Dividend Growth 50: Big Income Growth, Minimal Pandemic Peril

Seeking AlphaDividend StrategyDividend Growth 50: Big Income Growth, Minimal Pandemic PerilJun. 30, 2020 12:07 PM ET|| Includes: AAPL, AFL, BA, BAX, BDX, CARR, CCL, COP, DAL, DE, DIS, DNKN, F, GE, GIS, HAL, HOG, IBM, KHC, KMI, LMT, LVS, M, MAR, MMM, MO, NEE, OTIS, OXY, PEAK, PM, RDS-A, RDS-B, RTX, SJM, SLB, T, TAK, TJX, VTR, WBA, WDC, WFC, WMT, XOMby: Mike NadelMike Nadel Long-term horizon, dividend growth investingSummaryThe DG50 experienced no coronavirus-related dividend cuts during the first half of 2020.
Year-over-year growth of the portfolio's income stream was outstanding.
Top income-growth performers included ConocoPhillips, Kinder Morgan and NextEra Energy.
There could be some trouble on the horizon with Wells Fargo and Exxon Mobil in dividend danger.
Even in this frothy market, some DG50 companies appear attractively valued now.
While celebrating New Year's Eve with my friends and family, I turned to the group and said: "Let's have fun tonight, because I have a feeling that we're only months away from a global pandemic, an economic collapse, and a worldwide reckoning over racial inequality."
Yep, I said that. Right before I ran a 2-hour marathon, cashed in the winning Powerball ticket, dunked over LeBron James, and received my fifth Pulitzer Prize.
OK, maybe I didn't say and do all of those things. That doesn't change the fact that 2020 certainly has been "interesting" for pretty much everybody everywhere - including right here in our Dividend Growth Investing neighborhood, where the confluence of events has stoked fears (some deservedly so) of massive dividend cuts.
For all that talk, however, the Dividend Growth 50 has experienced only one reduction so far, and even that was because of a corporate merger, not COVID-19.
Given all the consternation, I was pleasantly surprised when I tallied up the "score" to see that the portfolio's income grew about 9.5% in the first half of the year compared to the same span of 2019.
That... Read more