Dividend Champions: Smackdown VI

In previous installments of the Smackdown series, I screened the Dividend Champions list of companies that have paid higher dividends for at least 25 straight years (which can be found here) using fundamental factors that are important to dividend-oriented investors. But buying a stock at a reasonable valuation is an important part of the equation, as emphasized in a recent article by Chuck Carnevale. So I thought I'd start this Smackdown with a column that I recently added to the Champions spreadsheet, the percent below the 52-week high. Admittedly, this is more of a technical factor, but it's useful for highlighting stocks that are not overpriced...or at least, not as overpriced as they had been. (As always, it's also important to screen for other positive qualities before choosing any investment.) So I screened the latest update as follows:Step 1: Sort the companies by % from High, which can be found in column AE, all the way to the right-hand side. I decided to focus on stocks that were at least 10% below their 52-week high, which left me with a reasonable 30 companies, once I eliminated Questar Corp. (STR), which appears to be 67.7% below its high, but spun off QEP Resources (QEP) on July 1, trimming more than half of its trading price. I also eliminated Bowl America (BWL-A), which has not increased its dividend in over a year, leaving 29 companies.... Read more