Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Dividend Increase: GIS

General Mills (GIS) is increasing its quarterly dividend by 15.2%, from $0.33 to $0.38 per share, putting the company on track for its 10th consecutive year of dividend growth (press release). The increase is effective with the August dividend payment and was announced sooner than I expected. Given that I own 70 shares of GIS, my quarterly dividend increases from $23.10 to $26.60, which will add an extra $14.00 to my annual dividend income. This dividend increase boosts my yield on cost to 3.87%. Thus far this year, there have been dividend increases for 14 of the 28 dividend growth stocks in my portfolio.

4 comments:

  1. DGM,

    I'm so mad at myself for not buying GIS before the HNZ deal. I was looking at it strongly, and was wavering unusually and unnecessarily. I wish I could go back and undo that.

    Ah well, I hope the market corrects and GIS is in my sites.

    Best wishes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DM: My last purchase of GIS was in February 2012, when the stock was idling in the $38-40 range. I wish I would have bought more. Of course, back then I had no way of knowing that 2013 would bring the HNZ deal and higher valuations for food companies in general. If I did, then I also would have bought more HRL at $28. The best we can do is learn from these experiences and hope they make us better at evaluating opportunities in the future.

      Delete
  2. Wow I wasn't expecting an increase this hefty, good news. I really wish I would have increased my position last year. The stock had been trading in the range of 36-40 for a longtime and I wasn't in a rush. Oops!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CI: I think a lot of folks wished they had increased their positions in GIS. Oh well, at least the dividend increase will benefit the shares that we do own!

      Delete