16 Dividend Growth Companies Expected To Announce Increases In April

Those of you who follow this series of articles know that I track the dividend increases of a variety of long-term dividend growth companies. Back at the end of February, I provided predictions for six dividend growth companies that have historically announced annual payout increases in March.
But first, while I try to cover many of the more popular dividend growth stocks, I did miss a couple that I usually track. Realty Income Corporation (O), known for its monthly dividend payouts, announced a 0.2% increase to an annualized $2.634. The REIT has a forward yield of 5.09%. And Qualcomm (QCOM) announced an 8.8% increase to an annualized $2.48, giving the manufacturer of integrated chips for cell phones a forward yield of $4.48.
Like I usually do, we'll take a look at how well I did with my predictions from March before we go to my predictions for April (you can see the article with the original predictions here).
Best Buy (BBY)
Prediction: 14.7-17.6% increase to $1.56-1.60
Actual: 32.4% increase to $1.80
Forward yield: 2.69%
Best Buy is one of two retailers in March that completely blew away my expectations and their dividend growth histories with massive dividend increases. (Ross Stores (Nasdaq: ROST), below, is the other one). This is the 16th year of growth for the electronics retailer.
Colgate-Palmolive (CL)
Prediction: 2.5% increase to $1.64
Actual: 5.0% increase to $1.68
Forward yield: 2.34%
Colgate-Palmolive's 55th year of... Read more