Ka-Ching! Phillips 66 just gave me (another) 25% raise

Another week and another big raise, but this came from an unexpected stock, Phillips 66 (PSX). Why was it unexpected? Well because they already gave me a 25% raise three months ago!

PSX has been on an impressive run since it split away from its parent company ConocoPhillips (COP). Not only has it raised its dividend three straight quarters and over 50% since it began trading earlier this year, its stock price has also increased by more than 75%. Those would be impressive numbers for a stock over several years, let alone several months. So how has PSX managed to do this in such a short time?

MLPs and Retirement Accounts

If you're not familiar with Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) I suggest reading my Boring Terms post for an overview. In that article I mentioned the pros and cons of MLPs and dividend investing. In short, MLPs are a great investment vehicle for generating dividend income, but because of their tax implications they aren't a great option for dividend reinvestment or retirement accounts. In fact, many brokers won't allow MLPs in retirement accounts. And that's a shame since the way MLPs are structured would make them a great choice for retirement accounts.

Boring Terms We Need To Know: Master Limited Partnership (MLP)

Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), it just sounds like a boring term doesn't it.  MLPs, like REITs, are typically strong dividend payers because they pay out most of their generated cash flow to investors, or "unit holders", in lieu of paying taxes.  I've had several readers email me asking me to do a dividend analysis on specific MLP stocks. Since MLP's operate differently than normal stocks though, running them through my current dividend analysis (growth or income) wouldn't be valid.  So I guess I need to add a MLP Dividend Analysis Template to my "to-do list".  Before I do that though, it would be a good idea to educate those of you aren't familiar with this type of stock and what we should consider before investing in them.