Dividend Champions For July 2015

The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 6/30/15 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.Summer Slowdown "Peaks"During June, the CCC universe had expanded from 722 companies to 726, with five new Challengers, one deletion, and one promotion. The pace of new additions obviously slowed, but should gradually pick up in August and strengthen in the Fall. So the CCC population should end the year around 763 companies and reach 800 in March or April of 2016. With the number of Challengers now exceeding 50% of the CCC population, that proportion should remain for at least a couple of years, even if the pace of new Challengers tapers off dramatically.The Near Challengers listing picked up just five "NEW" notations (in Appendix B on the Notes tab), bringing the number of Near-Challengers to 165, down from 167 last month and the record of 281 companies last September. After May's rally increased the average price of CCC stocks by 38¢, that figure declined by $1.31 in June, while the average "age" of the dividend streaks dipped from 14.0 years to 13.9 (because of the new Challengers), the average yield rose from 2.82% to 2.89%, and the average of the Most Recent Increases... Read more