Dividend Changes 2

Today, I want to revisit the information I have on dividend increases and decreases for the stocks I follow. Most of my stocks started out as Dividend Payers. Currently 14 stocks are not paying any dividends and this would be some 9.46% of the stocks that I follow. Three of these stocks never had dividends, so 7.43% of the stocks I follow have suspended their dividends. The three stocks that never paid dividends are Ballard Power Systems Inc. (TSX-BLD, NASDAQ-BLDP0, Blackberry Ltd. (TSX-BB, NASDAQ-BBRY) and Trigon Metals Inc. (TSX-TM, OTC-PNTZF) (which used to be Kombat Copper Inc.).

Mths	2017	2017		2016	2016		2015	2015		2014	2014	Med	Med
	Incr	Decr		Incr	Decr		Incr	Decr		Incr	Decr	Incr	Decr
Jan	5	1		4	0		4	0				4.0	0.0
Feb	10	0		5	2		8	0		14	0	9.0	0.0
Mar	23	0		18	5		19	3		15	1	18.5	2.0
Apr	10	2		8	4		9	3		14	0	9.5	2.5
May				3	2		6	1		7	1	6.0	1.0
Jun				18	0		14	1		14	1	14.0	1.0
Jul				3	1		6	1		3	0	3.0	1.0
Aug				4	0		4	2		9	0	4.0	0.0
Sep				7	1		7	3		9	0	7.0	1.0
Oct							1	1		1	1	1.0	1.0
Nov				6	0		4	1				5.0	0.5
Dec				12	0		13	2		13	0	13.0	0.0
Tot	48	3		88	15		95	18		99	4	94.0	10.0
154	31%	2%		57%	10%		62%	12%		64%	3%	61%	6%

What you can see in these charts is the percentage of stocks that have increased or decreased dividends. So far this year some 31% of the stocks I follow have increased their dividends. This is compared to 57% in 2016, 62% in 2015 and 64% in 2014. So, so far this year in the first quarter about half the number which increased dividends in recent years has increased their dividends.

You can also see in the first chart that certain months seem to have more dividend increases than other months. Those months are March, June and December.

Mths	2017	2017		2016	2016		2015	2015		2014	2014	Med	Med
	Incr	Decr		Incr	Decr		Incr	Decr		Incr	Decr	Incr	Decr
Jan	5	1		4	0		4	0				4.0	0.0
Feb	10	0		5	2		8	0		14	0	9.0	0.0
Mar	23	0		18	5		19	3		15	1	18.5	2.0
Apr	10	2		8	4		9	3		14	0	9.5	2.5
Tot	48	3		35	11		40	6		43	1	41.0	4.5
154	31%	2%		23%	7%		26%	4%		28%	1%	27%	3%

In this chart you can see that so far this year, more companies have increased their dividends than in prior years to the end of April. Here you see that 31% have increased dividends to the end of April. By this time in 2016 23% had, in 2015 26% had and in 2014 27% had. You can also see that in 2017 there were fewer decreases at 2% than there were for other years expect for 2014 which only had a 1% of companies decreasing their dividends.

On my other blog I wrote yesterday about Veresen Inc. (TSX-VSN, OTC-FCGYF)... learn more. Tomorrow, I will write about SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (TSX-SNC, OTC-SNCAF)... learn more on Friday, April 21, 2017 around 5 pm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. I do research for my own edification and I am willing to share. I write what I think and I may or may not be correct.

See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. I have three blogs. The first talks only about specific stocks and is called Investment Talk. The second one contains information on mostly investing and is called Investing Economics Mostly. My last blog is for my book reviews and it is called Non-Fiction Mostly. Follow me on Twitter.