Ann: Special Dividend and Dividend Payout , page-59

Doogs, I agree, if Shell were offloading we would see it in an Substantial holder Ann, generally within 3 days of such sale.

Shell have no need to offload and it is unlikely they would in this price range IMO. With the announcement of WPL DIV ratio rise, they are more likely to keep them for the foreseeable future IMO. Given the Shell/WPL relationship I don't think they would spring such on them without a conversation or two from occurring.

Funds do whatever funds want to do, however it's more likely now that the bulk of their holdings may be geared towards Long with the improved yield/Div. Kudo's to WPL for that.

Of course that doesn't stop shorter's from trying to shake the tree from time to time, nor profit taking for that matter. Of course one can still add in the fluctuating oil prices for that extra zigzag of daily volatility.

IMO WPL has placed itself in the realm of the Financials as an income stock, which is excellent in my book. The only other O&G player that I hold that has a reasonable yield is NZO (Much smaller company with income, Not promoting that, just stating a fact DYOR).

A quick search resulted that there are a number of forecasts out, one thing they seem to have in common is that next year (2014) will be higher.

An example here is Gross Yield (including Franking)
2013 = 7.9%, 2014 = 10%, 2015 = 8.5%.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/woodside-move-may-yet-pay-dividends-for-bhp-and-rio-20130426-2ik2d.html

http://tradingforblondes.com.au/the-latest/ (2nd article)

However that doesn't state at what entry price such was calculated on nor who calculated such.

For those that don't mind some risk (as with all shares) then possibly a pretty decent projected return compared to secure term deposits.