Daily Dividend Investor Update
To my loyal Daily Dividend Investor readers: Please note that I have migrated the blog over to a managed server located at: www.dailydividendinvestor.com
I will continue to update this WordPress site with duplicate content for a few weeks – most likely until the new year, but you may want to check in at my new hosted location for all the latest content. I am also using a better – easier to read theme that I hope you’ll enjoy. Thanks for reading and following along and don’t forget to LIKE our Facebook page!
Thanks!
Neil
Dividend Increases for the week of December 19, 2011
With the holidays upon us, this week was a fairly quiet one for dividend increases as we approach the end of the year. This week’s update includes 10 companies announcing dividend increases, with 2 notable increases of 150% over their previous payout!
The weekly wrap
For the investor looking for a safe “blue chip” holding, this week’s holiday gift was AT&T (ticker: T) which raised it’s annual dividend by $.04 to $1.76/share for a yield of 5.89%.
Considering that most CD and bank savings accounts are paying 1% or less – AT&T may offer a good alternative. In recent quarters there has been some concern that with AT&T’s landline revenues continuing to disappear, perhaps the AT&T dividend could be at risk – but with the increase this week, those fears have been put to rest, at least for the time being.
Dividend Growth
When investing for income, one of the most important factors to consider, besides the ongoing safety of the dividend payout, is to look for those companies that are continuing to grow their dividend stream. This week offers two potential opportunities for the investor looking to add dividend growth.
Village Supermarket (ticker: VLGEA) and Spreadtrum Communications (ticker: SPRD) which both raised their quarterly payout by a jaw dropping 150%. Village Supermarket now pays $1.00/share and yields 3.45% while Spreastrum Communications pays $.40/share with a new yield of 1.91%.
As always, I have provided a link below to the Google document online spreadsheet with all of the details of this week’s announcements. I have also highlighted the two top two stocks with the highest dividend increase in green as well as highlighting the stock with the highest overall yield in yellow.
I should caution you as always, that because a stock is highlighted does not mean you should add it to a buy list, my intent is to simply point out those stocks with unique characteristics for your review.
One other notable name in this week’s roundup is Norwood Financial (ticker: NWFL).Norwood is now yielding 4.43% after it’s dividend increase to $1.20/share. What caught my eye about Norwood was it’s 141 years of successful business operations.
It’s no secret that I’ve added some riskier positions to the DDI portfolio, but I believe part of the “secret sauce” is continually finding niche companies that have remained profitable for long periods of time (50 years or longer ideally) that also offer ongoing dividend growth.
The DDI portfolio remains unchanged this week as none of the companies reporting a dividend increase are currently members of the portfolio.
For more detailed information about all of today’s dividend increases please refer to the chart below.
Investment Considerations
As always when evaluating investment opportunities it’s important to keep in mind not only
the fundamentals of the stock itself, but also how the holding entity (Limited Partnership,Royalty Trust, Master Limited Partnership, Business Development Company, Preferred Stock) may affect the way you report income on your annual tax return as well as the amount or percentage of tax you will be required to pay. Adding shares of any of these special entities to tax deferred / retirement accounts may also present additional issues.
Remember to review all of the fundamentals of any company BEFORE investing – do not simply buy a stock based on the dividend payout. If you have further questions about any stock mentioned her you should first consult with your CPA or tax planner / advisor before making any investments.
Many people feel like they need to rely on an *expert* to help them manage their money. I hope that after reading the Daily Dividend Investor you will start to see that you have the power to build and manage your own portfolio and you don´t have to be a financial genius to do it.
