Dividend Champions For December 2015

Summary
CCC Universe reaches 753 companies.
December activity should be modest.
MDU Resources becomes newest Champion.
The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 11/30/15 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.
Closing Out the Year
As December begins, all of the expected deletions have taken place and there are only a handful of likely additions on tap for the month, along with a few potential acquisitions, so I expect the number of CCC companies to finish the year between 750 and 760 and to reach 800 by next April or May. The new Challenger "Class of 2015" has surpassed the record "Class of 2014" in number and the net growth of the CCC universe of 142 companies (so far) exceeds the 135 net additions of 2014.
In November, the CCC universe edged up from 745 companies to 753 (see below), with 15 new Challengers, seven deletions, and four promotions. Once again, some of the new Challengers actually "backed into" that status by not raising their rates this year, but having paid more in dividends in 2015 than in 2014. So those companies were added, but their dates immediately were colored Red to indicate "overdue" status. The pace of new... Read more