10 Dividend Growth Stocks For March 2020

I rank a selection of the CCC stocks and present the 10 top-ranked stocks for consideration.
The market crash is giving dividend growth investors many opportunities to expand their portfolios and to increase dividend income.
This month, I'm presenting high-quality stocks trading at significant discounts.
As a bonus, I present the top-ranked stock in each GICS sector.

The Dividend Champions (CCC) list contains nearly 900 dividend growth (DG) stocks trading on U.S. exchanges that have paid higher dividends for at least five consecutive calendar years. An accompanying spreadsheet provides valuable data and is updated monthly by SA author Justin Law.
In this article, I rank a subset of the CCC stocks and present the 10 top-ranked stocks for consideration. I now use DVK Quality Snapshots to assess the quality of dividend stocks and rank them by quality score, breaking ties by considering up to three quality metrics, in turn.
This month I decided to rank high-quality CCC stocks trading at least 10% below my fair value estimates. Fear related to the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has wreaked havoc in the markets, and economists expect a global recession in the first half of 2020. Many stocks on my watchlist now trade well below fair value and present opportunities for further investment.
Screening and Ranking
The latest CCC list (dated 02/28/20) contains 867 stocks. There are 140 Dividend Champions with increasing calendar year payouts for the past 25 years; 294 Dividend Contenders (past 10-24 years); and 433 Dividend Challengers (past 5-9 years).
I decided to screen for DG stocks with quality scores in the range 23-25 that are trading at least 10% below my fair value estimates. Thirty-four of the DG stocks in the CCC spreadsheet pass these filters.
Fair Value Estimates
To estimate fair value, I reference fair value estimates and price targets from several sources, including Morningstar and Finbox.io.... Read more