After a fairly extended lull, the number of new No-Load Stock Plans those plans that allow investors to buy even their initial shares directly is starting to heat up. In the last couple of months, a dozen or so new plans have come on board. Actually, the growth of these plans has been somewhat sporadic over the years.
Growth generally slows in the beginning of each year and picks up in the second half of the year.
One reason for the seasonality is that companies focus a lot of their time early in the year on their annual shareholder meetings, which usually occur in the spring. Once the shareholder meetings are out of the way, investor relations people turn their attention to other areas, such as direct-purchase plans. Here s hoping the flow of new plans continues. As usual, we ll be covering all new plans in DRIP Investor newsletter. Plus, receive full access to the subscriber area of our site, including a full year of archived commentaries.