Dividend Increases, Aug/Sep 2013

Regular dividend increases are one of the important factors to consider when evaluating dividend growth stocks. Every month I provide a summary of recent dividend increases for stocks in my watch list. When a stock's dividend payment is decreased, I'll generally remove it from my watch list. And if I happen to own shares in a stock that decreases its dividend payment, I'll consider selling my shares.

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: Aug 16 - Sep 15, 2013

Company	Ticker	Price (Sep 13)	Previous Dividend	New Dividend	Current Yield	%Increase
Molex Incorporated	MOLX	38.65	0.88	1.68	4.35%	+90.91
Brinker International, Inc.	EAT	41.08	0.80	0.96	2.34%	+20.00
Harris Corporation	HRS	57.93	1.48	1.68	2.90%	+13.51
Bob Evans Farms Inc	BOBE	54.01	1.10	1.24	2.30%	+12.73
Philip Morris International Inc	PM	87.78	3.40	3.76	4.28%	+10.59
Altria Group Inc	MO	34.84	1.76	1.92	5.51%	+9.09
Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc.	ATNI	50.28	1.00	1.08	2.15%	+8.00
New Jersey Resources Corp	NJR	42.63	1.60	1.68	3.94%	+5.00
Toronto-Dominion Bank (USA)	TD	87.00	3.24	3.40	3.91%	+4.94
Williams Companies, Inc.	WMB	35.93	1.41	1.47	4.08%	+3.90
Community Bank System, Inc.	CBU	33.48	1.08	1.12	3.35%	+3.70
BHP Billiton Limited	BHP	66.58	2.28	2.36	3.54%	+3.51
BHP Billiton plc	BBL	60.16	2.28	2.36	3.92%	+3.51
Cincinnati Financial Corporation	CINF	46.56	1.63	1.68	3.61%	+3.07
Verizon Communications Inc.	VZ	47.76	2.06	2.12	4.44%	+2.91
Tera Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd	TEVA	38.34	1.07	1.09	2.86%	+2.02
Realty Income Corp	O	39.20	2.18	2.18	5.57%	+0.17
China Mobile Ltd.	CHL	56.15	2.06	1.97	3.50%	-4.58
Smith & Nephew plc	SNN	62.01	1.58	1.02	1.64%	-35.44
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp	SNP	78.00	5.13	2.61	3.34%	-49.18

Highlighted in the table are BBL and CHL, stocks I own in DivGro.

BBL's modest dividend increase raises its current yield to 3.92%. The next quarterly dividend of $1.18 per share will be payed on September 25, to shareholders of record on September 6.

As is the case with several semi-annual dividend payers, CHL has a pattern of paying one smaller dividend and one larger dividend every year. CHL pays dividends in May and September. The pattern of payments since 2010 looks like this:

( $0.84  $0.82 )   ( $0.92  $0.91 )   ( $1.01  $0.95 )   ( $1.03  $0.98 )

By paying 98 cents this month, CHL actually confirmed a year-on-year dividend increase of 3.84%. The quarterly dividend of 98 cents per share will be paid on October 10, to shareholders of record on September 6.

Both SNN and SNP similarly pay one smaller dividend and one larger dividend every year, so the decreases shown in the table are nothing to be concerned about.

Full Disclosure: Long BBL, CHL