was to focus my Taxable account on Total Shareholder Return and my Roth on Dividend Growth. Below is how I built my 7th KPI and what it means.

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Total Shareholder Return is something I have heard over the course of my investing. It is the concept of shareholders being rewarded not only through dividends and share appreciation, but also through the increased value of company stock buybacks and increased ownership via decreasing share count.

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There are a number of companies I would like to own, but do not fit well into the current Scorecard as it is heavily dividend focused. By incorporating buybacks as well, I can lower the focus on dividends and give a more holistic review of value companies provide shareholders.

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Converting my Dividend Rank to Total Yield Rank was fairly easy. I used Koyfin to source LTM Buyback Yield for my holdings. I then summed Dividend Yield and Buyback Yield for a Total Yield column. To provide the Rank metric, I used the same methodology as my Dividend Rank. Any Total Yield in the Top 5% of the portfolio would score a 1. Anything above portfolio average and less than Top 5% would score a 0.5. Less than average would score 0.

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To add a double check on if the buybacks are decreasing share count, I also added a Share Count Rank metric. I again used Koyfin to source historic share count from when positions were initiated. I compare this number to current share count. If current share count is less than at position start, score is a 1. If greater than or equal to, score is a 0. Since ETFs and bond funds don't have a share count, I defaulted anything that doesn't have a share count to 0.5. The 0.5 is to provide a middle of the road bump to ETFs.

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I will continue to use both my old 6 KPI metric as long as the new 7 KPI metric for comparison until I feel confident in full transitioning to the 7 KPI metric.

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At the outset, there are a few holdings that have both benefited and been hurt by the new metric.

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Winners:

$RTX - Buyback yield increased total yield over average.

$DD - Buyback yield increased total yield to Top 5%.

$PG - Buyback yield increased total yield over average.

$NSC - Buyback yield increased total yield over average.

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Losers:

$HE - Low buyback yield decreased overall yield to below average.

$LEG - Low buyback yield decreased overall yield from Top 5% to above average.

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I am happy to have made this change and figured out how best to represent this in my Scorecard. I am excited to see where this goes from here!