104 Dividend Champions For June

The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 5/31/12 and are available here. Note that all references to Champions mean companies that have paid higher dividends for at least 25 straight years; Contenders have streaks of 10-24 years; Challengers have streaks of 5-9 years. "CCC" refers to the universe of Champions, Contenders, and Challengers. Universe in Flux No sooner had I reported last month on the addition of two new Champions - Chevron (CVX) and UGI Corp. (UGI) - than I ran across the news that Nationwide's acquisition of Harleysville Group had been completed, dropping the Champions listing back down to 104 companies. Nevertheless, the roster has expanded from a low of 97 companies and should continue to grow, as more Contenders graduate on reaching 25 years of higher dividends. The overall CCC universe seems to be leveling off at about 460 companies, which is likely to be... Read more