Member Info for picstloup

The results are indeed excellent. I worry slightly that, short term, the market will focus on the drop in statutory profits and in basic eps. But plenty of jam tomorrow, even if the price drops today.

Very pleasant run, up 33% in the last month.

The nearly 50p special dividend of 2021 was the result of a one-off sale so we had the choice of treating it as income or capital. The normal biannual divis are (obviously) just income and the choice can't arise (by law). If the shares are in an ISA (or SIPP) the problem doesn't arise.

11% rise in the divi too, yum yum.

@stockready1 adroitly demonstrates the inadvisibility of confidently predicting what the market will do, especially in the short term:

Writing on March 11 "another dive to 45 and under within the next 10 days" - not as such, not at all. May possibly happen again, of course, but less definite than that £60 will be breached once more, sooner or later.

I inherited my Pru shares from my mother in 2010. Not a great return, but jumping in on the off-cuts has made up for the steady decline in the main offering.

Imagine somebody who bought 1000 Pru 5 years ago at £14. They would have:

1000 Pru at £7.75

1000 M&G at £2.30

25 Jackson Financial at $66

In addition 60c/share in Pru divis, 72p/share in Mng, and $5.90 in Jxn.

Total including divis of about £12700. Assuming they'd done nothing. Fairly dire.

I added greatly to both my Mng (currently about 20% up, not including generous divis, and worth well over double my Pru total) and Jxn (well over 100% up, and still paying over 4% divis - the holding now worth nearly 4 times my Pru shares). So I've done ok, but I'd have done even better if I'd sold my lacklustre Prus once the demergers went through. Now only holding in case there might be a take-over - surely it can hardly go lower, and such a measly divi?

The q1 70c divi just got dripped. $633 in total, up 19.4% on this time last year (12.9% the increase in the divi from last year's 62c/q, the rest from the extra 49.4 divis dripped over the year). After the 15% NRA tax, left me $538 which got only an extra 8.14 shares at $66.16. Perhaps take the cash in future? Unless we follow previous years and have a crash over the next quarter?

After the recent rises, overtaken Merck and Caterpillar to become my 3rd largest US holding (behind JP Morgan Growth Advantage and BRK/B).

Slightly depressed the divi didn't rise (under inflation) to 13.5p, but so it goes. Have doubled my stake in the last year, at roughly my "long term" average of £2. Expecting a flat day, but would be very happy to be wrong. And will probably stick my divi back in here if we're still around £2.30 when the cash arrives

Only three months after breaking $50 for the first time, and xd for 70c today on top. Still paying 4.75% in divis even at today's price.

I'm still holding, but I might sell the 12 or so % of my holding made up of drip purchases over the last 2.5 years. Might, but probably won't, as can easily see this hitting $75 this year, and the divi being increased to $3 or more next year (still heavily covered, especially after the buybacks).

Nice to have patience so well rewarded.

This, with then Shell T&T and then Reckitt & Colman, was the first company I held shares in, inherited from my grannie in the late 80s with a book value of, iirc, ~£3. Only a few 100 of each (400 of then RTZ) but very pleasant, and managed to resist the many temptations to sell. Since 2010, adding regularly. 10 top-ups since 2019, at prices ranging from £37 (May 2020, covid dip) to £62, mostly dividend reinvestments. All now tucked up in my ISA, free from income and CG tax. This May's dividend will be enough to get me about 100 extra shares at the current price, which is probably what I'll do. Compound growth, "the eight wonder of the world" (Keynes).

Nice 7% rise on Wall Street today, taking the weekend price up to $23, or £18.17.

Odd, was gapping down over 2% in pre-market trading at 7.30am in New York this morning, but currently (2pm ET) just over a buck (and just over 2%) up at $51.43. Very nice.

Looking forward to my 70c next month.

Yes, very nice. 17% up shortly after opening.

Another USD100m buyback and 18% net revenue guidance for 2024. Would like a dividend quite soon.

Very glad I topped up at £11.68 in December and £12.21 in January, taking my average up to £7.35.

13% increase in divi to us2.80pa is what I wanted. A 2.6% drop in the share price tomorrow is not, but the former is permanent and the latter, I hope, temporary.

Total profit for the full year is us934 or us10.76 per share, massively down on 2022. Wish I could get my head round the yo-yo numbers. In the meantime, I'll carry on reinvesting the divi and trusting that the massive cash cushion will protect against dropping back down into the us30s again.

Good to see that the total divi for 2023-4 will be $1.29, up from $1.03.75 in 2022-3. And that regularly increasing the divi by a small amount seems to have reduced the level of ersatz outrage in the media that used to greet each raise. Although the drop in profits will have helped as well.

Still a very long way from the $1.88 we got annually from 2016-19. But at least I topped up by roughly 50% during the covid dip, so my total Shell income will at last be back to 2019 levels this year.

Chartist gibberish

At $50.90 per share my 62c divi of yesterday (-15% NRA tax) bought me another 9.3 shares. Making an extra 50.5 in total this calendar year. My overall average price since Feb 2021 has been $32, making a total gain of slightly over 50%. Not bad, but effectively all that gain has been since this June, when the price was as low as $30.

Like others here, I think there may well be more to come. With ~6m fewer shares in issue than a year ago, that's a saving of $15m pa in divis alone, and a significant increase in eps. So I'm hopeful that the divi for next year will rise to around 70c per quarter - which would still come in at only about $10m extra given the reduction in total number of shares.

**There is enormous value to be unlocked with some pretty simple re-organisation and increased share liquidity.**

There is indeed, but with no especial benefit for the Hellers, who seem quite happy to continue creaming their own profits and director emoluments at the expense of all the other shareholders.

Getting really close to $50, at last. I always "knew" it was going to happen, but one does tend to lose confidence when it's hovering around $30, as it was as recently as June.

I'm due about $470 in divis to be "dripped" on 14 Dec - probably not even 10 shares this time, down from 15 in June.

70c quarterly divi come March?

My broker with Investec charges me 0.6% (the ISA is over £1m). It was supposed to go up to 0.8% a few years back, but he waived the increase, partly as it's a fairly inactive portfolio (mostly just reinvesting dividends in existing holdings) and partly because I've been with them since it was Carr Sheppard's, and my late father started out with Henderson Crosthwaite way back when. You get what you pay for.

And yes, obviously you can't transfer between a SIPP and an ISA, so I'm buying TGA in ny ISA when funds become available, and selling in the SIPP at the same time. Very minor dealing costs, certainly compared to the gauging of the 20% v 10% divi tax.