Adding Exxon Mobil to My DSPP List
May 06, 2009 
Sun
I am still expanding my stock investments, this time through the DSPP program at ComputerShare.
Yesterday, I added Exxon Mobil (XOM) to my regular purchase list with a monthly purchase of $100 of the stock. The reason that I want to buy it through a DSPP program rather making a one-time purchase like I did with my other stock trades through a broker is that I am buying the stock mainly for its dividend payout, which is currently at $1.68/share. XOM is also one of S&P 500 dividend aristocrats, those stocks that have increased their dividends for at least 25 years in a row. The stock has come down quite a bit from its 52-week high, but I still don’t have the fund to purchase the amount I want, so I decide to go with the gradual approach 
Anyway, the XOM DSPP program has a minimum one-time purchase of $250, but the amount reduces to $50 when using automatic purchase plan, which I use. Other fees of the program include:
- Initial Setup Fee: $0.00
- Cash Purchase Fee: $0.00
- Ongoing Automatic Investment Fee: $0.00
- Purchase Processing Fee (per share): $0.00
- Dividend Reinvestment Fee: Company Paid
- Batch Sale Fee: $15.00
- Batch Sale Processing Fee (per share): $0.12
- Batch Maximum Sales Fee: N/A
- Market Order Sale Fee: $25.00
- Market Order Processing Fee (per share): $0.12
- Market Order Maximum Sales Fee: N/A
As I mentioned in my ComputerShare review post, many plans, such as AT&T DSPP plan, offered through ComputerShare charge fees to setup the account, purchase additional shares, and reinvest dividend. I am not interested in paying any those additional fees to buy DRIP stocks because that will make the cost of buying stocks with a DRIP plan higher than using a discount broker with free dividend reinvestment, like TradeKing.
Actually, in addition to XOM, I am also interested in another DSPP stock, Boston Properties (BXP), which I had on my radar for quite a long time. The dividend payout $2.72/share is even sweeter. Unfortunately, it looks like the company is going to cut the dividend to $.50 soon. So, I am going to wait on this.
*Stock chart from INO
I think you are confusing terminology. What you have listed is XOM’s direct stock purchase plan (DSPP or DPP), not DRIP.
@Tim You are right about the terminology. It’s indeed a DSPP plan, not really a DRIP, because I am also buying the shares, not just reinvesting the dividend, though the dividend reinvestment comes with the plan.
DRIPs allow you to buy more cash shares during the dividend period, too.
I have OKE, LMT, XOM because of the zero setup fees and no purchase fees at CompShare plus dividends.
I was thinking about getting starting in a DRIP since I have little money to Investing each month. I found a list of 25 DRIP companies that increased there Dividends since last year. I think I am going with XOM, since it was on the list and you also went with it. But I went to invest a few other companies to create a well rounded portfolio. Here is the list incase anyone else is interesting in checking it out.
Directinvesting.com/drip_25.cfm