First Dividend Increase of 2017

Hey folks I sure love dividend stocks. I only had to wait five days into the new year before I received my first dividend increase announcement. On Thursday January 5th Enbridge (Ticker: ENB) announced a big 10% increase. This is the 22nd consecutive year in which Enbridge was increased its common share dividend.

Enbridge Inc. (Enbridge) is an energy transportation and distribution company. The Company operates through five segments: Liquids Pipelines; Gas Distribution; Gas Pipelines, Processing and Energy Services; Sponsored Investments, and Corporate. The Company operates the crude oil and liquids transportation system in Canada and the United States. The Company also has involvement in natural gas gathering, transmission and midstream businesses. It provides natural gas distribution services in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. As a generator of energy, Enbridge has interests in over 2,200 megawatts (MW) of renewable and alternative energy generating capacity and is involved in holding its interests in wind, solar and geothermal power. Gas Pipelines, Processing and Energy Services segment consists of investments in natural gas pipelines, gathering and processing facilities and its energy services businesses, along with renewable energy and transmission facilities.

(Source: Google Finance)

In 2016 $2-billion in growth capital projects were brought into service, and there are expectations of additional projects coming into service in 2017. In 2016 Enbridge announced that they planned on purchasing Spectra Energy in a $37 billion deal. Both companies shareholders have approved of the merger now it is going through the regulatory process. If approval is granted by the regulators Enbridge has hinted of another dividend increase in 2017 of in my opinion about 5% (more is better though 🙂 ) as they said in the past about boosting the dividend by 15% in 2017.

Also if the deal goes through the board of directors projects they could be able to extend Enbridge’s dividend growth rate of 10-12% per year through to 2024.

Impact On My Portfolio

With the announcement the dividend increases to $0.583 from $0.53 the new dividend is payable on March 1st to shareholders of record on February 15th.

I currently own 94 shares and with the announcement my forward income increases $19.92 ( $4.98 quarterly).

I wish I had more shares of this terrific company. Congratulations to everyone on the raise.

Thanks for reading

Matthew