[GregWeld]

Please note - IF YOU READ THIS -- I miscalculated (used the wrong math for this purpose!) so look at the dividend numbers again!





This thread is not about individual stocks or what to buy or when to sell etc.... that's just a whole 'nother problem maker... My personal posts have always been intended to get you to think - and to look at investing with a different mindset. Obviously in order to do that - we need to discuss various names as examples etc.

With that in mind -- I was reading an article that mentioned COSTCO (COST) and decided - as I usually do - to go check it out. I wasn't interested in buying the name - nor do I own any of it. I just like looking around - staying "abreast" of the market etc.


What I was surprised to see - is that a name that doesn't particularly excite me as a dividend payer with it's paltry 1.22% dividend - is this...

A five year chart shows that this name (and I'm just using this name as an example here!) had more than doubled in price (UP 132% in five years) AND had doubled it's dividend payout. 5 years ago this stock was paying 18 cents per share -- it's last dividend payout was 36 cents per share.

WOW comes to mind.

So in overlooking the name because of the lousy PERCENTAGE payout -- I never bothered to really look further into it. But obviously a stock that doubles in 5 years - and doubles it's dividend payout WOULD HAVE / COULD HAVE been a good solid investment!

So my take away from this little eye opener is that from now on I will look a little deeper into a companies history of RAISING IT'S DIVIDEND.

Here's why that's important.

If you'd have bought the shares in 2009 -- and paid $44.97 per share -- and at that time they'd have paid 18 cents per share... for a dividend payout of 1.6% (don't miss the POINT here).... it would have been a real HO HUM -- but maybe bought for the GROWTH of this retailer.... but NOW... fast forward to the last dividend - which is paid - and is calculated as a percentage of return on investment.... You're now getting paid 3.2% AND YOU'VE DOUBLED YOUR MONEY in the meantime!

Okay -- Not a bad "long term" investment - with a 5 year TOTAL RETURN of 171%. So let's not overlook a companies HISTORY of raising it's payout to it's shareholders. That's how people get rich.


NO I'm not buying it. I can't buy dividend payers at 1%. I live off my money NOW...but if I was younger and starting out -- I'd certainly say this company (or more importantly OTHERS that have similar history) is one to look at because of it's history of rewarding the shareholder.