Emerson Electric's Enviable 54 Year Streak of Higher Annual Dividends

Emerson Electric (EMR) was founded in 1890 and started working on becoming an S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat in 1956. 2010 is the 54th consecutive year that the annual dividend has been increased, a record very few companies can match. During that stretch, EPS increased in almost all years (I'm using a company graph as the source). There were 2 EPS setbacks in this decade (last year was the major one). But there were no setbacks in dividends. EMR is a diversified global technology company engaged in designing and supplying product technology with over 60 businesses that operate through 5 business segments.The recession in 2009 hit EMR very hard, worse than the company's most pessimistic scenarios. EPS declined 26% to $2.27 on a 16% decline in sales. In FY2010, the company is rebounding. Q3 sales rose 11% to $5.6 billion and EPS jumped 51% (off a depressed level) to 77¢. Gross profit margin increased from 36.1% to 39.2% and operating profit margins increased to 18.0% versus 14.7% last year. Pretax margin improved from 10.9% to 15.7%. Below are division results for FY2010:... Read more