Dividend Increases, Mar/Apr 2013

Around the 15^th of each month,  I'll be updating my watch list of dividend growth stocks to reflect current yields. These change over time due to changes in the stock price and changes in dividend payments. 

Since March 15, the market increased by another 1.64% (as measured by the S&P 500) and by 2.24% (as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average). The current yield of dividend paying stocks will decrease when stock prices increase.

When a company increases its dividend payment, the current yield also should increase. The size of the  increase not only depends on the size of the dividend increase, but also on the market's reaction to the increase. Often, a dividend increase stimulates interest in the stock and results in a corresponding increase in the stock price, which in turn would limit the increase in current yield.

The following table provides a summary of recent dividend increases for stocks in my watch list, sorted by the last column, %Increase. Dividend amounts are annualized. 

Dividend Increases: Mar 15 - Apr 14, 2013

Company	Ticker	Price (Mar 22)	Previous Dividend	New Dividend	Current Yield	%Increase
Qualcomm, Inc.	QCOM	66.68	1.00	1.40	2.10%	+40.00
Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.	APD	86.93	2.56	2.84	3.27%	+10.94
Raytheon Co.	RTN	58.34	2.00	2.20	3.77%	+10.00
Plains All American Pipeline, LP	PAA	55.89	2.25	2.30	4.12%	+2.22
Enterprise Product Partners, LP	EPD	60.58	2.64	2.68	4.42%	+1.52
Guess?, Inc.	GES	26.99	4.80	0.80	2.96%	-83.33

GES paid a special dividend last year, so the 83.33% decrease looks worse than it is – in fact, the new dividend just resets the dividend to what it was before the special dividend payment.

Full Disclosure: Currently, I don't own any of the stocks listed above.