I’m a little late reporting this but PM announced 09/15 a quarterly dividend increase from 1.00 to 1.02. The dividend is payable October. 14, 2015 to shareholders of record as of Sept. 30, 2015.
This is an increase of just 2%, even smaller than last year’s of 6.4%. A strong dollar has kept PM’s profits lower but I don’t mind a smaller increase when they need to conserve the cash to get the company growing again. They still have a great track record and I think the raises will average out to much higher over the next 10-20 years.
This would mark the 8th straight year of increases after the spinoff from Altria Group.
Since I own 59.15 shares, this will increase my yearly dividends by $4.73.
I’ve read reports about “ethical investing” returns being lower than investments made purely by the numbers. However, I don’t think I personally would be able to invest in Philip Morris due to their tobacco profits, any more than I could invest in Microsoft due to personally suffering from their illegal monopoly behavior.
But at the same time, I’m sure my behavior creates investment opportunities for others, and I’m fine with that.
What are your thoughts on the ethics of investments?
Jack recently posted…Why I avoid Paypal, and you should too
Hi Jack,
My thoughts are that you can always find something negative about a company if you dig hard enough. Maybe it’s overcompensation to the execs, perhaps donations to an organization you don’t support or selling products like cigarettes that are bad for your health as you mentioned. People have choices, whether they are eating unhealthy food from MCD or smoking cigarettes from MO or PM. I try to separate personal feeling from business and just invest purely on the numbers.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for stopping by.
Congrats on the increase.
Enough digging will produce no-end of information for or against the purchase of a stock. It’s one of the reasons I try to avoid fundamentals on the whole and just go with a pre-trade update on the headline news.
The 2% is rather ho-hum, but we can’t complain about 5%+ dividend yield! I agree with you that we should see a better average increase in years to come.
Take care!
FerdiS
FerdiS recently posted…Monthly Review: August 2015
FerdiS,
Yes but it’s better than nothing and I expect better increases going forward. It’s easier to forgive the companies with larger than average dividends especially in this environmeht.
Take care!
Love hearing about raises, late or not. 🙂 And we happen to own PM in our family’s dividend stock portfolio so we are extra happy about the news!
Cheers to yet another raise. AFFJ
A Frugal Family’s Journey recently posted…RECENT BUY – (NYSE : EMR)
AFFJ,
Congrats on owning a company that has done well in the past. A slow year or two won’t bother me too much. I’m looking much further ahead than that and think PM will do just fine.
Cheers!