Dividend Champions For October 2017

The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 9/29/17 and are available at The DRiP Investing Resource Center - DRiP Information, Tools, And Forms. 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; and Challengers have streaks of 5-9 years. "CCC" refers to the universe of Champions, Contenders, and Challengers.
Down the Stretch As the fourth quarter begins, the CCC “universe” will be subject to opposing forces that will expand and contract the roster to close the year with over 800 companies represented. As mentioned previously, the annual “freeze watch” and a scattering of acquisitions will trim up to a couple dozen (MORE) companies. But newly added Challengers should total almost as many firms, so I’m still confident that the number of CCC companies will hold above 800 before moving higher in the Spring of 2018.
After the CCC universe dipped to 822 in August, that number fell to 816 in September, which featured 5 new Challengers, 11 deletions, and two promotions. The Near Challengers listing again picked up 5 "NEW" notations (in Appendix B on the Notes tab), but the number of Near-Challengers fell from 105 to 103, well below the record of 281 companies in September 2014. After August's action saw the average price of CCC stocks fall by 66¢, that figure soared by $2.58 in September, while... Read more