Dividend Champions: List Expands to 100 as of April

The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 3/31/11 and are available here. N ote 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. During the past month, I have focused on updating the listings for dividend increases and other announcements. Following is a discussion of my latest efforts. 100 Champions and Growing During March, Raven Industries (RAVN) declared its 25 th straight annual dividend increase, raising the number of Champions to an even 100 for the first time since last October, when four companies were deleted because their 2010 payments equaled what they paid in 2009. That pushed the Champions roster down to 97 companies, but the graduations of McCormick & Company (MKC) in November and HCP Inc. (HCP) in January, along with Raven, have restored the total... Read more