Everyday Freethought

Here is my dividend income for January, 2012.

The total was $188.68. The total for the same stocks 3 months ago (October, 2011) was $208.90. As I mentioned in my previous dividend income update, Coca-Cola (KO) is on a weird dividend schedule. They paid a dividend in October, 2011, and their next dividend payment was in December, 2011. The total for October, 2011 without KO was $165.13. So I think it is fair to say my dividend income is going up.

Here are the totals:

• Automatic Data Processing: $21.64
• MDU Resources Group Inc: $8.71
• Kimberly-Clark: $36.20
• Chubb Corp: $8.11
• Illinois Tool Works: $18.33
• Altria Group: $22.12
• Family Dollar Stores Inc: $4.77
• Piedmont Natural Gas Inc: $15.10
• Valspar Corp: $11.24
• Cincinnati Financial Corp: $17.20
• Sysco Corp: $13.98
• RPM International Inc: $11.28

Image from Wikimedia

There is an error on the RSS feed for tonight’s episode of “Mad Money”.

The Dow ended the best January since 1997, closing down 21 points.  Cramer explains what’s working and what’s not.  Then, Jim explains the fabled golden cross.  Plus, Cramer puts on his ski gear to find out if PII is snowballign.  And, could D provide you with a natural solution?  Cramer gets the details.

Also, they gave the link for tonight’s “Fast Money”. What is up with that? WHERE’S CRAMER????

It looks like another Enterprise night.

Image from Memory Alpha, copyright owned by CBS,  presumed to be allowed under Fair Use

Here are a few dividend updates.

I bought more shares of Emerson (EMR). I also bought some shares of ConocoPhillips (COP).

Eaton (ETN) announced that they will raise their dividend 12%.

I have started listening to the “Sound Investing” podcast from Merriman. One of the hosts has said a couple of times that companies are making dividends a lower priority, and that you should not invest looking for dividends. I generally agree with what they say, but I think that dividends are the way to go. I also think that companies that pay dividends are commited to paying them. Just tonight I saw the CEO of Eaton on “Mad Money”. He said that Eaton is commited to paying out increasing dividends year after year.

There is a typo on the RSS feed entry for today’s episode of “Mad Money”:

The Dow closed down 33 points, still on pace for its biggest monthy gain since October.  Cramer examines AAPL’s bite into the competition and gives you the 5 best places to invest in 2012.  Then, do FPE and BMY have what it takes to resuscitate your portfolio?  And, Jim puts GOOG and MSFT in teh ring for a battle of the tech titans.  Plus, could KMP be a pipeline to profits?

There is also another huge error in the RSS feed: The file link was to yesterday’s file. I had to copy the link, edit it and use wget to get the file. I think a lot of people who use the RSS feed in iTunes are stuck with the old episode until the entry is fixed.

Update 2012-01-25_10.10.21:

It looks like the file link was updated, but the typo is still there. Perhaps Cramer or his staff actually read my tweet.

I think the RSS entry for tonight (2012-01-13) has two typos:

The Dow dropped 49 points in anticipation of a European sovereign debt downgrade that hit after the close.  To kick off the market’s long weekend, S and P slashed the credit ratings of 9 Eurozone nations including France, Spain, Italy and Portugal.  In this new market, Cramer’s giving you some new rules for disiplined investing.  Get some financial self-restraint to help your portfolio turnover a new leaf in 2012.

I am pretty sure that it should be “turn over a new leaf.” They must have some Ivy Leaguer typing this stuff.

There was another typo in the “Mad Money” RSS feed:

The Dow closed up 21 points today.  Politices and your portfolio – as the race for the White House heats up, Cramer shows you how to blaze the campaign trail with profits.  4ED1-PL-us, KFT – Dow diamond in the rough?  Jim tells you if it could be this stock’s time to shine.  And, ALXN vs. ROST – find out which company has the winning strategy for 2012.

I assume that is a typo. It sure looks weird to me.

Mad Money got 2012 off to a great start with another typo in the RSS feed:

On the first trading day of the year, the Dow soared 180 points.  Cramer busts some market myths from 2011 so you can focus on the facts this year.  Then, find out if Cramer thinks T is a Dow diamon in the rough.  Plus, Jim acts as a Monday morning quarterback and pits 2011 S and P top performers COG and ISRG against each other on the profit playing field.  And, Cramer reexamines a golden opportunity.

Is this an omen for the rest of the year?

It is time to post my December, 2011 dividend income.

There are a few more stats for this month than usual.

Coca-Cola pays dividends in April, July, October and December. Other companies that pay dividends in April, July and October pay their other dividend of the year in January. For some reason Coca-Cola pushes that dividend forward one month. I thought they just did it last year because there was a chance the dividend tax rate could change. But paying one of them early seems to be the routine.

Another change is that RLI paid a regular quarterly dividend of 30 cents and a special dividend of $5.00. This is the second year in a row that they have paid a special dividend.

In September, 2011 my dividend income was $243.26. Without Coca-Cola or the special RLI dividend, my December, 2011 dividend income was $248.26. With the Coca-Cola dividend, my December income was $272.30. With both the Coca-Cola and special RLI dividends, my December, 2011 income was $514.94.

• AFLAC Inc: $16.87
• American States Water: $14.44
• Black Hills Corp: $11.63
• Bemis Co Inc: $14.73
• Intel: $9.83
• Vectren Corp: $18.19
• Archer-Daniels-Midland: $10.74
• Emerson Electric Co: $8.27
• Sonoco Products: $18.00
• Exxon Mobil: $26.34
• Chevron: $16.90
• 3M Co: $6.81
• Questar Corp: $8.20
• Walgreen Co: $12.15
• Johnson & Johnson: $17.87
• Dover Corp: $6.78
• Consolidated Edison: $15.95
• Coca-Cola Co: $24.04
• RLI Corp: $14.56
• RLI Corp: $242.64

Image from Wikimedia

I got the annual report for Emerson Electric Company. On the cover it said, “55 Years of Increased Dividends”. On the inside cover it says, “For the 55th consecutive year, Emerson increased its annual dividend to shareholders”. I was pretty happy to see that.

Emerson Electric is on several dividend stock lists: Dividend Aristocrats, Dividend Achievers and Dividend Champions.

I have some shares, and I may buy some more this week.

Image from Emerson website

S & P has updated its list of the Dividend Aristocrats. This is the first dividend list that I became aware of. If you want to use a dividend list as an investment plan to follow, this might be a good one since it is the smallest.

The stated criteria is that it consists of stocks that are in S & P indices have raised their dividends every year for at least 25 years. Yet there are many stocks that have increased their dividend for 25 or more years that are not on the list. Some of the additions this year are some of those stocks that were not on the list despite meeting the criteria.

Some other lists are the Dividend Achievers and Dividend Champions. The Dividend Champions list has a lot of stats and in my opinion is the best download of the three groups of lists. Some people prefer these because they are larger lists and more consistently adheres to their entry criteria than S & P.

The stocks that were added that I already own are AT&T (T), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Illinois Tool Works (ITW) and Sysco Corp. (SYY). The stocks that were added which I do not already own are Franklin Resources (BEN), Genuine Parts (GPC), HCP Inc. (HCP), Medtronic, Inc. (MDT), Nucor Corp. (NUE) and T. Rowe Price Group (TROW). CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) was deleted. I never bought that one.

Quite a few of the new stocks that I do not own are financial stocks. I generally avoid financial stocks.

Dividend Achievers, Dividend Aristocrats and Dividend Champions are trademarks owned by other people. Google them.