Many of the stocks that I own and write Covered Calls upon also pay dividends.  Dividends occur on a regular basis and add significantly to my annual investment income.  Year to date I have received a total of $2,785.01 in dividends in my various accounts for 2012.  My year to date average monthly dividends received is currently $928.34.  The year-to-date dividends currently represent about 30.84% of my average monthly investment cash flow and about 2.49% return on my current basis value.

My YTD dividends are up by $140.42 on a monthly average from last year.  That represents a 17.82% increase to date year over year.  I attribute the increased dividends to a few companies raising their dividends and to my purchasing additional dividend paying stocks.  During February, I received notice of the following dividends paid in various accounts for a total of $1,006.79.

Please notice that PGF is an ETF and pays dividends monthly.  The annualized dividend yield for PGF is based upon the simple and false assumption that it will pay the same dividend each month for the next 12 months.  The actual annualized dividend yield may be more or less than illustrated here.

The DCIX shares are ones I received as a split off from Diana Shipping (DSX).  I had thought about just selling them but there are so few and the trading cost would chew up so much relative to what I would receive that I decided to keep them, at least for now, and collect the little dividends that they throw off.

I use my basis per share to determine the simple and annualized percentage return because I feel that it gives me a better representation of the value of the dividends as they relate to my portfolio.  My basis may be above or below the market price which causes my return to be lower or higher than published yields for a stock.  I calculate my basis per share as my acquisition price less any option premiums received on those shares.  I do not use dividends to reduce my basis.

Today, 2/9/12, I BTC 5 BP Jan12 $40 Covered Calls and STO 5 BP Jan14 $40 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $384.31 in an IRA account.  My basis for these BP shares is now $57.00, excluding dividends received.  These option transactions represent a simple return of about 1.33% and an annualized return of about .69% on my prior basis. 

I rolled these BP Calls out because BP goes ex-dividend next week on 2/15/12.  With my BP shares being almost $7 in the money with less than one year to expiration I was concerned that they might be called away just for the dividends.  I would not have minded that so much if I were not underwater on BP.  I would like also to have rolled my strike up as I did the last time I rolled out BP.  However, it was not possible this time for as a net credit transaction.

BP has been good to me over the years.  I have collected $2940 in dividends since 2009 when I first began tracking them.  I have held it longer but my tracking of the dividends only goes back to the beginning of 2009.  In addition, I have gathered $7,488.31 in option premiums on these and other shares that I have owned since mid 2005 when my current record keeping began.

BP just raised its quarterly dividend payout this quarter to .48 per share, up from the .42 paid last quarter.  On the other hand, BP was paying .84 quarterly prior to the gulf oil spill.  I have considered BP as part of my core holdings because of the decent dividends and the additional cash flow from selling Covered Calls.  At some point, I hope to get the option premium return up to a more decent level.  I wanted to purchase an additional 100 shares prior to this roll out in order to reduce my basis further and maybe increase my strike price.  I just did not have the available cash to do so this time.

S&P has a 12-month price target of $58 and a Buy rating on BP.  MarketEdge has a price opinion of $46.57 and a Long recommendation.  The 12 Yahoo Analysts have a 12-month price target of $52.93 and a recommendation of 2.1 where 1.0 is a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell.

Many of the stocks that I own and write Covered Calls upon also pay dividends.  Dividends occur on a regular basis and add significantly to my annual investment income.  Year to date I have received a total of $9.454.95 in dividends in my various accounts for 2011.  My year to date average monthly dividends received is currently $787.91.  The year-to-date dividends currently represent about 28.59% of my average monthly investment cash flow and about 2.14% return on my current basis value.

My YTD dividends are up by $183.64 on a monthly average from last year.  That represents a 30.39% increase to date year over year.  I attribute the increased dividends to a few companies raising their dividends and to my purchasing additional dividend paying stocks.  During October, I received notice of the following dividends paid in various accounts for a total of $832.89.

Please notice that PGF is an ETF and pays dividends monthly.  The annualized dividend yield for PGF is based upon the simple and false assumption that it will pay the same dividend each month for the next 12 months.  The actual annualized dividend yield may be more or less than illustrated here.

The DCIX shares are ones I received as a split off from Diana Shipping (DSX).  I had thought about just selling them but there are so few and the trading cost would chew up so much relative to what I would receive that I decided to keep them, at least for now, and collect the little dividends that they throw off.

I use my basis per share to determine the simple and annualized percentage return because I feel that it gives me a better representation of the value of the dividends as they relate to my portfolio.  My basis may be above or below the market price which causes my return to be lower or higher than published yields for a stock.  I calculate my basis per share as my acquisition price less any option premiums received on those shares.  I do not use dividends to reduce my basis.