Dividend Increases, Oct/Nov 2013

Mid-month every month I provide a summary of recent dividend adjustments for stocks in my watch list. I do this to keep track of yield on cost (YoC) for stocks I own, and to monitor changes that might influence my assessment of a stock's attractiveness. If a stock's dividend payment is decreased, I'll remove it from my watch list. If I happen to own shares in a stock that announces a dividend decrease, I'll consider selling my shares.

The main goal of DivGro is to generate a reliable and growing dividend income stream. Reliable income comes from stable companies that can be counted on to pay the same, or increasing, dividends over time. In order to do so consistently, these companies must grow their earnings sufficiently to afford their growing dividend payments.

Regular dividend increases are important for a dividend growth portfolio. The main goal of DivGro is to generate a reliable and growing dividend income stream. Reliable income comes from stable companies that not only pay dividends regularly, but can be counted on to pay the same (or increasing) dividends over time. Of course, I prefer companies that increase their dividends over time. To do so, these companies must grow their earnings sufficiently to continue to afford their growing dividend payments.

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: Oct 16 - Nov 15, 2013

Company	Ticker	Price (Nov 15)	Previous Dividend	New Dividend	Current Yield	%Increase
Seagate Technology PLC	STX	48.94	1.52	1.72	3.51%	+13.16
Public Storage	PSA	162.41	5.00	5.60	3.45%	+12.00
Automatic Data Processing	ADP	77.33	1.74	1.92	2.48%	+10.34
United Technologies Corporation	UTX	108.59	2.14	2.36	2.17%	+10.28
Westwood Holdings Group, Inc.	WHG	55.74	1.60	1.76	3.16%	+10.00
Texas Instruments Incorporated	TXN	42.55	1.12	1.20	2.82%	+7.14
AFLAC Incorporated	AFL	67.48	1.40	1.48	2.19%	+5.71
BOK Financial Corporation	BOKF	62.36	1.52	1.60	2.57%	+3.57
Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P.	SXL	69.59	2.40	2.52	3.62%	+5.00
Emerson Electric Co.	EMR	67.97	1.64	1.72	2.53%	+4.88
SYSCO Corporation	SYY	33.70	1.12	1.16	3.44%	+4.88
United Bankshares, Inc.	UBSI	30.40	1.24	1.28	4.21%	+3.23
El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P.	EPB	41.32	2.52	2.60	6.29%	+3.17
Main Street Capital Corporation	MAIN	31.31	1.92	1.98	6.32%	+3.13
Alliance Holdings GP, L.P.	AHGP	56.50	3.14	3.23	5.72%	+2.87
Energy Transfer Equity, L.P.	ETE	70.11	2.62	2.69	3.84%	+2.67
Kinder Morgan Inc	KMI	35.35	1.60	1.64	4.64%	+2.50
Targa Resources Partners LP	NGLS	51.34	2.86	2.93	5.71%	+2.45
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP	KMP	82.00	5.28	5.40	6.59%	+2.27
Universal Corp	UVV	50.78	2.00	2.04	4.02%	+2.00
Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.	ARLP	74.98	4.61	4.70	6.27%	+1.95
Williams Partners, L.P.	WPZ	50.38	3.45	3.51	6.97%	+1.74
Spectra Energy Partners, LP	SEP	44.34	2.04	2.07	4.66%	+1.47
Vectren Corp	VVC	35.10	1.42	1.44	4.10%	+1.41
Energy Transfer Partners LP	ETP	53.13	3.58	3.62	6.81%	+1.26
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd	TEVA	38.28	1.09	1.11	2.90%	+1.26
Buckeye Partners, L.P.	BPL	67.40	4.25	4.30	6.38%	+1.18
Exterran Partners, L.P.	EXLP	29.94	2.09	2.11	7.05%	+0.96
Mercury General Corporation	MCY	47.47	2.45	2.46	5.18%	+0.41
Sturm, Ruger & Company	RGR	74.25	2.60	2.32	3.12%	-10.77
Vodafone Group Plc	VOD	37.24	2.09	1.09	2.94%	-47.55

Highlighted are stocks I own in DivGro.

AFL's dividend increase of 5.71% raises current yield to 2.19%. The next quarterly dividend of 37c per share will be payed on November 14, to shareholders of record on October 29. This increase adds $4 to DivGro's projected annual dividend income, and raises yield on cost to 2.96%.

ETP's distribution increase of 1.26% raises current yield to 6.81%. The next quarterly distribution of 90.5c per unit will be payed on February 10, 2014, to shareholders of record on January 9, 2014. This increase adds $4.50 to DivGro's projected annual dividend income, and raises yield on cost to 7.63%.

Because RGR decreased its dividend, I'm removing it from my watch list.

VOD is a semi-annual dividend payer with a pattern of paying one larger and one smaller dividend every year. The pattern of payments since 2010 looks like this:

( $0.85  $0.45 )   ( $0.97  $0.47 )   ( $0.99  $0.51 )   ( $1.04  $0.56 )

In reality, VOD is increasing its dividend by 6.67% over last year.

Full Disclosure: Long AFL, ETP