24 'Overdue' Dividend Increases: Danger Ahead? - Seeking Alpha

24 'Overdue' Dividend Increases: Danger Ahead? - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, but some companies go longer before boosting their dividends, and this can raise concerns about their streaks of increases.

Dividends in Doubt Series

This monthly series lists companies whose latest dividend increases might be considered “overdue” because it has been more than a year since the previous increase, a possible sign that their streaks of increases are in danger. Some firms regularly go more than a year between increases, so this is only an “early warning” sign that some of them may warrant concern.

Wikio

Dividend Challengers: 18 Increases Expected By Late February - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Challengers: 18 Increases Expected By Late February - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these companies raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

New Year's Presents

As mentioned in the comments of the most recent installment in this series, I'm modifying the schedule to aim for a three-week frequency. Having found that monthly articles allowed some increases to “slip through the cracks,” I had started publishing the listings twice each month. But that seems to have been a tad too frequent, with too many companies carried over and not enough being “checked off,” so I hope the new scheduling works better.

Dividend Contenders: 12 Increases Expected By February 24 - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Contenders: 12 Increases Expected By February 24 - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these companies raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

New Year's Presents

As mentioned in the comments of the most recent installment in this series, I'm modifying the schedule to aim for a three-week frequency. Having found that monthly articles allowed some increases to “slip through the cracks,” I had started publishing the listings twice each month. But that seems to have been a tad too frequent, with too many companies carried over and not enough being “checked off,” so I hope the new scheduling works better.

Dividend Champions: 14 Increases Expected By The End Of February - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Champions: 14 Increases Expected By The End Of February - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these companies raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

New Year's Presents

As mentioned in the comments of the most recent installment in this series, I'm modifying the schedule to aim for a three-week frequency. Having found that monthly articles allowed some increases to “slip through the cracks,” I had started publishing the listings twice each month. But that seems to have been a tad too frequent, with too many companies carried over and not enough being “checked off,” so I hope the new scheduling works better.

The 3 Stages of Financial Freedom | Invest It Wisely

The 3 Stages of Financial Freedom | Invest It Wisely: The 3 Stages of Financial Freedom
XHello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic. To celebrate the holidays, Invest It Wisely is running a holiday giveaway, with $300 in prizes to be given away! Don't miss your chance to enter the giveaway for a chance at some great prizes!



Last week, I talked about the three stages of financial despair. We all want to get out of the rat race, but before we get there, we need to get out of the hole and onto level ground.

Wikio

Dividend Challengers Smackdown XXI - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Challengers Smackdown XXI - Seeking Alpha: In previous installments of the Smackdown series, I screened the Dividend Champions (which can be found here) using factors such as payout ratio, dividend growth rate, and the most recent dividend increase. Beginning last month, I separated the Champions, Contenders, and Challengers into different articles. (Champions are companies that have paid higher dividends for at least 25 straight years; Contenders have streaks of 10-24 years; Challengers (today's article) have streaks of 5-9 years.) I use the same Roman numeral for all three articles.

This month, I'm returning to the second Smackdown, published on July 3, 2010, starting with the yield, followed by the same factors I used back in Smackdown II. The biggest difference is that there were no listings for Contenders and Challengers back then, so the screening process below has no Smackdown II equivalent. I screened as follow

Examining Growth Yield: McDonald's, Ross Stores And Scana Corp. - Seeking Alpha

I received a comment/question from Jeff Paul, a fellow author and contributor to Seeking Alpha on my recent article “Yield On Cost Is A Valuable Investing Tool: McDonald’s Vs. Procter & Gamble.” Jeff's question provided me the opportunity to expand more on the important concept of yield on cost, which I prefer to call “growth yield.” Here is Jeff’s question, as follows:

Nice article, Chuck. Lots to think about. There is one statement that I would like you to clarify. "A rapidly expanding yield on cost definitely contributed to McDonald’s (MCD) strong performance…" Seems like that is putting the cart before the horse. I would argue that McDonald's strong performance (i.e. earnings growth), coupled with its decision to increase the payout to shareholders, led to higher dividend growth, which therefore rapidly expanded YOC. I don't see how YOC, which is dependent on the dividend payout decision, would contribute to MCD's stock performance.

102 Dividend Champions For December 2011 - Seeking Alpha

102 Dividend Champions For December 2011 - Seeking Alpha: The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 11/30/11 and are available (click the link.) Note 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. “CCC” refers to the universe of Champions, Contenders and Challengers.

Dividend Challengers: 16 Increases Expected By The First Week Of February - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Challengers: 16 Increases Expected By The First Week Of February - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

More Happy Holidays

As mentioned last time, I've modified the Expected Increase series to reflect a more SA-friendly format by separating the Champions, Contenders and Challengers into distinct groupings, so please look for the other articles, which I hope will be published about the same time. Five of the companies below are likely to record their 10th straight year of increases, promoting them to Contender status.

Dividend Contenders: 11 Increases Expected By Groundhog Day - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Contenders: 11 Increases Expected By Groundhog Day - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list. I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

More Happy Holidays

As mentioned last time, I've modified the Expected Increase series to reflect a more SA-friendly format by separating the Champions, Contenders, and Challengers into distinct groupings, so please look for the other articles, which I hope will be published about the same time. Once again, some of the lowest yields below are accompanied by the highest percentage increases, and vice versa.

Wikio

Our Top 25 Dividend Growth Stocks Are Dirt Cheap - Seeking Alpha

Our Top 25 Dividend Growth Stocks Are Dirt Cheap - Seeking Alpha: Anyone who had recently invested in real estate would most likely agree that the phrase “dirt cheap” carries a new and enhanced meaning today. In the same vein, we would argue that our top 25 dividend growth stocks based on the potential for five-year estimated annual total returns are dirt cheap. Consequently, we believe that most of the bad news is already priced in, and therefore, the opportunity to buy low is the best it’s been since 1997.

Wikio

Using The 10 x 10 Table To 'Score' Dividend Yields And Growth Rates - Seeking Alpha

Using The 10 x 10 Table To 'Score' Dividend Yields And Growth Rates - Seeking Alpha: Some of you are familiar with the 10 x 10 concept. It is a table that answers the question, “What beginning yield and what dividend growth rate do I need to achieve a 10% yield on cost within 10 years?” A recent article on it can be found here: “10 by 10: The Interaction of Dividend Yield and Growth.” Obviously, various combinations of yield and DGR can achieve the 10 x 10 goal. The table lets you select a dividend and a growth rate. Where they intersect, it tells you the year in which they will achieve a 10% yield on cost.

In my annual Top 40 Dividend Growth Stocks study, I have in the past used separate scales to score dividend yields and growth rates. Assigning points to those two factors is part of an overall stock-rating system designed for the dividend-growth strategy. Points are awarded in a variety of categories, including ROE, EPS growth, revenue growth, the stock’s Story, and the like. Even the very best stocks rarely approach the maximum possible score. I’ve never found a perfect company and don’t ever expect to.

Dividend Contenders: 15 Increases Expected In The Next 10 Weeks - Seeking Alpha

In compiling the Dividend Champions list, I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

More Happy Holidays

As mentioned last time, I've modified the Expected Increase series to reflect a more SA-friendly format by separating the Champions, Contenders, and Challengers into distinct groupings, so please look for the other articles, which I hope will be published about the same time. Notably, some of the lowest yields below are accompanied by the highest percentage increases.

Dividend Challengers: 13 Increases Expected By Early 2012 - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Challengers: 13 Increases Expected By Early 2012 - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list, I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

More Happy Holidays

As mentioned last time, I've modified the Expected Increase series to reflect a more SA-friendly format by separating the Champions, Contenders, and Challengers into distinct groupings, so please look for the other articles. No less than five of the companies below are likely to record their tenth straight year of increases, promoting them to Contender status.

Why Darden Restaurants Is Cheaper Than SCANA Corp. Despite Similar PE Ratios - Seeking Alpha

Why Darden Restaurants Is Cheaper Than SCANA Corp. Despite Similar PE Ratios - Seeking Alpha: This article is the second in a series of articles designed to elaborate on the proper utilization and understanding of the PE ratio as an important investing metric. Our first article in this series looked at how the PE ratio could be used to determine overvaluation. With this article we are going to review two companies where each is fairly valued and each has similar current PE ratios. Moreover, both companies offer yields above 3.5% which is greater than is available on the 30-year Treasury bond (current yield 30-year Treasury bond 3.02%).

Wikio

Dividend Contenders Smackdown XX (Part iii) - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Contenders Smackdown XX (Part iii) - Seeking Alpha: Dividend Contenders Smackdown

In previous installments of the Smackdown series, I have screened the Dividend Champions (which can be found here) using factors such as payout ratio, dividend growth rate, and, most recently, the “sweet spot” of dividend yields between 3% and 5%.

Beginning this month, I'm separating the Champions, Contenders, and Challengers into different articles to fit more closely into the format preferred by Seeking Alpha. (Champions are 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.) I'll use the same Roman numeral for all three articles.

TSX 60 Ex-Dividend Date, Dividend Yield & Dividend Payout Ratio

• Posted by Mike in TSX60
• 
  
• 
  
• We are at the beginning of a new month (right after seeing the Greek busting our party yesterday!) so it is now time for the TSX 60 ex-dividend date, dividend yield and dividend payout ratio. In addition to provide the TSX chart, I wanted to add a few random thoughts on those Canadian dividend stocks:

Canadian Gold Stocks Might Follow Newmont (NEW) and its Dividend Strategy

While price of gold has been sky rocketing since 2008, we can tell the same thing about Canadian gold stocks. In order to be more attractive to investors, some companies (Eldorado Gold ELD is mentioned in several rumors) may follow their American competitor Newmont (NEW) in their dividend payout strategy. NEW as declared their dividend payout will follow the price of gold. Therefore, if the price of gold goes up and the stock doesn’t, at least you will have a reason to celebrate!

Better be part of the Top Canadian dividend stocks:

Top 5 dividend payers right now have returned : -2.70%

Bottom 5: -13,77%

Crazy but true

2 stocks in TSX do not pay dividends

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (VRX)

Research in Motion (RIMM)

Valeant is the best performing stock in TSX60 (39.2%)

RIM is the worst (-63.54%)

and now my argument that dividend investing rules goes bust! haha!

Here’s the TSX60 ex-dividend date, dividend yield and payout ratio chart:

How The Dividend Champions' Dividends Hedged Investors From The Ravages Of The Lost Decade - Seeking Alpha

How The Dividend Champions' Dividends Hedged Investors From The Ravages Of The Lost Decade - Seeking Alpha: Robert Allan Schwartz wrote an interesting article titled: "How Did The Lost Decade Affect Dividend Champions?" This article received a great deal of discussion and comment. I believe the purpose of Robert’s article was to illustrate that dividend champions as a group would have performed reasonably well, thanks to their steady growth of dividends, during this very challenging investment period calendar year 2000 – 2009, a.k.a., the so-called Lost Decade. The following excerpts from Robert’s article talked about buying one share of each of the Dividend Champions on the first day of the period and holding it until the last day:

Suppose you care only about capital gain. Suppose you bought one share of each of the 101 Dividend Champions at the opening price on the morning of January 1, 2000, and sold it at the closing price on the afternoon of December 31, 2009. Your investment was $3974.35. What was your return?

Dividend Champions Smackdown XX - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Champions Smackdown XX - Seeking Alpha: In previous installments of the Smackdown series, I have screened the Dividend Champions using factors such as payout ratio, dividend growth rate, and, most recently, the “sweet spot” of dividend yields between 3% and 5%.

Beginning this month, I'm separating the Champions, Contenders and Challengers into different articles to fit more closely into a reader-friendly format. (Champions are 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.) I'll use the same Roman numeral for all three articles.

Wikio

103 Dividend Champions For November 2011 - Seeking Alpha

103 Dividend Champions For November 2011 - Seeking Alpha: The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 10/31/11 and are available at here. Note 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. “CCC” refers to the universe of Champions, Contenders, and Challengers.

Back-Door Champion Added

October included some unusual activity that saw one company – Eagle Financial Services (EFSI.OB) – jump from Challenger to Champion status. Kudos to SA member and commentor Main Street Investor, who uncovered a more detailed history than Yahoo's 7-year listing of dividend increases at the company's website. The document, along with a more detailed company history PDF file that spelled out the ratio of two stock splits as the company evolved from the Bank of Clarke County into EFSI, showed that the dividend increases actually began in 1987.

Wikio

Dividend Champions: 16 Increases Expected By January 6 - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Champions: 16 Increases Expected By January 6 - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these companies raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

Happy Holidays

In this article, I'm modifying the Expected Increase series to reflect a more reader-friendly format by separating the Champions, Contenders and Challengers into distinct groupings, so please look for the other lists, which I hope will be published about the same time. Leading the way this time, we should see Emerson Electric (EMR) and Vectren (VVC) extend their streaks of more than 50 years of higher dividends, and we can hope to see more generous increases by those two, along with the stocks at the bottom of the list.

Dividend Contenders: 17 Increases Expected In The Next 10 Weeks - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Contenders: 17 Increases Expected In The Next 10 Weeks - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these companies raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

Happy Holidays

In this article, I'm modifying the Expected Increase series to reflect a more reader-friendly format by separating the Champions, Contenders and Challengers into distinct groupings, so please look for the other lists, which I hope will be published about the same time. Before the year ends, I hope to see Mercury General (MCY) graduate to Champion status and York Water Company (YORW) to declare the dividend that will be paid in January, marking its 197th straight year of dividends. (Yes, the streak of uninterrupted payments started in 1816!)

Dividend Challengers: 14 Increases Expected By The First Week Of January - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Challengers: 14 Increases Expected By The First Week Of January - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these companies raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

Happy Holidays

In this article, I'm modifying the Expected Increase series to reflect a more reader-friendly format by separating the Champions, Contenders and Challengers into distinct groupings, so please look for the other lists, which I hope will be published about the same time. Before year-end, I hope to see no less than four of these companies declare their 10th straight year of increases, resulting in graduation to Contender status, led by Nike (NKE) and Landauer (LDR).

Wikio

Abbott: Still A Dividend Growth Stalwart? - Seeking Alpha

Abbott: Still A Dividend Growth Stalwart? - Seeking Alpha: Last week Abbott Laboratories (ABT) announced that it plans to separate into two publicly traded companies around the end of 2012. One, retaining the Abbott name, will focus on diversified medical products. The other, “New Pharmaceutical Company,” will focus on research-based drugs. Both companies will be global leaders in their respective industries on the day they begin.

In the announcement, Abbott stated that the “two publicly traded companies will offer shareholders distinct opportunities given unique investment identities, business profiles and attributes,” and that the decision “builds on a decade of strategic and operational advancements.” Miles White, chairman and chief executive officer, stated

Wikio

53 Dividend Increases Expected By Christmas - Seeking Alpha

53 Dividend Increases Expected By Christmas - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here: http://dripinvesting.org/Tools/Tools.asp ) I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

Holiday Cheer

For this article, I'm extending the Expected Increase series a tad beyond the usual format, which shows companies expected to increase their dividends up to 10 weeks ahead of their Ex-Dividend Date. Notable increases since the previous update included Year 56 by Northwest Natural Gas (NWN), the 47th year of increases by Clarcor (CLC) and the 38th year by RPM International (RPM).

Wikio

Dividend Growth Stocks: 15 Dividend Stocks That Have Paid Dividends For Over 110 Years

Dividend Growth Stocks: 15 Dividend Stocks That Have Paid Dividends For Over 110 Years: 15 Dividend Stocks That Have Paid Dividends For Over 110 Years

The key to successfully selecting dividend growth stocks is the ability to identify companies that will not only maintain but grow their dividend. Often it can be boiled down to a simple question: "How committed is the company to paying its dividend?"

Sure most CEOs give lip-service to their commitment to shareholders, but what happens when times are hard. When the economy turns down and the future looks bleak, will the company hoard cash and stop its dividend or put action behind its words?

Wikio

Dividend Growth Portfolio Semi-Annual Review: Pretty Boring Stuff... The Dividends Just Keep Increasing (Yawn) - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Growth Portfolio Semi-Annual Review: Pretty Boring Stuff... The Dividends Just Keep Increasing (Yawn) - Seeking Alpha: This is the sixth article about my Dividend Growth Portfolio. Two earlier articles in the series dealt with Portfolio Reviews:

Portfolio Forensics (August 31, 2010)

Dividend Growth Portfolio Review: Sherwin Williams is Out (April 26, 2011)

As many of you know, the Dividend Growth Portfolio is a public “demonstration” portfolio that I use to illustrate the practical application of dividend-growth investing principles. The portfolio contains real money and actual stock holdings. It is part of my retirement assets. I publicly report on its results. I encourage comments and criticisms.

Wikio

101 Dividend Champions For October 2011 - Seeking Alpha

101 Dividend Champions For October 2011 - Seeking Alpha: The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 9/30/11 and are available at here. Note 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. “CCC” refers to the universe of Champions, Contenders, and Challengers.

Wikio

Dividends In Danger? Frontier, CenturyLink, Conoco Phillips, 3 Others Continue To Attract Comments - Seeking Alpha

Dividends In Danger? Frontier, CenturyLink, Conoco Phillips, 3 Others Continue To Attract Comments - Seeking Alpha: This is the sixth installment in a series that collects and summarizes SA members’ opinions about companies whose dividends may be in danger. Readers’ comments have been integrated and edited. References to “me,” “my,” or “I” refer to the commenters, not to the author. If you wish to see the full comment stream, consult last month’s article.

Wikio

Are You Properly Positioned For The Economic Upturn? - Seeking Alpha

Are You Properly Positioned For The Economic Upturn? - Seeking Alpha: Today, it seems ubiquitously accepted that the American economy is weak, and that it's a foregone conclusion that we're headed into economic oblivion. We have a bad day in the stock market and Chicken Little shows up everywhere bemoaning our demise and lamenting about our dismal futures. Besieged by all this bad news, it can be very hard to remain optimistic about our future, but I am, and with this article I will highlight some reasons why.

Wikio

38 Dividend Increases Expected In The Coming Weeks - Seeking Alpha

38 Dividend Increases Expected In The Coming Weeks - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list, I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

Down the Stretch

With this article, the "expected increase" series returns to the usual format, showing companies expected to increase their dividends up to 10 weeks ahead of their Ex-Dividend Date. (I had extended the “forward look” to more than 11 weeks in order to cover the anticipated boost by McDonald's (MCD), which typically announces its dividend more than two months ahead of the Ex-Dividend date.

Interview With Chuck Carnevale: Why Valuation Matters For Buy And Hold Dividend Investors - Seeking Alpha

Interview With Chuck Carnevale: Why Valuation Matters For Buy And Hold Dividend Investors - Seeking Alpha: Chuck Carnevale is one of the most popular authors on Seeking Alpha. He has contributed more than 200 articles and garnered almost 10,000 followers. Chuck is a sought-after public speaker who is passionate about spreading the critical message of prudence in money management. He has been working in the securities industry since 1970 and is the co-founder of EDMP, Inc., an investment management firm headquartered near Tampa, Florida.

Wikio

5 Exceptional Dividend Growth Stocks With Lower Volatility And Higher Total Return - Seeking Alpha

5 Exceptional Dividend Growth Stocks With Lower Volatility And Higher Total Return - Seeking Alpha: For many people these are troubled times where fears about our economy and the stock market are at a heightened state. Stock price volatility is higher than we've ever seen it, which only adds to investor nervousness. Therefore, we searched for a safe place for conservative investors to invest. Our due diligence identified five dividend growth stocks that possess stringent quality characteristics, while at the same time have produced strong above-average historical total returns. But more importantly, each candidate had to have future consensus earnings estimated growth rates greater than the S&P 500.

Wikio

31 'Overdue' Dividend Increases: Streaks In Jeopardy? - Seeking Alpha

31 'Overdue' Dividend Increases: Streaks In Jeopardy? - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, but some companies go longer before boosting their dividends, and this can raise concerns about their streaks of increases.

Wikio

47 Dividend Hikes Expected By The End Of November - Seeking Alpha

47 Dividend Hikes Expected By The End Of November - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

Beyond Thanksgiving

In recent articles in this series, I have shown companies expected to increase their dividends soon, up to 10 weeks ahead of their Ex-Dividend Date. But, as SA Contributor Clay King mentioned in the comments to my previous update (here), McDonald's (MCD) is expected to announce its next increase in a couple of weeks, more than two months before its Ex-Dividend Date. So I've extended the “forward look” to more than 11 weeks for this article, although I will probably return to the 10-week pattern for my next update.

Wikio

10 Dividend Stalwarts Outperforming The S&P 500 Since 2006

10 Dividend Stalwarts Outperforming The S&P 500 Since 2006 - Seeking Alpha: There's been a flame war waging on Seeking Alpha pitting the "dividend growth crowd" against the "invest for total return crowd." Underneath it all, there seems to be this rationale that an investor needs to be either or. However, we would argue that you can have and be both. You can position your portfolio as a dividend growth investor with the objective of investing in companies that offer the potential to increase their dividend every year. Simultaneously, and by definition, you can and should also expect capital appreciation that is consistent with your expected dividend growth rate.

Wikio

Dividend Champions Smackdown XVIII: The Tweed Factor - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Champions Smackdown XVIII: The Tweed Factor - Seeking Alpha: In previous installments of the Smackdown series, I have screened the Dividend Champions (which can be found here) using factors such as yield, payout ratio, and dividend growth rate. Note 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. “CCC” refers to the universe of Champions, Contenders, and Challengers.

This month, I focused on two new columns that were added in the latest update – columns AI and AJ, which show the percentage by which the current price (as of August 31) varies from each stock's 50- and 200-day Moving Averages. That article can be found here

Wikio

101 Dividend Champions for September 2011 - Seeking Alpha

101 Dividend Champions for September 2011 - Seeking Alpha: The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 8/31/11 and are available here. Note 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. “CCC” refers to the universe of Champions, Contenders, and Challengers.

Wikio

Retirement's 4% Rule: Why Mr. & Mrs. Income Don't Need It (Part 2) - Seeking Alpha

Retirement's 4% Rule: Why Mr. & Mrs. Income Don't Need It (Part 2) - Seeking Alpha: In Part 1, we saw how Mr. & Mrs. Income decided to part ways with conventional advice and target their retirement income needs years before they retired. They saved diligently, placing their money into dividend-growth stocks, a general bond fund, and later into a TIPS fund.
They never made it to $1,000,000. But they did not do badly. At the end of 2010, when their retirement started, they had $950,000 saved up. Here’s a snapshot of how each element is expected to perform. The stock numbers are blended, meaning that they indicate total performance across the stock portfolio.

Retirement's 4% Rule: Why Mr. & Mrs. Income Don't Need It (Part 1) - Seeking Alpha

Retirement's 4% Rule: Why Mr. & Mrs. Income Don't Need It (Part 1) - Seeking Alpha: Remember the Growths?

In two previous articles, we met Mr. & Mrs. Growth. They were saving for retirement following common practices, including shooting for “The Number” and planning to withdraw from their nest egg during retirement.
Retirement’s 4% Rule: Surprising Answers You Need to Know about the Inflation Factor
Retirement’s 4% Rule: The Importance of Return Sequence

Wikio

38 Dividend Increases Expected In The Next 10 Weeks - Seeking Alpha

38 Dividend Increases Expected In The Next 10 Weeks - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list I get to see which companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

Activity Picking Up

In recent articles in this series, I mentioned that we had passed the very slowest period of increases during the year in terms of declarations, and that the number of approaching dividend increases seemed to be picking up. Of the 45 companies listed in my August 11 article, 15 announced increases and only one plans to pay the same amount for a fifth quarter, so the majority are carried over here, joined by companies with Ex-Dividend Dates in late October and early November.

Wikio

45 Dividend Increases Expected in the Next 10 Weeks - Seeking Alpha

45 Dividend Increases Expected in the Next 10 Weeks - Seeking Alpha: "In compiling the Dividend Champions list I get to see what companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

Activity Picking Up

In recent articles in this series, I mentioned that we had passed the very slowest period of increases during the year in terms of declarations, and that the number of approaching dividend increases seemed to be picking up. Of the 51 companies listed in my July 26 article, 19 announced increases and only one plans to pay the same amount for a fifth quarter, so the majority will be carried over here, joined by companies with Ex-Dividend Dates in early- to mid-October."

The Highest Yielding Dividend Champions, Challengers and Contenders - Seeking Alpha

The Highest Yielding Dividend Champions, Challengers and Contenders - Seeking Alpha: "Sometimes I wonder whether the common practice of dividing dividend stocks into two groups - high yield and dividend-growth - doesn’t set up a false dichotomy. The implications are that high-yield stocks do not grow their dividends, and stocks that grow their dividends have low yields. Neither generalization is true.
The purpose of this article is to identify those stocks that offer both high yield and dividend growth. The qualification for “high yield” is a projected yield of 5% or more. The qualification for “dividend growth” is residence on David Fish’s most recent Dividend Champions document. The document - affectionately known as CCC - includes Champions (25 straight years of dividend growth or more), Challengers (10 years) and Contenders (5 years)."

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Dividends in Danger? Frontier, CenturyLink, Conoco Phillips, 4 Others in the Crosshairs - Seeking Alpha

Dividends in Danger? Frontier, CenturyLink, Conoco Phillips, 4 Others in the Crosshairs - Seeking Alpha: "This is the fifth installment in a series that collects and summarizes SA members’ opinions about companies whose dividends may be in danger. Not all information for each company has been independently verified. Readers’ comments have been integrated and edited. If you wish to see the full comment stream, consult last month’s article."

Wikio

Illinois Tool Works: Innovation, Growth, Above-Average Yield and Low Valuation - Seeking Alpha

Illinois Tool Works: Innovation, Growth, Above-Average Yield and Low Valuation - Seeking Alpha: "This is part seven of a seven-part series that is looking at the incredible opportunity that a cyclical company can represent as earnings recover coming out of a recession. A primary objective of this series is to illustrate that price drops of well-established companies are usually temporary even after earnings are cyclically weak.

Part one, 6 High Profile Industrials With Staggering 3-Year Performance, provided a cursory view of six industrial companies. In the part prior to this one, we looked at Ingersoll-Rand (IR) in Rand: Profit by Investing in Recovering, Large, Well-Entrenched Cyclicals. You can find the entire series here."

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Caterpillar Inc. Is Piling Up Profits - Seeking Alpha

Caterpillar Inc. Is Piling Up Profits - Seeking Alpha: "This article is part four of a seven part series that is looking at the incredible opportunity that a cyclical company can represent as earnings recover coming out of a recession. A primary objective of this series of articles is to illustrate that price drops of well-established companies are usually temporary even after earnings are cyclically weak. Part one, 6 High Profile Industrials With Staggering 3-Year Performance, provided a cursory view of six industrial companies. In part two, we provided a more comprehensive look at Cummings Inc.: Cummins' Staggering 3-Year Annualized Performance."

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Dividend Champions Smackdown XVI - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Champions Smackdown XVI - Seeking Alpha: "In previous installments of the Smackdown series, I have screened the Dividend Champions list of companies that have paid higher dividends for at least 25 straight years (which can be found here) using factors such as yield, payout ratio, and dividend growth rate, and then did separate screens on Dividend Contenders (10-24 years of higher dividends) and Challengers (5-9 years). This month, I'm starting the Smackdown by focusing on a new column that was added in the latest update. For an explanation of how I calculate the Estimated 5-year Average EPS Growth, please refer to the latest Dividend Champions update article, which can be found here."

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100 Dividend Champions for August 2011: New Data, New Columns - Seeking Alpha

100 Dividend Champions for August 2011: New Data, New Columns - Seeking Alpha: "The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 6/30/11 and are available here. Note 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. “CCC” refers to the universe of Champions, Contenders, and Challengers."

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Dividend Growth Stocks: 8 High-Yielding Dividend Aristocrats Not Afraid to Raise Their Dividends

8 High-Yielding Dividend Aristocrats Not Afraid to Raise Their Dividends

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats is the most recognized list of dividend stocks. The Dividend Aristocrats index is designed to measure the performance of S&P 500 constituents that have followed a policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years.

Dividend Aristocrats exhibit the following characteristics:


- They are a member of the S&P 500
- The index is equally weighted with constituents re-weighted quarterly
- List is reviewed and updated annually in December


Make no mistake, Dividend Aristocrats are the blue-blood of dividend growth stocks. When building your core portfolio, this list is where you want to start your evaluation. If you want dividend growth, these stocks have been there, and done that - for decades.


This week week, I screened my dividend growth stocks database for Dividend Aristocrats with a yield greater than 3% and have increased their dividends for at least 35 consecutive years. The results are presented below:


Procter & Gamble (PG)
Yield: 3.1% | Years of Dividend Growth: 54
The Procter & Gamble Company is a leading consumer products company that markets household and personal care products in more than 180 countries.


Pepsico, Inc. (PEP)
Yield: 3.1% | Years of Dividend Growth: 39
PepsiCo, Inc. is a major international producer of branded beverage and snack food products.


Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Yield: 3.2% | Years of Dividend Growth: 49
Johnson & Johnson is a leader in the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products industries.


Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
Yield: 3.6% | Years of Dividend Growth: 39
Abbott Laboratories is a diversified life science company and is a leading maker of drugs, nutritional products, diabetes monitoring devices, and diagnostics.


Kimberly-Clark Co. (KMB)
Yield: 4.1% | Years of Dividend Growth: 39
Kimberly Clark Corp. is a global consumer products company that produces tissue, personal care and health care. Its brands include Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex, Depend, Kleenex, Scott and Kimberly-Clark.


Consolidated Edison, Inc. (ED)
Yield: 4.5% | Years of Dividend Growth: 38
Consolidated Edison, Inc. is an electric and gas utility holding company that serves parts of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.


Leggett & Platt, Inc. (LEG)
Yield: 4.6% | Years of Dividend Growth: 39
Leggett & Platt Inc makes a broad line of bedding and furniture components and other home, office and commercial furnishings, as well as diversified products for non-furnishings markets.


Cincinnati Financial Corp. (CINF)
Yield: 5.6% | Years of Dividend Growth: 51
Cincinnati Financial Corp. markets primarily property and casualty coverage. It also conducts life insurance and asset management operations.


As with past screens, the data presented above is in its raw form. Some of the the companies would be disqualified for poor dividend fundamentals. However some of the others may be worth additional due diligence.


My database, D4L-Data, is an Open Office spreadsheet containing more than 20 columns of information on the 210+ companies that I track. The data is sortable and has built-in buttons and macros to make it easy to use. Companies included in the list are those that have had a history of dividend growth. The D4L-Data spreadsheet is a part of D4L-Premium Services and is updated each Saturday for subscribers.

Retirement's 4% Rule: Surprising Answers You Need to Know About the Inflation Factor - Seeking Alpha

Retirement's 4% Rule: Surprising Answers You Need to Know About the Inflation Factor - Seeking Alpha: "The predominant retirement-financing method advocated by investment advisors, fund and ETF companies, AAII, Morningstar, and many pundits is called the “total return” approach. It has two phases:
The accumulation years, during which you save for retirement, targeting a nest egg whose ideal size is known as The Number.
The withdrawal years, when you sell off pieces of that nest egg to obtain the cash you need for living expenses during retirement."

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51 Dividend Increases Expected in the Next 10 Weeks - Seeking Alpha

51 Dividend Increases Expected in the Next 10 Weeks - Seeking Alpha: "In compiling the Dividend Champions list I get to see what companies are nearing the anniversaries of their previous dividend increases. Since most of these firms raise their payout about the same time every year, I can say with some confidence that they are likely to do so again.

Activity Increasing

In the previous article in this series, I mentioned that we had passed the very slowest period of increases during the year in terms of declarations, and the number of approaching dividend increases seems to be picking up. Of the 46 companies listed in my July 11 article, 10 announced increases and one will pay the same amount for a fifth quarter, so again the majority of them have been carried over here, and are joined by companies with Ex-Dividend Dates in late September, and early October."

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Periodic Table of Dividend Contenders (10-24 Year Streaks) - Seeking Alpha

Periodic Table of Dividend Contenders (10-24 Year Streaks) - Seeking Alpha

Is Dover Corp. a Cyclical, Growth or Dividend Growth Stock? - Seeking Alpha

Is Dover Corp. a Cyclical, Growth or Dividend Growth Stock? - Seeking Alpha

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How Dividend Investing Can Help You Stay Away From Ponzi Schemes ? Intelligent Speculator

How Dividend Investing Can Help You Stay Away From Ponzi Schemes

The last few years have seen many different trends in the financial markets. Unfortunately, one of them has been the explosion of frauds related to capital securities. Insider trading, market manipulation, and many other types of frauds are taking place at an increasing rate. One fraud that has been in the spotlights more than any other has been the Ponzi scheme. There have been small ones, big ones and then the Bernie Madoff one. These schemes have been happening a lot more than you would think but only the biggest ones got attention from the mainstream media.

How Ponzi Schemes Work

You can find much more detailed information but the basic concept is that investors buy shares in a fund. The manager then manages to publish falsified valuations making the returns look much better than they actually are. The effect is twofold:

-Current Investors Put More Money Into the Fund
-New Investors Come Knocking To Invest

This can go on for a long time because the basic ways such a scheme will get caught are if authorities catch on or when investors start withdrawing money which the fund often does not actually have. That is what happened to Madoff. If the financial crisis had not occurred, investors would have perhaps left their funds invested for many more years and the Ponzi scheme could have gotten much bigger. Other frauds such as Enron relied on different accounting frauds.

How Dividend Investing Can Help You Avoid Frauds

-Diversification: While it is not unique to dividend investing, the truth is that dividend investors tend to have much more diversity in their holdings than the average investor’s portfolio.

-Type Of Company: Generally, dividend investors tend to like long term, sustainable dividend companies such as the dividend aristocrats that have often been running for 50, 100 years or even more . While such companies can end up being fraudulent, the risk is much smaller than when investing in newer companies

-Take Money Out:One of the great things about dividend investors is that they take money off of the table in form of dividends. The only Bernie Madoff that did not get destroyed were those who had taken out money over the years instead of always reinvesting into the same funds.

Dividend Investors Beware

I think it’s still important for dividend investors to look out for opportunities that look too good to be true. A company cannot keep increasing dividends by 10% per year for decades, it’s just not possible. Still, I think that as a dividend investor, my odds of being caught up in a major fraud are diminished.

Do you agree?