WestRock spin off of…… Ingevity Corporation
I have been holding some shares of WestRock for several months now but recently WestRock decided to spin off their specialty chemical business. Which from a business point of view I think makes perfect since because it is not in the core business of what WestRock does. The way it was spun off, for every 6 shares of WestRock that you owned you would receive 1 share of Ingevity Corporation. I only hold 14 shares of WestRock so I received 2 shares of Ingevity and then received a small amount of money to account for the fractional shares that I would have received.
Now from what I gather Ingevity stands to increase their earnings as oil prices continue to recover which is great for the company. I’m just unsure if I want to continue to hold the shares considering the fact that thus far I have found no statement of the company paying a dividend. Dividend growth investing is my whole strategy so it is kind of pointless to hold shares in a company that doesn’t pay dividends. At roughly $34 a share, would it really be worth selling the two shares considering the fact that I would have to pay the $4.95 trade commission fee.
The WestRock stock has totally rebounded to where it was at before the spin off happened. So really the Ingevity stock is just kind of a bonus that was given to me for being a shareholder of the WestRock stock. I have found myself in quite a conundrum but I think that for now I am going to just hold onto the shares and see what they do. I would be very interested to hear about other peoples experience when it comes to stock they acquire through spin offs.
Generally I hold assuming I like the company. BX spun out PJT and in less than a year started paying a dividend. KMB spun off HYH, no dividend yet. ADP spun CDK and dividends are paid. BAX was an ugly one for the dividend (cut when spinning BXLT (now SHPG)) but wound up ok measured on total return. Currently waiting on XRX … recently bought more to protect my position in the event of a reverse split (Icahn’s involved). They are all different. If you choose to sell perhaps your broker would extend a courtesy trade due to the small quantity (Schwab gave me one last week).
Hopefully XRX will come through for you soon. I see that they are all different. I’m hoping that they end up paying a dividend but I still have seen no announcement about it. So for now I am just going to hold and see what happens in the future. Thanks for stopping by.