PepsiCo Increases Dividends

Another dividend increase for me as PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), the well-known maker of snacks and drinks, announced a 7% increase in its quarterly dividend (from $0.45 to $0.48).

I had mentioned the high probabilities of a dividend increase in January, when I upped my position in the company within my RRSP. This increase will translate into $12 more in dividend for me. On top of that, the price of the shares moved up quite a bit following the announcement, a difference of about $2 per shares compared to the week before the announcement. That was only an increase of about 3%, so I think we can reasonably expect the price to keep moving up -- markets tend to evaluate stable companies based on their dividend yield. But even that increase in the share price means that my position is now worth $200 more than before the announcement.

That's the joy of dividend growth -- you get more money paid up to you everytime there is an increase, but you also get the capital gain to go with it.

My Recent Dividend Increases

In the last couple of weeks, I got a three more raises in my DRiP portfolio.

First, on February 4th, toy-maker Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) announced a 25% increase (from $0.20 to $0.25) to its quarterly dividend. My current position in Hasbro is quite small, since I only added that company to my portfolio last year, but it's nice to see the trend here.

Second, on February 19th, health company Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced a 10% increase (from $0.40 to $0.44) to its quarterly dividend. Again, my stake in Abbott is quite small (set up my DRiP late in 2009).

Finally, on February 23rd, energy infrastructure company TransCanada Corporation (Toronto: TRP) announced a small 5% increase (from $0.38 to $0.40) to its quarterly dividend. Even though this rise was the smallest, I've had TransCanada in my portfolio for longer and as a result my stake in the company is bigger. So this increase will have the largest impact on my dividend income for 2010.

Still, together those increases will only impact my income by about $4 for this year. Nothing to write home about, but I'll be getting that money this year... and next... and the next one...

You get the picture: it adds up! Cheers!

Net Worth Update

As of March 1st, my net worth was $111 420 (up 1.3% from $109 990). If I exclude house-related assets and liabilities, my net worth was $73 707 (up 2.8% from $72 528). I was a bit suprise by this, as I had since big cash items this month (municipal taxes and car repairs), but the markets was generous to me in February. Still, I was a bit tight on liquidities at the end of the month. Nothing dramatic, and I didn't have to dip in too much on the emergency funds for those last-minute RRSP contributions. Still, I'll have to rebuild it a bit in the next couple of months.

Assets ($174 853, up 1.3% from $172 640)

• Bank Accounts $2 428 (down 44% from $4 312)
• Emergency Funds $1 256 (down 44% from $2 255)
• RRSP Accounts $51 654 (up 8.1% from $47 773)
• Non-Registered Investments $22 627 (up 4.8% from $21 597)
• Home $96 330 (stable)

Liabilities ($63 433, up 1.25% from $62 650)

• Credit Cards $4 518 (up 30% from $3 482)
• Mortgage $58 618 (down 0.4% from $58 868)
• Line of Credit $0 (stable)

Ratios

• Debt / assets: 0.363 (unchanged)
• House value / total assets: 0.551 (down from 0.558)

The car repairs were put on a no-interest 12-month payment plan, which explains the rise of credit card debt. As I mentioned, I dipped a bit ($1 000) into my emergency fund to transfer money (another $2 000, same as I did in January) to my RRSP before the end of the season. This should guarantee me a small tax return come April. Overall things are going well.

Work-wise, I am on a new contract, with more limited connectivity to the outside world. So any blogging I do has to be from home, in the evening. And I usually don't have as much drive to spend time on the computer during the evenings after spending the whole day in front of one. But I'll try to keep it up. :o)