British American Tobacco's dividend policy (almost) as reliable as clockwork

British American Tobacco (BATS) announced their final results this morning along with their dividend policy for the 2012 financial year. They confirmed a final dividend of 92.7p per share (going ex dividend on the 13/03/2013) giving a total dividend of 134.9p per share. This gives us an increase of 6.6% from last year. So as many investors expected British American Tobacco's dividend policy of dividend growth has held firm and they have managed to bump the dividend up again this year. It is far less impressive then it has been in recent years however of all the dividend growth stocks I own this annual growth seems to be better than most.

Hiscox sticks with the dividend growth policy

Whilst I employ a few strategies with trading, one is the dividend policy whereby I look for resonable stocks and shares who have consistently increasing dividends year on year. Well it is nice to see that in current times, especially as RSA recently cut their dividend, Hiscox have decided to stick with their dividend policy of growth and they have confirmed they will increase their dividend by 5.9% to 18p per share (from 17p per share) this year.

Carillion sticks with the dividend growth policy - just...

Carillion released their preliminary results for 2012 this morning and following their last 7 years of consistent dividend growth they have indeed increased their dividend again for the coming year, maintaining their dividend policy of dividend growth. The dividend is to increase by a marginal 2%, which is likely why the share price has been a touch hit today. Their earnings per share are up 16% to 37.2p per share. Carillion have seen a reduction in turnover this year however they have suggested that this is down to a move away from low margin contracts. The margins have increased however so it appears that this strategy may well be working. As previously stated, they have decided to only increase their dividend by 2%, this is from 16.9p per share to 17.25p per share. The final dividend of 11.85p per share will go ex dividend on the 15th May to be paid on the 14th June. Thie marginal dividend increase is likely down to the fact that there are uncertain times ahead and therefore the need to keep cash on the balance sheet. No matter though at today's prices with the forecast dividend in the results Carillion is yielding 5.55%, a the dividend policy confirms dividend growth year on year of 2%, and has a dividend cover of 2.25. I will continue to hold these for the long term.

African Barrick Gold taking a pasting

Well I bought back into African Barrick Gold after teh Chinese Government pulled out and the share price tanked down to around 355p per share. It does swing quite heavily so I thought this was a reasonable price to take a punt, especially as I made around 40% of my investment on my previous holiding. Well the recent results didn't come out so well and whilst gold stocks and gold companies do carry a heightened element of risk I still think that the entry point wasn't so expensive. What with America and their increasing debt I think gold and gold price still has some legs that why I'm buying gold stocks still. Should Aftrican Barrick Gold sort its production out I think the share price could see a fairly swift recovery.