The thought occurred to me that the stock market is a lot like a car driving on a damp road in the winter. It appears to make cautious progress then BAM! It hits a patch of black ice and fishtails while overcorrecting. Oddly enough, I use the same language in both situations.
Even though I no longer have a position in Boston Beer (SAM), I like to keep tabs on it. Imagine my surprise when I saw the stock price went up over $12 a share to close at $99.01. I had to grit my teeth as I thought of the missed opportunity, but remembered the stock was at around this price this time last year and the last 52-weeks were a roller coaster. Plus, the stock doesn’t pay any dividends.
Polaris (PII) announced its next quarterly payout (good), but it was half of the previous dividend before the stock split (bad). I made a comment on other stock post about how I wished I took my analysis of the stock a step further and bought 20 more shares than I did. These additional shares would only have helped me if the dividend stayed at $.45 a share. So, I wasn’t as smart as I thought or could have been.
However, Polaris reached a new 52-week high and I was about $1600 in the black for only owning the stock for 60 trading days. In order for me to get a full share every quarter I would need to buy an additional 193 shares; and at $64.61 per Friday’s close, that’s a whopping $12K+ investment. I’ll have to be satisfied with my 1/3 of a share on November 15.
The other positive news is with B&G foods (BGS). After announcing its regular quarterly payout, B&G stated it would raise the dividend another $.02 a share for the January payout. That caused the stock to rise to a new 52-week high of $21.83. I reinvested the October dividend for another 1.0714 shares and the increased dividend provided me with a cushion to cover the new 52-week high. I will receive at least another full share in January.
The other stocks reaching new 52-week Highs were Xcel Energy (XEL) at $26.35; Mattel (MAT) at $29.13; and Hawaiian Energy (HE) at $26.79.
The amazing thing about the increase in the B&G dividend is most companies increase dividends after four quarters or more. BGS has increased the dividend twice, from $.17 to $.21 in April, then to $.23 in January. I’m hopeful the first quarter of 2012 will have many of my portfolio companies announcing dividend increases as they have gone a full year without one.
The other stocks announcing dividend increases payable in November are A. Schulman (SHLM), raising the dividend from $0.155 to $0.17 (paid November 1) and Paychex (PAYX), raising the dividend from $0.31 to $0.32 (payable November 15).
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