Stock Purchase - National Grid



My second purchase was with another company I've been wanting to own for a while, National Grid. I bought 121 shares at 845.35p per share which cost £1,039.94 with charges included. 

National Grid have a strong reputation for paying high dividend yields every year. They have averaged 5.88% over the last 5 years. This year their dividend yield is 5.10%. As I've mentioned previously, I'm looking for companies over 3.5%. Any company that consistently pays out over 5% each year is a good one to own in my opinion. 

National Grid have increased dividend payments, all bar one year in 2011. They overcompensated in 2012, and paid a higher dividend than the previous 2 years to make up for the reduction. They've averaged a 3.48% dividend increase over the last 5 years. 

They have slightly lower than my marker of 1.5 dividend cover. They've averaged 1.42 over the last 5 years, and this year it was covered by a more reassuring 1.58. These aren't concerning levels for me, but I don't want to make a habit of investing in companies much lower than this. 

Now onto value. I didn't enough money to invest in a company last month and it was during June that National Grid had their ex-dividend date, so I've missed the boat on a dividend payout in 2014. Due to the ex-dividend date passing, the share price dropped significantly (which tends to happen a lot), so I've benefited from a lower price. Some people I know will wait for ex-div dates to pass before they invest. It makes a lot of sense to me. I've been keen to buy companies before the ex-div date so I can get as big a dividend return as possible in 2014. I think I may balance this out and look to buy after ex-div dates a lot more in future. 


Do you own shares in National Grid? Have you been happy with them? What do you think of my 2 recent purchases?

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