The World’s Best Dividend Portfolio: The Southern Company (SO), Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NLY) and More

Dividends and earnings announcements
Here is the recent news on earnings and dividends:

Earnings news:

1). Plum Creek’s earnings surprised investors, who pushed the stock up following its fourth-quarter results. The timber company saw earnings increase 30% year over year, to $0.49 per share, surpassing its own estimate of $0.25 to $0.30. Revenue was up 12%. The strong results were attributed to the recovering residential construction market. For 2013, it expects profits of $1.25 to $1.50 per share, and I think this is one of the more conservative ways to play the return of housing.

2). Southern reported quarterly earnings that grew 47% from last year, driven largely by cost-cutting. Fourth-quarter net income came to $0.44 per share, or $383 million, good enough to surprise analysts, who had expected $0.40. The driving force: Southern cut operating expenses by $218 million from the year-ago quarter. Here’s how it performed in graphical format.

Dividend news:

1). Vodafone went ex-dividend on Nov. 20 and pays out $0.519 per share on Feb. 6.

2). Annaly went ex-dividend on Dec. 26 and paid out $0.45 per share on Jan. 29.

3). AT&T went ex-dividend on Jan. 8 and paid out $0.45 per share on Feb. 1.

4). Southern went ex-dividend on Jan. 31 and pays out $0.49 per share on March 6.

All that, of course, means more money coming into our pockets.

It’s fun to sit back and get paid, and with the market volatility, we might have a good chance to reinvest those dividends at good prices. Europe continues to be an absolute mess, and continued bad news will likely have stocks plunging again —  and if they do, I’ll be inclined to pick up more shares.

Foolish bottom line
I’ve been a fan of big dividends for a while, and I think this portfolio will outperform the market over time through the power of dividends. As I promised in the original article, I’ll continue to track and report on the portfolio’s progress, including news on these companies.

The article The World’s Best Dividend Portfolio originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Jim Royal.

Jim Royal, Ph.D., owns shares of the 13 portfolio stocks mentioned in the table and Seaspan May 2013 calls and is short May 2013 puts. The Motley Fool owns shares of Seaspan, Brookfield Infrastructure, ROIC, and Annaly. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Vodafone, ROIC, National Grid, Brookfield Infrastructure, Exelon, Annaly, and Southern. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended creating a write covered straddle position in Exelon and a covered straddle position in Seaspan.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.