Recent Buy & September Dividend Increases

After publicly sharing my watch list for the first time at the start of September, I was a tad nervous my target prices were aggressively low.  When I saw the North American markets were slated to open lower on Monday morning, I wondered if TransCanada Corporation (my recent analysis) would drop as their ex-dividend date was Friday. Being a long-term investor, missing one dividend payment doesn't make much of a difference to me. While watching TransCanada's stock price fall over the course of Monday, the smirk on my face turned into a full blown smile. I'm happy to share that I was able to increase my position in TransCanada today by buying more shares at $41.99 (a full penny under my target price!). Although this doesn't complete my position with the company, it's a large step in that direction. 

The other reason why I have a smile draped across my face today is thinking about the three dividend raises related to my portfolio that were announced in September. 

- Enbridge Income Fund Holdings boosted their payout this month by 10% after completing a $30B asset purchase from Enbridge Inc. 

- Microsoft increased their dividend 16%, one of the largest percentage dividend hikes in my portfolio this year.

- Realty Income upped their monthly payout by 0.26% which was the 82nd dividend increase for the company since it went public in 1994.

Although I also expected McDonald's Corporation to announce a dividend increase in September based on their historical pattern, their CFO indicated in their Q2 earnings call that they would wait for November to make an announcement. This seems reasonable given the company would want to see some preliminary results of their all-day breakfast initiative in the US before making capital allocation plans for 2016. Personally, I don't mind waiting since November is usually a very quiet month for dividend raise announcements in my portfolio.

Three dividend raises in a month and adding to a position at a aggressively low target price make me feel very positive about September. I'll update later this week with my progress towards my 2015 goals.

Did you add to or initiate any positions during today's market drop???