I'll still hold my favorite FTSE 100 income stock even if its shares don't go up

When I buy dividend stocks I hope to get growth in the share price in addition to the income they pay me. It doesn't always turn out that way though.

I never had a favorite growing up FTSE 100 dividend stock, wealth manager IM&G (LSE: MNG). I've bought its shares three times in the past year, and a quick look at my online portfolio suggests I'm up a measly 1.07% year to date.

I can't be the only depressed investor. M&G's share price is up just 4.57% over 12 months, while the overall FTSE 100 is up 11.51%. Over five years, M&G shares are down 10.84%. So why do I love you so much?

The obvious answer is the dividend. Simply put, M&G shares come with a nice yield of 9.75%. That beats the FTSE 100 average of 3.54%.

The benefit to me is inalienable

Amazing income level. It's surprising, so much so that it makes investors suspicious. Usually, when the yield is heading towards double digits, that is a sign of trouble. The yield is calculated by dividing the dividend by the share price. So when the stock falls, the yield rises. So a high yield can lift a struggling company.

However, I would not say that M&G is struggling. For the full year 2023 it posted a 27.5% rise in pre-tax adjusted operating profit to £797m, beating consensus forecasts of £750m.

Despite that, the stock fell more than 12% as investors were disappointed by the small 10th of a penny dividend, from 19.6p to 19.7p.

They also faced pain in the first half of 2024, as adjusted pre-tax operating profits fell 3.8% to £375m. IM&G also received £1.5bn in net outflows.

I might put in a grow bag again, one day

These two unsatisfying results eventually closed the share price. However, I still get a good second income, and I think it looks sustainable. I hope that the latest net outflows will be inflows, when the stock market shrugs off its recent uncertainty and begins to recover.

Let's see what happens when the Autumn Budget and the US presidential election are out. There is a risk that they could make things worse.

Although my portfolio shows that I only increased by 1.07%, it does not reflect the impact of my reinvested shares. Once installed, they increase my total return from M&G to 12.5%.

Of course, it's not Nvidiabut here's the thing. I buy stocks with a long-term view, meaning a minimum of five to 10 years, and ideally much longer.

IM&G predicts a yield of 9.92% in 2024, rising to 10.2% in 2025. If correct, that should increase my return value north of 30% over the next two years. Dividends are not guaranteed but if that continues, I will double my money in less than eight years. And that's assuming the M&G price doesn't go up at all. Imagine if it happened.