Portfolio dividend increase news: 9 raises in 2016

I have been holding back on reporting dividend increase because they happen frequently so I decided to lump the news into one post. 2015 is already wrapping to a close so all of these dividend increase announcements are scheduled for 2016. I don't have the 2016 dividend calendar posted on the site yet, and I will be posting that on the first of next year. Without further ado, I am delighted to say that the following 8 companies I hold have announced dividend increases for 2016:

ABBV: 16.33% (they raise rather irregularly, if comparing 2/2016 to 2/2015 dividend, it is a 16.33% increase)

ABT: 8.33%

CVS: 21.43% !!!!!

D: 8.10% , what an awesome utility!

DIS: 19.13% (they used to pay once a year and now they pay biannually so it's not straightforward to calculate the raise; I used ($0.71+$0.66)/$1.15 which yields 19% raise which is a nice increase)

MA: 18.75% , MasterCard impresses again!

MKC: 7.50%, steady eddy solid company

O: 4.13% (This is comparing 1/2016 to 1/2015 dividend, to get year over year increase; O raises the dividend irregularly multiple times a year at small increments, for 1/2016 they will pay $0.191 instead of the $0.1905 paid in 12/2015)

T: 2.13%, steady as always.

This is all great news. For the year of 2015, I averaged around a 10-10.2% dividend increase across the entire portfolio. My portfolio yields around 3% so in total that's about an 13% growth in income considering I reinvest all dividends (not bad!). Since when do I get a 13% increase in income from my job!

For 2016 I expect perhaps a slightly lower dividend increase due to the federal reserve tightening interest rates. In the watch is Chevron, who did not raise their dividend on the month they usually increase the dividend. They are holding the dividend still but still maintain dividend aristocrat status since 2015 total dividends is still greater than 2014 total dividends. Hopefully Chevron announces a token increase in 2016. For 2015, I sold my entire position of KMI before they announced the dividend cut of 75%. It is very unfortunate and I am afraid I cannot trust the current management at Kinder Morgan anymore for over-promising. Best of luck to the retirees who held on.

Happy Holidays