Do Dividend Increases Have Seasonality?

The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 5/31/11 and are available here. N ote 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; Challengers have streaks of 5-9 years. Anticipating Dividend Increases After I recently modified a series of articles about dividend increases that were expected in the near future from a monthly to a twice-monthly schedule (and extended the “forward look” from the next month to the next 10 weeks), I wondered about the possible seasonality of such increases. It appeared that the number of increases during the summer was lower than what I had seen earlier in the year. ... more

10 Premier Stocks Yielding Over 3%, Worthy of a Place in Your Portfolio or Watchlist

In one of my earlier articles I stated that one of my favorite stocks is commonly known as a ruler stock. That was defined as "equities where earnings, if plotted on a graph, form an upward sloping straight line". These type of companies, the best of the best, are rare and those with attractive yields are few. Every income investor who values stable and growing earnings and dividends should own as many of these as possible and certainly all should be found on their watch lists. For this article we will look at 10 such stocks with current yields averaging over 3.5%. The following table outlines 5 year growth rate estimates from First Call on the growth of each company's revenue, dividend, and earnings. In addition, from Reuter's is the current Graham & Dodd decile ranking of each company... more

10 Dividend Kings Every Smart Investor Should Own

Investment Underground took a look at some dividend kings currently ruling the market. Coca-Cola Company (KO): Coca-Cola Company is the world leader in manufacturing and distributing carbonated and non-carbonated beverages. They sell a wide range of beverages from water and flavored water to juices and energy drinks. KO sells mainly to distributors who then sell to the consumer. They also sell concentrates and syrups to fountain drink wholesalers. Coca-Cola has a market cap of $152.06 billion. Coca-Cola announced a first quarter 2011 quarterly payout of $0.47. This is a 6.8% jump from last year’s quarterly dividend of $0.44. The $0.47 quarterly distribution makes for an annual dividend yield of 2.8%. KO has a payout ratio of 34%. I think that the brand name of... more

11 Dirt-Cheap Deposit-Rich High Dividend-Yield Banks

There is no doubt that Financials are out of favor, as the sector is down over 4% YTD, the worst in the S&P 500. I understand that big banks continue to have big problems, but what about some of the smaller, well-capitalized banks? It would seem that there are some great bargains in that group, so I set up a screen to try to capture them. Here is what I did: EPS growth past year > 6% Dividend Yield > 3% Payout ratio < 50% 5-year Dividend Growth >0% Price/Tangible Book Value < 2X Deposits/Liabilities > 85% The goal, then, was to identify stocks with stable to rising dividends well above that of the market and with low valuations relative to their assets. The fact that these companies didn't cut their dividend during the downturn and that they are growing their... more

3 High Dividend Stocks With Heavy Institutional Buying

Wondering what high dividend stocks the big boys have been buying during the pullback? So were we, so we screened for high dividend paying stocks with heavy institutional buying over the past quarter, and came up with 2 Energy stocks, and a Utility stock, all 3 of which are listed in our High Dividend Stocks by Sector Tables :Even with these big increases in institutional buying, these 3 foreign dividend stocks still have a lot of room to grow for more institutional ownership. Financial Metrics: YPF Sociedad Annima (YPF) and National Grid (NGG) pay semi-annual dividends, which is fairly typical of many foreign stocks, while Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGH) is a former trust which converted to a corporation on Jan. 1, 2011, as did many Canadian trusts, due to the change in Canadian tax... more

11 Hottest, High-Dividend Stocks Year-to-Date

Despite the lackluster market, high-dividend investors who picked right are still smiling. Here are the 10 hottest high-dividend stocks (minimum 4% yields) in terms of year-to-date returns. Lorillard (LO) Year-to Date Return 37%, Yield 4.7% Cigarette maker’s brands include Newport, Kent, and others. Most of its sales come from mentholated products. Concerns that the U.S. government might restrict or oven ban mentholated cigarette sales recently pressured its share price, but such a government action now appears unlikely. Hickory Tech (HTCO) YTD Return 21%, Yield 4.8% A regional telephone company, Hickory Serves 52,000 local and long-distance landline customers, 20,000 broadband Internet customers, and 10,000 digital TV subscribers in Iowa and Minnesota. Rural telephone companies like... more

Telefonica: Dividend Dynamo or Blowup?

Let's examine how Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) stacks up in four critical areas to determine whether it's a dividend dynamo or a disaster in the making. 1. YieldFirst and foremost, dividend investors like a large yield. But if a yield gets too high, it may reflect investors' doubts about the payout's sustainability. If investors had confidence in the stock, they'd be buying it, driving up the share price and shrinking the yield.... more

Top Dividend Stocks With High Dividend Growth Rates

Many investors, such as Warren Buffett, praise defensive investing. As Buffett's mentor Benjamin Graham recommended, investing with a margin of safety can be highly valuable in especially inflationary environments. Defensive investors prefer high dividend yielding stocks since these stocks provide better protection in loose monetary environments. On the other hand, high dividend yields are not the only important criteria that investors seek in defensive stocks. Conservative investors also look for consistent dividend growth in each high dividend yielding stock. We think the stocks that have long records of increasing dividend payments are appealing to defensive investors that demand consistency and some inflation protection. We compiled a list of mega-cap U.S. stocks that achieved... more

The Most Promising Dividends in Engineering and R&D Services

Yields and growth rates and payout ratios, oh my!Before we get to those companies, though, you should understand just why you'd want to own dividend payers. These stocks can contribute a huge chunk of growth to your portfolio in good times, and bolster it during market downturns. As my colleague Matt Koppenheffer has noted: "Between 2000 and 2009, the average dividend-adjusted return on stocks with market caps above $5 billion and a trailing yield of 2.5% or better was a whopping 114%. Compare that to a 19% drop for the S&P 500."... more

National Presto Industries: Dividend Dynamo or Blowup?

Let's examine how National Presto Industries (NYSE: NPK) stacks up in four critical areas to determine whether it's a dividend dynamo or a disaster in the making. 1. YieldFirst and foremost, dividend investors like a large yield. But if a yield gets too high, it may reflect investors' doubts about the payout's sustainability. If investors had confidence in the stock, they'd be buying it, driving up the share price and shrinking the yield.... more