Two More Dividend Raises and Short-term Trade

     Two more of my holdings increased dividends this week, with Rogers Communications and Kinder Morgan raising their payouts. I also closed out a short-term trade that I initiated in December, selling the last of my shares in Suncor Energy for a nice profit.

     Rogers has been a long-time holding of mine, and regularly increases their dividend in the first quarter of the year. After announcing year-end results that were in-line with their guidance (slightly higher revenue, but lower net profits than last year), they raised their quarterly dividend by 4.9%. The stock currently yields about 4.3%.  Being the market leader in wireless, Rogers stands to benefit from increased data usage. 

     Last summer, after Richard Kinder announced he was simplifying his company's structure by bringing multiple related companies under the same corporate parent (Kinder Morgan Inc), and planned to increase Kinder's dividend about 10% per year between 2015 and 2020, I bought shares in this US pipeline. Last week, I wasn't surprised when Kinder Morgan announced they were raising their dividend by a penny per share, the fifth consecutive quarter they increased the dividend by a penny. Over the last year, Kinder has increased the dividend by 9.8%, in-line with their forward guidance.

     Today, after relaxing on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, I came back to my hotel room and discovered I'd sold my shares in Suncor Energy. I had a limit price sell order in (as I have for the past couple weeks), and with the price of oil spiking today, I sold my position in Suncor for a nice gain. This was a short-term trade I initiated in early December. I managed to pick up a dividend in December, and after deducting transaction costs, ended up making 1.6% in less than two months. 

     With five dividend increases, and two profitable short-term trades completed, January has been a great month in my portfolio. Hopefully the strong start is a sign of things to come in 2015.