Sunday, September 27, 2009

Special Dividends

First, I checked my mechanical portfolio listings and it looks like there is nothing new to add this week. I suspect I'll just stand pat in my 23% cash position. I did find it interesting that two MFI stocks declared special dividends last week. It was also interesting how the market reacted.

TRA announced a whopping $7.50 dividend (Terra to pay $7.50 a share special dividend). That was announced on Thursday, after the market closed. The stock opened up Friday up 75 cents to $37.25. But the luster fell off quickly and Terra ended up down $1.30, or a $2.00 drop from the open.

BKE announced a special $1.80 dividend, plus their normal 20 cent dividend (The Buckle, Inc. Announces a $1.80 per Share Special One-Time Cash Dividend and a $0.20 per Share Regular Quarterly Dividend). This news was released Tuesday morning. BKE had closed Monday at 28.99. Here is the action the rest of the week:

DateOpenHighLowCloseVolumeAdj Close*
25-Sep-0932.0033.9531.5033.521,856,00033.52
24-Sep-0930.3031.7430.3031.541,047,10031.54
23-Sep-0931.3531.3530.2530.50841,10030.50
22-Sep-0930.6731.3729.8530.471,477,20030.47
21-Sep-0929.2529.5928.5728.99970,20028.99

Steady progress up every day.

Why the difference? I don't really know. The BKE dividend is actually supported by earnings, they expect to make $2.63 in Fiscal year ending Jan 2010. The TRA dividend is more clearly a payment of excess cash, they expect to earn $2.26 during the current fiscal year. The TRA dividend may be viewed as taking them out of play of being bought by CF.

I am glad to be owning BKE. I do kick myself for prematurely selling TRA (I bought a chunk right after Obama was elected thinking he would be pro-farmers).

One stock of mine that has been quietly moving north is BIOC. They went up 5% on what was a dreary Friday and are now over $4. Here is what they have done in September. The interesting statistic is the volume, in what is typically a sleepy small cap stock:

PRICES

DateOpenHighLowCloseVolumeAdj Close*
25-Sep-093.784.013.784.0148,9004.01
24-Sep-093.803.853.723.81215,8003.81
23-Sep-093.723.853.723.7589,5003.75
22-Sep-093.783.783.703.728,5003.72
21-Sep-093.613.753.613.7112,6003.71
18-Sep-093.613.803.563.5638,4003.56
17-Sep-093.633.703.603.7025,3003.70
16-Sep-093.753.803.633.6385,3003.63
15-Sep-093.523.833.523.7461,8003.74
14-Sep-093.543.623.523.5313,3003.53
11-Sep-093.483.563.303.5216,4003.52
10-Sep-093.553.553.503.514,2003.51
9-Sep-093.543.613.503.618,8003.61
8-Sep-093.423.523.423.5022,3003.50
4-Sep-093.323.453.293.3576,3003.35
3-Sep-093.453.483.313.3941,2003.39
2-Sep-093.513.523.483.489,1003.48
1-Sep-093.503.583.503.558,5003.55
31-Aug-093.473.483.463.485,4003.48

Not sure what in means, even 200,000 shares is small money in the grand scheme. But maybe there is some interest in BIOC.

No comments: