For Investors: COP -- Idle Chatter

Yesterday I spoke with someone who had sold his COP to buy AAPL. He mentioned that COP wasn't doing anything for him.

I had not payed attention to COP for quite some time, except perhaps in passing. So, let's take a look.

On a per-share appreciation basis, COP has outperformed AAPL in the past three months; and both have been pretty similar in the past year on a percentage basis.

At three months, COP has appreciated almost 25 percent, AAPL less than 15 percent; at six months, both AAPL and COP have appreciated about 40 percent; and, over the past year, COP has appreciated almost 60 percent, AAPL a little over 70 percent.

In addition, COP pays a 3.50 percent dividend, and increased its most recent dividend significantly. Three months ago, COP paid 55 cents/share; this month COP will pay 66 cents/share. 

This is just idle rambling. Again, not a recommendation one way or the other. But I was certainly surprised. As an avid Apple fan, and one who follows AAPL very, very closely, I was very, very surprised.

That 3.5% dividend on top of share appreciation certainly catches one's attention.