I don’t sell off dividend stocks very often, mainly because a dividend paying stock is an asset that should be kept for the long haul and shouldn’t be sold for just capital gains. As a dividend investor, it sometimes becomes necessary to dump a stock when its dividend yield falls so low that there’s little reason to continue owning it. That was the case I found myself in with DHT Holdings Inc (NYSE:DHT), as DHT slashed its dividend late last year, from 21 cents per share to a wretched 2 cents per share, reducing the stock’s annual dividend yield from approximately 20% to 1.8%, a 91% reduction in dividend income from DHT. Ugh!
I decided it was time to sell off this turkey, even if at a modest loss. So two weeks ago I put in a limit order to sell all 120 shares of DHT for $4.40. I only had to wait a day and a weekend for it to sell at the price I wanted. Yay! I now had a few extra Benjamins in cash, which will certainly be put towards my next stock purchase.