Recent dividend raises (TROW, BHP, AD, CSCO, WMT, KO)

In the last week I received several raises that boosted my dividend income! So let's see who decided to give me more money and how much!

• T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) has announced that it will be increasing its dividend by 11% on the 30th of March to $1.20. Given my recent additions to TROW this raise adds more than €16 to my annual dividend income.
• BHP announced a raise in its semi-annual dividend to $ 3 per share (from $2,02 last year). This gigantic raise adds more than €24 to my annual dividend income with just this payment.
• Ahold Delhaize announced a raise in its semi-annual dividend to €0,52 per share (from €0,40 last year). This is a nice raise, which adds € 6 to my annual dividend income.
• Cisco (CSCO) raised its quarterly dividend by a rather small amount, just like Walmart (WMT).
• Finally Coca-Cola raised its dividend by almost 5%. This is a solid raise, given the raises in the last years.

All of these raises combined will deliver an annual income boost of more than € 50 in 2022 (and hopefully more after 2022!). In total I have received raises which will boost my annual dividend income by over € 100. That's a solid start of the year!

Three recent dividend increases (TROW, CSCO and BBL)

A few days ago I wrote about four recent dividend increases. The pace of raises continues with a few new raises! Of course I am happy with these raises, especially after a somewhat sobering 2020 in terms of dividend growth. So let's take a look at the raises.

T. Rowe Price

On February 9 T. Rowe Price (TROW) declared a $1.08/share quarterly dividend, which is a whopping 20% increase from its prior dividend of $0.90. Last year TROW increased its dividend by a massive 18% as well. I received five dividend raises since my purchase of TROW back in 2016. The quarterly dividend payment has exactly doubled since that time! My return on investment is currently around 20% per annum so I am not complaining.

Cisco

On the same day Cisco (CSCO) declared a $0.37/share quarterly dividend, which is modest 2.8% increase from its prior dividend of $0.36. I recently purchased shares in Cisco its my first dividend raise. It's not big raise but its one nonetheless. We'll see what happens next year!

BHP

Today BHP released their financial results for the half-year ended 31 December 2020. The results definitely looked solid with increasing earnings and margins, higher cashflow and shareholder returns and lower debt. They declared a dividend of $1,01 per share (which is $2,02 for the BBL shares). This is an increase of more than 50% compared to its March payment last year.

Summary

Together these raises increased my forward annual dividend income by roughly €30. Based on my portfolio's dividend yield of 3,9% I have to invest € 770 to get this kind of dividend income, but now I get it for free! Rock on!

Dividend raise: Billiton (+24%)

Last week Billiton (ticker: BBL) raised its semi-annual dividend. The 2nd payment was $1.26 per share last year and is raised to $1.56. This is a hefty raise of 24% and adds roughly € 7,50 to my annual dividend income (before taxes).

Billiton has a somewhat odd dividend history since my purchase back in 2013. They slashed the dividend back in 2016 but raised it during the last years back to the level of 2015. And on top of that in 2019 they declared a special dividend worth about one year of dividends. Even though it has been a rocky road, I am glad I didn't sell my investment back in 2016 for $20 a share. BBL is now priced at about $50 per share. So there might be a lesson here to not automatically sell after a dividend cut!

This year I've received 18 dividend raises that added about € 55 to my annual dividend income so far.

Are you a shareholder of BBL? And what do you think about its dividend prospects?