Dividend growth 2014

Although I only started investing in DGI stocks sometime in the middle of 2014, I have tabulated what the dividend increases would have looked like for all the holdings in my portfolio had I been in DGI since the beginning of the year.

Ticker 2014 v 2013 AAPL 9.50% BAX 7.45% CHD 10.71% CVX 7.95% DIS 14.67% GIS 13.38% HCP 3.81% JNJ 6.56% KMB 7.17% KMI 8.97% KO 8.93% KRFT 4.76% MCD 5.13% MKC 8.82% MO 8.89%

Ticker 2014 v 2013 O 2.06% PEP 13.06% PG 7.01% PM 11.17% ROST 17.65% SBUX 23.60% SO 3.48% T 2.22% TJX 21.82% UNP 21.96% UTX 7.52% V 20.86% VZ 3.13% WMT 5.67% XOM 9.76%

The total increase after including the market weights for each position in 1/26/2015 is:
9.96% 2014vs2013 Div Growth Rate

2.94% Present Yield

The results are quite impressive. You will notice that the lower yielding stocks had higher growth rates than the high yielders. My goal was to aim at having a Chowder number of 12. The 2014 results have currently surpassed that goal. Realistically I would be happy with any growth rate over 8%. The market in 2014 was an easy time to make gains. I will be very curious to see how these dividend stocks will fare out during a recession. Time will tell...

Notable stocks:
GIS impressed me a lot. It is a steady 3% dividend payer with a strong track record and low volatility. Yet it was able to manage a 13.38% raise. Phillip Morris (PM) is another notable stock with an 11% raise with a present yield of 4.83%.

Note: The dividend growth data was obtained from the U.S. Dividend Champions spreadsheet put together by David Fish. It is up to the reader to verify the accuracy of the numbers. Certain companies are not on the Dividend list because they are new or they are spinoffs or they are new to paying out dividends. Those stocks (AAPL, KRFT, KMI) that are not on the list had their data taken from NASDAQ or Morningstar. Slightly different growth rates will be calculated depending on when one starts and ends the the dividend payments for a year.