Dividend Increase | Microsoft $MSFT #Dividend

Dividend | Dividend Growth | Financial Independence | Freedom | Passive Income
Getting a pay raise while sitting on the couch?  Sign me up!  Thanks Microsoft for another dividend increase!

There's an old Chinese proverb that says "the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is now".  The reason for this is that it takes time for a tree to grow and prosper and for you to start reaping its benefits.  Dividend growth investing is much the same way.  It takes consistent saving and investing as well as time and patience to let the power of dividend growth take hold.

That's why one of my favorite things is when one of the companies I own decides to pay out more in dividends.  You mean I get a pay raise just for owning a small piece of a company?  Not going and doing R&D for new products or technology.  Not selling any products.  Not managing any employees or inventory.  Not making sales calls.  All I had to do was have the foresight to invest some of my savings in excellent companies.  

On September 20th the Board of Directors at Microsoft (MSFT) approved an increase in the quarterly dividend payment.  The dividend was increased from $0.62 to $0.68 which is a solid 9.7% increase.  Microsoft is a Dividend Contender with 20 consecutive years of dividend growth.  Shares currently yield 1.12% based on the new annualized payout.

The new dividend will be payable December 8th to shareholders of record as of November 17th.

Since I own 67.264 shares of Microsoft in my FI Portfolio, this raise increased my forward 12-month dividends by $16.14.  This is also the 10th raise I've received from Microsoft since initiating a position in 2013 with total dividend growth coming in at 195%.  


A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

Microsoft initiated their dividend in FY 2003 and followed it up with a raise in 2004 by paying annual dividends.  However, starting in FY 2005 they swapped over to quarterly payments and dividend growth has been very strong since.

Since 2003 Microsoft has shown year over year dividend growth ranging from 4.0% to 100.0% with an average of 21.9% and median of 13.1%.

There's been 15 rolling 5-year periods with annualized dividend growth coming in between 9.5% and 40.0% with an average of 16.0% and a median of 14.3%.

Likewise, there's been 10 rolling 5-year periods with annualized dividend growth spanning from 12.3% to 27.2% with an average of 16.0% and a median of 14.4%.

The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year rolling dividend growth rates for Microsoft since 2003 can be found in the following chart.  



A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

For dividend yield theory I consider the fair value range to be the forward dividend yield +/- 10% compared to the 3-year moving average, the under/over value area to be to between 10%-20% deviation from the average and significant over/under value are greater than a 20% deviation from the average.

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

Microsoft's 3-year average forward dividend yield is 1.0% which corresponds to a share price of $272 based on the new annualized payout.  

I consider the fair value range based on dividend yield theory to be the 3-year moving average yield +/- 10%.  That gives a fair value range of $247 - $302 and suggests that shares are currently trading below the low end of fair value.
  
  




Wrap Up

This raise increased my forward dividends by $16.14 with zero effort on my part.  That's right, absolutely nothing to contribute to their operations.  Based on my FI Portfolio's current yield of 2.72% this raise is like I invested an extra $593 in capital.  Except that I didn't!  One of the companies I own just decided to send more cash my way. 

That's how you can eventually reach the crossover point where your dividends received exceed your expenses.  That's DIVIDEND GROWTH INVESTING AT WORK!  The beauty of the dividend growth investing strategy is that you build up your dividends through fresh capital investment as well dividend increases from the companies you own.

This is the 44th dividend increase I've received from the companies in my FI Portfolio increasing my forward 12-month dividends by $466.84 combined.

My FI Portfolio's forward-12 month dividends are $10,748.20  Including my FolioFirst portfolio's forward dividends of $233.28 brings my total taxable accounts dividends to $10,981.48.  My Roth IRA's forward 12-month dividends are $1,050.67.  My Rollover IRA's forward dividends are $4,564.81.  Across all accounts I can expect to receive $16,596.96 in dividends over the next year.

I've also started compiling dividend data on many of the companies that I own or would like to own.  Microsoft's can be found here which includes the dividend history (as far back as I can find without spending hours hunting it down), rolling dividend growth rates and dividend yield theory.  To see other companies that I've already gathered the data on you can check out the Dividend Companies page.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Do you own shares of Microsoft?  Do you think they can continue to deliver 10%+ dividend growth for the next decade?

Please share your thoughts below.

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