Dividend Champion And Contender Highlights: Week Of March 15

A weekly summary of dividend activity for Dividend Champions and Contenders.
Companies which declared increased dividends.
Companies with upcoming ex-dividend dates.
Companies with upcoming pay dates.
Introduction
The Dividend Champions list is a monthly compilation of companies which have consistently increased their annual dividend payouts, and the latest edition may be found here. However, since this list is only produced once per month, the data in it can quickly get out of date. Furthermore, with close to 900 companies on the list, the sheer amount of data can quickly become overwhelming. In this weekly series, I highlight recent and upcoming dividend related activity for companies holding Champion (25+ years) and Contender (10-24 years) status.
In the data presented below, Yield is forward annualized and Years reflects the up-to-date streak, including dividends declared since the last edition of the Dividend Champions list.
Dividend Increases
In the past week, the following companies declared dividends which were higher than their previous payouts.
Company
Symbol
Ex-Div
Pay
Old Rate
New Rate
Increase
Yield
Years
American Tower Corp.
(AMT)
4/13
4/29
1.01
1.08
6.93%
1.81%
10
Colgate-Palmolive Co.
(CL)
4/17
5/15
0.43
0.44
2.33%
2.55%
57
Horace Mann Educators Corp.
(HMN)
3/16
3/31
0.2875
0.3
4.35%
3.09%
11
W.P. Carey Inc.
(WPC)
3/30
4/15
1.038
1.04
0.19%
5.63%
23

Last Chance to Buy
These companies have ex-dividend dates approaching. The following tables indicate the last day you can buy these stocks in order to be eligible for the upcoming dividend. Tables are sorted alphabetically by symbol.
Monday March 16 (Ex-Div 3/17)
Company
Symbol
Pay Date
Payout
Price
Yield
Years
Cincinnati Financial
(CINF)
4/15
... Read more