'Overdue' Dividend Increases And Other Streaks At Risk

In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here), I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Most of these firms raise their payouts about the same time every year, but some companies go longer before boosting their dividends, and this can raise concerns about their streaks of increases.Dividends in Doubt SeriesThis series lists companies whose latest dividend increases might be considered "overdue" because it has been more than a year since the previous increase, a possible sign that their streaks of dividend increases are in danger. Some firms regularly go more than a year between increases, so this is only an "early warning" sign that some of them may warrant concern.Since the previous update in April (which can be found here), none of the 27 "overdue" companies mentioned in that article have been deleted, while six (Ashland (NYSE: ASH), PetMed (Nasdaq: PETS), Public Storage (NYSE: PSA), Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (OTCQX:FMAO), PPL Corp. (NYSE: PPL), and Lazard (NYSE: LAZ)) declared increases, removing themselves from "overdue" status. Since the 18 companies in the first group below may soon be in danger of a dividend "freeze" (back-to-back years of equal dividend totals), the 2015 Dividend Streak "Death Watch" will begin as we approach the fourth quarter dividend announcements. Of course, any dividend reductions or eliminations would lead to immediate... Read more