10 Years In The Verizon DRIP

verizon drip
Update: I’ve since transferred my Verizon DRIP shares out of Computershare and into TD Ameritrade. Click here to read about the transfer process.

Instead of opening new DRIPs, I prefer a more flexible platform called M1 Finance. M1 Finance gives you all the benefits of dollar cost averaging and fractional shares but at a lower cost point and with more modern capabilities.


January 5th, 2014 marked the 10 year anniversary of buying my first share of Verizon Communications (VZ). Verizon became the third core holding in my portfolio after Chevron (CVX) and Coca-Cola (KO).

Those three stocks, along with Bank of America (BAC), I consider to be the four pillars of my investment portfolio that I intend to hold forever.  BAC unfortunately was not as strong a pillar during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, but steps have been taken to solidify its core businesses to make it a stronger company going forward.

Approaching this Verizon DRIP milestone, I thought I would recap how my Verizon holdings got to this point, and I’ll share my tracking spreadsheet where I log all purchases and dividends.

Verizon Communications traces back to the 1984 breakup of AT&T (T).  Bell Atlantic was created as one of the ‘Baby Bells’ as a result of the divestiture. Bell Atlantic remained the company name until 2000 when it merged with GTE and took on the name Verizon, a combination of the words veritas (latin for truth) and horizon.

In my opinion, the popularity of the band Vertical Horizon at the time likely had some influence on the name as well.

Why I Bought the Verizon DRIP in the First Place

I purchased my first mobile phone in 1999 through Sprint (S). The Sprint network was always frustrating because of dropped calls and bad service in my home. The network was so bad that I never considered giving up my land line while I was a customer, but still I kept Sprint until I left the country to travel in 2001.

When I returned from my 14 month trip to Asia and Latin America, I knew Sprint was not going to be my provider.

Verizon on the other hand had a good reputation for coverage so I signed up with them for my second mobile phone plan in 2002. The Verizon network made me a firm believer that investing in the network was of utmost importance in the competitive wireless phone market.

Upon looking at the stock as an investment, I saw a nice dividend yield and a reasonable valuation at the time. These two factors primarily influenced my decision to start a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) to augment my portfolio.

The Purchases

Between January 2004 and February 2011, I mostly purchased shares in $50-$100 increments on a monthly basis, except for brief pauses in 2005 and 2007.  The price fluctuated between approximately $29 and $42 through that period. For as long as I have been investing in Verizon, I have reinvested all dividends.   Investing at regular intervals and reinvesting dividends takes advantage of dollar cost averaging.

When the financial crisis metastasized in 2008-2009, Verizon’s stock was not severely impacted. The stock decreased, but customers didn’t stop paying their cell phone bills, and Verizon continued to invest in their FIOS wire line service and wireless network. The financial crisis provided a great opportunity to pick up more shares in the high 20’s and low 30’s. I continued to purchase shares in varying amounts on a monthly basis until February of 2011.

Since then, I’ve significantly cut back my new purchases, letting the shares I own appreciate and while reinvesting the dividends. All told, I have made $4950 in cash purchases of Verizon stock paying $39.95 in purchase fees since 2004.

verizon drip
Click to Enlarge

The Dividends

Verizon has paid a dividend since it was formed after the AT&T breakup in 1984. While Verizon has consistently paid their dividend, it has not always increased the dividend on a yearly basis. This is particularly evident from 1997 through 2007 when it only increased the dividend one time.

Since 2007, however, Verizon has increased its dividend seven times, the last time being on November 6th of this year. These increases will hopefully continue. Verizon went through a number of complicated mergers and spin-offs during the non-dividend increasing period which perhaps explains why they were not increased. Verizon currently pays a $.53 dividend per quarter yielding about 4.4%.

Since I began investing in the Verizon DRIP in January 2004, I have received a total of $2034.35 worth of dividends, less $79.43 in dividend fees. That equals $1954.92 that I reinvested over the 10 year period.  Also due to spinoffs, I received shares in Idearc (now SuperMedia) and Frontier Communications (FTR), both of which I sold immediately after receiving the shares (but did not reinvest).

The dividend increases for Verizon since 2007 have averaged 3.93%. This is not an impressive average, but better than nothing. The stock as of today (12/19/13) is trading above $48 and yields about 4.4%. 

This gives me a yield on cash in of 8.13%. The value of my 189.881442 shares of Verizon at a price of $48.50 (as I write this) now equals about $9209. My current forward annual dividend income from Verizon is $402.55. The total return on my holdings is about 85% over the 10 year period.

I highlight the yield on cash in because this number shows the power of dividend increases and reinvesting dividends. Put another way, I have invested $4950 cash and $1954.92 of dividends into Verizon shares for an average purchase price of $26.07. The yield on that number with a 2.12 annual dividend is 2.12/26.07 = .0813 or 8.13%.

Every quarter I receive a dividend and reinvest it, my average purchase price goes down, and my yield on cash in goes up, as long as they don’t decrease the dividend and I don’t sell any shares.

This all happens passively, meaning I do nothing while my income grows.

Verizon Going Forward

Verizon recently purchased Vodaphone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless, putting Verizon on the path to significantly increase its cash flow.  One concerning factor of this purchase is the issuance of a massive amount of debt, $61 billion, to finance the purchase.

However, with interest rates being as low as they are today, one could argue this was an ideal time to issue the debt and make this purchase. Shareholders and Wall Street analysts were highly supportive of this acquisition. Purchasing the Vodaphone stake also frees up cash flow to repay the debt and increase dividends over time.

Verizon is also expanding its FIOS service, albeit slower than it has in the past, and looking into other segments of business like purchasing Intel’s OnCue TV service as recently reported. Being in a consumer business, economic fluctuations could pose a risk to Verizon going forward. But today, voice and data is proving to be a staple consumer service, unlike cable TV which is facing dynamic shifts in the way consumers interact with viewing content.

Consumers’ voracious appetite for smart phones and data consumption is the norm going forward and will only grow from here. As far as I know, wireless and wire line are the only two ways to get data onto a device, and Verizon is a major player in both. If you know of another way to provide data to consumers that will displace wireless or wire line, please let me know!

This positions Verizon very strongly going forward. I plan to continue to build my position over time by purchasing shares when they are undervalued and reinvesting dividends, significantly contributing to my investment income portfolio and helping me reach my goal of retiring before my 56th birthday.

Disclosure: Long VZ, CVX, KO, BAC


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12 Comments

  1. Green Money Stream says:

    Great post giving us a behind the curtain view of your investing history in Verizon. It’s clearly been a good investment. I like that you point out your yield on cost. This is to me an extremely important concept in dividend investing and one that I don’t think is emphasized enough. People tend to think of the current yield, but they have to realize that as you hold the stock that increasing dividend payout is a larger and larger share of what your original investment was. Just another reason why dividend investing is a great “get rich slowly” strategy.

    1. retirebeforedad says:

      Hey Spammer 🙂 It has been a good investment for me, but 8.5% isn’t spectacular. Its the steady income I like, and being able to reinvest it. If Verizon continues to increase their dividend, the income will get much better, especially into my retirement. Thanks for reading!
      -RBD

  2. Right on RBD. The long term holdings are incredible when you look back. I certainly feel that way with my longterm holdings of COP, CVX, PG, and especially KO. The power of compounding…..all it takes is time! Thanks for the recap my friend
    -Bryan

    1. retirebeforedad says:

      Bryan,
      Yeah I’m in the sweet spot with VZ, KO, and CVX. From here on out I can do nothing and watch them grow. I may buy more over the next 20 years, or diversify elsewhere. But ss long as they don’t cut the dividend the compounding will continue.
      -RBD

  3. SavvyJames says:

    Great to read about a case of buying and holding – VZ in this case – for the long haul. I just recently started buying KO and plan to pick up shares at regular intervals, and as you have done, hold for the long-term.

    1. retirebeforedad says:

      Thanks Savvy James. KO has been a good one for me over the years too. Still lots of work to do though before retiring.
      -RBD

  4. Not too shabby and a prime example of the benefits of holding core position for many years. Continuing to DRIP that $400+ in dividends each year will only see your position grow and compound quite nicely.

    1. retirebeforedad says:

      That’s the plan!

  5. I can’t wait to reach a 10 year holding period, heck a 5 year would be nice. Buy and hold with great companies usually works out well for the owners. I looked at your spreadsheet but couldn’t figure it out and it won’t let me edit. But how many shares have been from your capital vs dividend reinvestment. Just curious how awesome that reinvestment has been.

    1. retirebeforedad says:

      I’ll have run the numbers on that. It’s the sum of all the share amounts in the ‘DP’ rows. It’s quite a few. I am now buying 2 shares per quarter just from dividends!
      -RBD

      1. Yea I tried to calculate it real quick but I couldn’t edit since it was password protected. And I wasn’t about to go and add them all up individually. That’s awesome that you’re able to buy over 2 shares per quarter. I’m getting a share per quarter out of KO which is awesome.

        1. retirebeforedad says:

          PIP,
          I did a quick sort and calculation on this. The dividends have bought 52.317 shares over the years. That’s about 28% of my shares, and dividends will buy another 2 shares every quarter for now. This is exactly what I had in mind back when I started this. The yield was always high, so its been easier than KO or CVX for the divs to really make an impact. KO dividends buy me about 1.5 per quarter and CVX about .66 shares. CVX is the best return of the lot, but I’ve held it the longest. If you want the unprotected version of my spreadsheet let me know and I can email it to you. Its nothing special, I’ve just been very meticulous with updating it.
          -RBD