Friday, January 7, 2011

State of My Dividends 2010

I have updated my spreadsheet on my stocks for stock I own and dividend increases for 2010, see dividends. I own 45 stocks; and of these 23 increased their dividends, 16 kept the dividends at the same level, 3 lower their dividends and 3 have no dividends. I have 4 accounts, a Trading Account, a RRSP account, a LIF (Pension money) and a Tax Free Savings Account. Some stocks are in more than one account, but most are not.

Of the three that have no dividends, only one Stantec (TSX-STN) is a really an investment. This is basically a fun investment. I find it interesting to investment is smallish companies that may do very well. I haven’t made any money on this company yet, but I expect to. I used to also have RIM (TSX-RIM), but sold it off as I had made quite a bit of money off it. RIM was also a fun investment.

For the other two companies, they were Pan Terra Industries Inc and Organic Resources Mgt Inc. I invested in these as part of a basket of small caps. I never made much money on small caps and the last recession killed most of my investments. The two remaining ones survived, but my investment is too small to bother selling at this point.

Of the three decreases in dividends, I discussed Manitoba Telecom (TSX-MBT) yesterday. Another one is Pembina. I know that everyone has talked about the dividends remaining the same at $.13 per share per month. However, the old dividend used to be $.1326 per share per month. Dropping the $.0026 is a drop of almost 2%. Did they think no one would notice? Although, I must admit, no one seems to have commented on this.

The last decrease was Alta Gas Ltd. This was planned decrease on the company moving from an Income Trust to a corporation. This is a better showing than last year where I had 7 companies that decreased their dividends.

I had four companies than did not increase their dividends in 2009 but did increase them in 2010. These were Canadian Pacific (TSX-CP), Shoppers Drug Mart (TSX-SC), Leon’s (TSX-LNF) and Richelieu Hardware (TSX-RCH). I also had two companies that increased their dividends in 2010 after lowering them in 2009. These companies were Melcor Dev (TSX-MRD) and Barclays PLC (NYSE-BCE). Barclays is my only foreign stock.

The next thing to talk about is the companies than did not increase their dividends. I have banks, like the TD (TSX-TD), Royal (TSX-RY) and BMO (TSX-BMO). None of the large banks has yet raised their dividends.

Also, other financials, like insurance companies were not into dividend rising in 2011 and I have Sun Life (TSX-SLF), Manulife Financial (TSX MFC), IGM Financial (TSX-IGM) and Power Financial (TSX_PWF) in this category. I have not seen anywhere any announcements yet on dividend rises for financials. However, a lot of analysts feel this will happen in 2011.

I also have Davis and Henderson (TSX-DHF), which is considered a financial stock. This has changed from an Income Trust to a Corporation. This company has already announced that they plan to cut the dividend from $1.84 per share to $1.20 a share for 2011. This is a 35% decrease in dividends. A lot of companies that changed to corporation have dividend decrease. This company also plans to pay dividends quarterly, not monthly in the future.

I will continue this discussion on Monday.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.

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