Dividend Increases, January 16-31, 2014

Unbelievably, the first month of 2014 is over! Time again to report on recent dividend increases for stocks in my watch list. And this month has been a busy one for dividend increase announcements.

I compile this information to monitor dividend increases for stocks I own in DivGro and so I can make yield on cost adjustments. For other stocks in my watch list, monitoring dividend increases is informative and one way to assess the long-term health of dividend paying companies.

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: Jan 16 - Jan 31, 2014

Company	Ticker	Price (Jan 31)	Previous Dividend	New Dividend	Current Yield	%Increase
BlackRock, Inc.	BLK	300.47	6.72	7.72	2.57%	+14.88
Alliant Energy Corporation	LNT	51.96	1.88	2.04	3.93%	+8.51
AvalonBay Communities Inc	AVB	123.50	4.28	4.64	3.76%	+8.41
Praxair, Inc.	PX	124.72	2.40	2.60	2.08%	+8.33
Diageo plc (ADR)	DEO	120.05	2.90	3.09	2.58%	+6.68
Dominion Resources, Inc.	D	67.91	2.25	2.40	3.53%	+6.67
Williams Companies, Inc.	WMB	40.49	1.52	1.61	3.98%	+5.92
CMS Energy Corporation	CMS	27.79	1.02	1.08	3.89%	+5.88
Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P.	SXL	78.58	2.52	2.65	3.37%	+5.16
National Health Investors Inc	NHI	62.97	2.94	3.08	4.89%	+4.76
Cincinnati Financial Corporation	CINF	48.45	1.68	1.76	3.63%	+4.76
PartnerRe Ltd	PRE	98.17	2.56	2.68	2.73%	+4.69
Vodafone Group Plc (ADR)	VOD	37.06	1.58	1.65	4.45%	+4.26
Health Care REIT, Inc.	HCN	57.92	3.06	3.18	5.49%	+3.92
Norfolk Southern Corp.	NSC	92.59	2.08	2.16	2.33%	+3.85
HCP, Inc.	HCP	39.15	2.10	2.18	5.57%	+3.81
Energy Transfer Equity, L.P.	ETE	41.72	1.35	1.39	3.32%	+2.97
Alliance Holdings GP, L.P.	AHGP	62.53	3.23	3.31	5.29%	+2.48
Consolidated Edison, Inc.	ED	54.41	2.46	2.52	4.63%	+2.44
Wisconsin Energy Corporation	WEC	42.67	1.53	1.56	3.66%	+1.96
Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.	ARLP	82.40	4.70	4.79	5.81%	+1.91
DCP Midstream Partners, LP	DPM	50.23	2.88	2.93	5.83%	+1.74
Williams Partners L.P.	WPZ	50.10	3.51	3.57	7.13%	+1.71
Energy Transfer Partners LP	ETP	55.51	3.62	3.68	6.63%	+1.66
Exterran Partners, L.P.	EXLP	29.90	2.11	2.13	7.12%	+0.95
Healthcare Services Group, Inc.	HCSG	27.13	0.68	0.69	2.52%	+0.74

Previous post: Dividend Increases: Jan 1 - Dec 15, 2014

I own the highlighted stocks, PartnerRe Ltd (PRE) and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP).

The board of PRE, a property-casualty and life reinsurer, approved a 4.69% hike in its regular quarterly dividend payment from 64¢ to 67¢ per share. The new dividend will be paid on February 28, 2014, to shareholders of record on February 18. I own 27 shares of PRE, so the raise adds $3.24 to DivGro's projected annual dividend income.

ETP declared a new quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28, 2014. Shareholders of record on February 7, will receive a dividend of 92¢ per share on February 14, 2014. The new dividend represents a raise of 1.66%. ETP last raised its dividend in November, 2013, by 1.26%. Since I own 100 shares of ETP, the dividend increase adds $6.00 to my projected annual dividend income.