Dividend Increases, Feb/Mar 2013

I keep a watch list of dividend growth stocks, with tickers organized by yield, by sector, and by the calendar month of dividend payments. Of these, the organization by yield is expected to  change over time due to changes in the stock price and increases (or decreases) in dividend payments. Every month, I'll update my watch list to reflect these changes. 

Since February 15, the market has increased by 2.44% (as measured by the S&P 500) and by 3.78% (as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average). For a dividend paying stock, yield would trend lower when the stock price trends higher. This follows from the definition of yield.

Of course, when a company increases its dividend payment, the yield also should increase. How much the yield increases would depend on the size of the dividend increase and the market's reaction to the increase.

The following table provides a summary of recent dividend increases to stocks in my watch list. It is sorted by the last column, %Increase. Notice there are several excellent double digit percentage increases. 

Dividend Increases: Feb 15 - Mar 14, 2013

Company	Ticker	Price (Mar 22)	Previous Dividend	New Dividend	Current Yield	%Increase
Halliburton Company	HAL	39.16	0.36	0.50	1.28%	+38.89
The Home Depot, Inc.	HD	69.56	1.16	1.56	2.24%	+34.48
General Mills, Inc.	GIS	48.15	1.32	1.52	2.74%	+15.15
Public Storage	PSA	150.71	4.40	5.00	3.32%	+13.64
Applied Materials, Inc.	AMAT	32.26	0.36	0.40	3.02%	+11.11
NextEra Energy, Inc.	NEE	76.17	2.40	2.64	3.47%	+10.00
General Dynamics Corporation	GD	69.29	2.04	2.24	3.23%	+9.80
The Coca-Cola Company	KO	40.04	1.02	1.12	2.80%	+9.80
Colgate-Palmolive Company	CL	114.41	2.48	2.72	2.38%	+9.68
Kimberly Clark Corp	KMB	95.66	2.96	3.24	3.39%	+9.46
Staples, Inc.	SPLS	13.53	0.44	0.48	3.55%	+9.09
Genuine Parts Company	GPC	77.40	1.98	2.15	2.78%	+8.59
The Chubb Corporation	CB	86.41	1.64	1.76	2.04%	+7.32
Toronto-Dominion Bank (USA)	TD	82.09	3.08	3.24	3.83%	+5.19
Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc.	PNY	32.99	1.20	1.24	3.76%	+3.33
Triangle Capital Corporation	TCAP	28.19	2.12	2.16	7.66%	+1.87
UNS Energy Corp	UNS	46.89	1.72	1.74	3.71%	+1.16

Highlighted in the table is GD, one of the stocks in DivGro. The 9.8% dividend increase is the 16^th consecutive annual dividend increase authorized by the board of General Dynamics Corporation. The next quarterly dividend of 56 cents per share will be payed on May 10, 2013, to shareholders of record on April 12.

Full Disclosure: Long GD