Today, I am putting up a spreadsheet (see www.spbrunner.com/stocks/dividendincome.htm) showing two things about my dividend income for 2009. The first column called “Div Q2” and the second is called “09”. Under “Div Q2”, I have recorded the dividend increase for that particular stock for 2009 compared to 2008. In the second column of “09”, I have recorded if the company actually declared a dividend increase so far in 2009. I have also shown dividend increase information for 2007 and 2008.
The first item to discuss is AltaGas Income Fund which I bought on May 22, 2009 and for which I have not yet received a distribution. On May 7, 2009, the company announced that there would be a distribution of $.18 on June 15, 2009 for unitholders of record on May 25, 2009. Since I purchased this stock on May 22, 2009, I had 3 business days to pay for it. Therefore, the settlement date was May 27th, 2009, the third business day after I purchased this stock. The unitholder of record on May 25, 2009 would be the person who I bought the stock from and they would receive this dividend. I do not own the stock until the settlement date.
This illustrates the 3 dates connected with dividends. The first date is the announcement date, which in this case is May 7, 2009. The second date specifies when you must be a holder of the shares to receive the dividend being declared. In this illustration, it is May 25, 2009. You are the holder of a share from the settlement date of your purchase. The last date shows the date that the dividend or distribution will be paid. In this case, the dividend is paid on June 15, 2009.
The next item is Matrikon Inc. This company announced on December 17, 2008 that a dividend would be paid of $0.03 per common share for the first quarter of fiscal year 2009. This dividend is payable January 14, 2009 to all shareholders of record on December 31, 2008. On April 18, 2009, Matrikon's board of directors declared a dividend of $0.03 per common share for the second quarter of fiscal year 2009. This dividend is payable May 13, 2009 to all shareholders of record on April 29, 2009. This announcement coincided with the announcement for the 2nd quarter results of the company.
As you can see with the declaration for Matrikon, not all dividend payments can easily be slotted into a dividend cycle of 1, 2 or 3. For this company, the dividends are mostly paid in cycle 1 months, so I have put it into Cycle 1 for dividend payments. However, as you can see, companies do not necessarily hold to one payment cycle for dividends.
Companies always announce when their dividends will be paid. A good site to look for the announcements is the Globe Investor site at www.globeinvestor.com . Usually, but not always, “dividend” or “distribution” is part of the news heading. If you do not find this, companies often announce a dividend or distribution when announcing annual or quarterly results. You can often find this information on the company’s website.
There are two things that I want to mention in connection with June dividends. The first is I have one company, Melcor Development that has decreased their dividends effect with the June dividend payment. The other is that there are some Canadian Companies that report in US dollars, rather than Canadian dollars. These companies usually also declare dividends in US dollars. For all the companies that I own with dividends declared in US dollars, their dividends for June are lower because our currency is increasing against the US dollar.
Tomorrow, I will do a review of Melcor Development as they have decreased their dividends.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website at www.spbrunner.com/stocks.html for a list of the stocks for which I have put up spreadsheets.
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