FIVE PICKS FROM THE TOP 20 DIVIDEND ARISTOCRATS

If you're looking for stocks with room to grow their dividends, I checked the top 20 Dividend Aristocrats for 2015 and have identified 5 stocks that I think are worth looking in to.  The list includes:

1.  AFLAC (AFL)  Recent price $57.08, P/E of 9.0, EPS 6.38, Dividend $1.56, Payout Ratio 24, Dividend Yield 2.73%.

2.  Dover (DOV)  Recent price $70.04, P/E of 15.1, EPS $4.65, Dividend $1.60, Payout Ratio of 34, Dividend Yield 2.28%.

3.  Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)  Recent Price $46.63, P/E of 16.4, Dividend $0.96, Payout Ratio 33, Dividend Yield 2.06%.

4.  Chubb (CB)  Recent Price $97.90, P/E 12.0, EPS $8.53, Dividend $2.00, Payout Ratio 23, Dividend Yield 2.04%.

5.  Franklin Resources (BEN)  Recent Price $51.53, P/E 13.9, EPS $3.79, Dividend $0.60, Payout Ratio 16, Dividend Yield 1.16%.

All five have below average price to earnings and low payout ratios, leaving them plenty of room to increase dividends.  Chubb just approved a $1.3 billion dollar share repurchase program, which should add shareholder value without tax consequences.  I don't own individual shares of any of these stocks, but am definitely considering adding them to my portfolio as cash allows.  In the mean time, I'll be giving them a closer look.

BUY 3 STOCKS, COLLECT A DIVIDEND EVERY MONTH!

Looking for an easy dividend investment plan and you want to get paid every month?  These three stocks have a history of raising their dividends every year for over 50 years!  Not only that, but since they pay in different quarters, you would collect a dividend payment every month of the year.

1.  Genuine Parts (GPC)  Current yield 2.33%, pays dividend in January, April, July and October.

2.  Proctor & Gamble (PG)  Current yield 2.81%, pays dividend in February, May, August and November.

3.  Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)  Current yield 2.70%, pays dividends in March, June, September and December.

These are three big blue chip stocks with very little risk as far as the dividend goes.  Of course you'd want to do your own research to make sure such an investment is right for you, but it's a place to start. 

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THREE DIVIDEND ARISTOCRATS WITH ROOM TO GROW DIVIDENDS!

Recently I read an article about 16 dividend stocks with a history of increasing dividends for over 50 years.  That in itself is quite impressive, but I decided to dig a little deeper to see which stocks my be the best bargains and best positioned to continue growing dividends.  I found 3 that I think are worth considering:

1.  Emerson Electric (EMR)  Emerson has a history of raising dividends for the past 57 years.  With a recent price to earnings of 19.6, the stock does not seem outrageously priced in a high P/E market.  They have a dividend yield of 3.14% with a current dividend of $1.88 per year.  Current earnings are $3.03, leaving them plenty of room to continue boosting dividends.

2.  Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)  A solid dividend performer, JNJ has a history of raising their dividend for 52 years.  Their current P/E is only 17.2 and they sport a dividend yield of 2.70%.  With an annualized dividend of $2.80 and current earnings of $5.70 it seems they'll be able to continue raising dividends for quite some time.

3.  Dover Corporation (DOV)  Dover has been increasing dividends every year for the past 59 years!  Not only that, but they have the lowest P/E of the three at 14.6.  Their current dividend yield of 2.22% may not sound like much, but with a current annualized dividend of $1.60 per share and earnings of $4.77 per share, it looks like they might be the best buy of the three.

In the interests of disclosure, I do not own any of the above stocks.  However, were I looking to add new positions to my portfolio, they'd certainly warrant a closer look.

THE PURCHASE OF UTG SHARES BRINGS DIVIDEND COUNT UP TO 200!

With the purchase of UTG on Tuesday of next week, my total number of dividend payments each year will go up to 200!  That works out to a dividend every 1.825 days or an average of 16.7 dividend payments per month!  Don't know where the stock market is headed this year.  There are a lot of good arguments for it going up or down.  Either way though, my dividend income is going up.  I'm pretty excited about that.

COLLECTED FIRST DIVIDEND FROM CLNY!

Collected first dividend payment from CLNY on the 15th!  I've been trying to time purchases of new shares to catch dividends soon after initial purchases.  I put in an order for Tuesday to purchase shares of Reaves Utility Fund (UTG) so I'll collect their next  monthly dividend in February.  For March I'll collect my first dividend from PDLI and possibly GLW.  I've been wanting to replace the shares of Corning that I sold in July of last year to pay bills.  While I made a nice profit on that sale, I think Corning is still a great investment and am even more convinced by the latest increase in their dividend.

UVE is still on fire, up nearly 300% since my initial purchase!  It is still my largest individual stock holding dollar wise, even after I took some profits by selling enough shares to take all my original investment out.  I like the income from UVE, love the fact that none of my own money is tied up with the stock and plan to hold this one for the long term, reinvesting all dividends.

Lost more hours at work from a slowdown in business.  While I'll be able to make up some of this money through partial unemployment, I'm hoping that I'll find a new job soon.  Have to pick up the pace on job hunting.  Wish me luck!

IS THE STOCK MARKET OVER REACTING TO THE PRICE OF OIL?

I've been around long enough to remember when oil was around $30 a barrel and the oil companies still managed to make money.  O.K., so things cost more now days.  But it's still about price and demand.  Once the market sets the price too low, the oil glut will end because producers will cut supply.  Once supply becomes more scarce, prices will go up and hopefully level off where the companies make a profit and consumers still benefit from lower average prices on gasoline.

If you bought oil stocks when prices were high, most likely they don't look so attractive to you now.  Which is why so many investors are headed for the exit with energy stocks.  However, I'm looking at it as an opportunity to take advantage of lower priced stocks to pick up some bargains in the oil business.  While available funds limit the amount I can currently invest, I have put in an order to purchase shares of Pacific Coast Oil Trust (ROYT) as an income investment.  Their current monthly dividend of 5 cents per share works out to a yield of 24.83% on their recent share price of $5.38 per share.  Of course the dividend fluctuates according to earnings and has been adjusted lower of late.  I'm willing to take the risk that they'll be able to maintain a reasonable dividend payout even with lower oil prices and with the price per share being so low, I could possibly see some growth as oil prices level off or go back up.

There's always the possibility I could lose my shirt on this deal, but it will only be a small percentage of my overall portfolio, so I'm willing to accept the risk.  I'll keep readers posted on how it works out.

FIVE DIVIDENDS TO START THE YEAR OFF RIGHT!

2015 is off to a good start with 5 dividend payments for the first day of the year!  Nine more payments to go for the month of January.  Compared to January of 2014, income from dividends should be up over 50%!  I'm on year 3 of my investment plan, my main goal being to double dividend income every year for 10 years.  I've already figured out an easy way to accomplish my goal for 2015, so year 3 is in the bag.  Gives me an entire year to come up with a plan to double income in 2016.  Of course I figured all along the first 5 years would be easy, after that it will be more difficult since the amount I need to double will be much greater.  I'm sticking with the plan since it's working so well so far.  Every month, with reinvested dividends, I make more than the month before.  Additional cash investments boost average monthly cash flows even more.  

Which brings me to the final phase of my investment plan.  I have a stake in a little over 20 stocks and stock and bond funds.  I'm currently collecting 176 dividend payments per year or an average of 14.67 dividends per month.  Now it's just a matter of building my stake in each investment through reinvested dividends and additional cash investments.