Dividend Increase - Walmart (WMT)

Yesterday Walmart's Board of Directors also announced an increase in their dividend.  This time a whopping  18.24% increase.  It was one of their largest increases in their history, which is pretty amazing considering their 39 year streak.  The quarterly payout increased from $0.3975 to $0.47 giving an annual dividend of $1.88.  Walmart is currently yielding around 2.70%.

One of the things I really like about Walmart is that they announce the record and payout dates for all 4 dividends during the year at the beginning of their fiscal year.  The record dates are March 12th, May 10th, August 9th, and December 6th with corresponding payout dates of April 1st, June 3rd, September 3rd, and January 2nd.  Having the record and payout dates announced this far in advance gives investors the opportunity to schedule purchases much further in advance, well if you're looking to acquire through sell puts.  Since I know the record dates I can look to sell put options further out to but still have them be assigned in time to get the dividend.

Unfortunately I have a tiny position in Walmart that I started when news of the Mexico bribery scandal broke.  Since then the stock was on fire and hasn't really given any opportunities to buy on the cheap.  It's fairly valued right now, of course my calculations haven't taken into account the new dividend rate yet.  This increase will provide an extra $2.64 in annual dividends in my Roth IRA before reinvestment or further increases.  My YOC in my Roth IRA increased to 3.10% from 3.06% and my forward 12-month dividends increased to $208.91 from $206.27.