Dividend Champions For June 2016

The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 5/31/16 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
As we've seen over the past several years, the approach of Summer brings with it a noticeable drop-off in dividend increases and new Challengers. After the CCC universe contracted in April from 773 companies to 772, there was renewed expansion in May, to 778 CCC companies, with 11 new Challengers, five deletions, and no promotions. The Near Challengers listing picked up nine "NEW" notations (in Appendix B on the Notes tab), bringing the number of Near-Challengers to 145, down from 146 last month, and well below the record of 281 companies in September 2014. After April's action saw the average price of CCC stocks rise by 88¢, that figure gained another 34¢ in May. While the average "age" of the dividend streaks remained at 13.8 years, the average yield declined to 2.93% from 2.97% and the average of the Most Recent Increases dipped to 8.87% from 8.97%.
As always, please use the CCC only as a starting point for more in-depth research. Feel free to leave any suggestions in the Comment area below.
Quick Summary
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