Thursday, July 28, 2011

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."

Wikio

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

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."

Wikio

Thursday, July 21, 2011

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?

6 Attractively Valued Dividend Growth Stocks Reporting Earnings - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Growth Stocks: 6 High-Yield Financial Services Stocks With Rising Dividends

The Financial Services Sector includes insurance companies, banks, brokerages, mutual funds and other similar companies. Before the 2008-09 financial services meltdown, these stocks were the cornerstone on many income portfolios. The companies were flush with cash, the stocks provided relatively high yields, good dividend growth rates and carried very little perceived risk.

Unfortunately, things are not always as they seem. Under the surface banks were making questionable loans, while investment firms were creating and peddling exotic financial instruments. In effect, their CEO's were building houses of cards in a hurricane - it was destined to come tumbling down, and it did.

As a result, investors learned some very valuable, but expensive lessons. This should serve as a warning when investing in the Financial Services Sector - not a stop sign. Many of these companies are now in very lucrative positions.

With interest rates as low as they are, banks are enjoying decent spreads, not to mention all the new fees they are charging their customers. As more consumers take advantage of electronic banking, we are becoming more tied to our accounts. The pain threshold of changing banks is high, and they know it.

Have you ever filed an insurance claim and were satisfied with the outcome?

Insurance companies are the ultimate business. They charge premiums to protect you. Then take the premiums, invest them and earn a return, which is then reinvested. The money is theirs to keep if you don't file a claim. If you do file a claim, the insurance company will find ways to minimize what they actually pay you - then raise your rates for filing a claim.

You can complain about these companies, or invest in the industry and profit from them. I've chosen the latter.

This week week, I screened my dividend growth stocks database for Financial Services companies with a yield at or above 4% and have increased their dividends for at least 14 consecutive years. The results are presented below:

Mercury General Corp. (MCY)
Yield: 6.2% | Years of Dividend Growth: 24
Mercury General Corp. is an insurance holding company, primarily in California, writes a full line of automobile coverage for all classifications of risk.

Old Republic International (ORI)
Yield: 6.0% | Years of Dividend Growth: 30
Old Republic Intl writes property and liability, mortgage guaranty, title and life, and disability insurance.

Cincinnati Financial Corp. (CINF)
Yield: 5.8% | Years of Dividend Growth: 51
Cincinnati Financial Corp. markets primarily property and casualty coverage. It also conducts life insurance and asset management operations.

People's United Financial Inc. (PBCT)
Yield: 4.6% | Years of Dividend Growth: 14
People's United Financial Inc. provides a full range of banking and financial service products to individuals, corporations, and municipal customers in the U.S. Northeast.

Harleysville Group Inc. (HGIC)
Yield: 4.5% | Years of Dividend Growth: 25
Harleysville Group Inc. underwrites a broad array of personal and commercial coverages. These insurance coverages are marketed primarily in the Eastern and Midwestern United States.

Community Trust Bank Corp. (CTBI)
Yield: 4.3% | Years of Dividend Growth: 31
Community Trust Bank Corp. owns and operates Community Trust Bank, Inc. of Pikeville, KY, which provides commercial banking services in Kentucky and West Virginia; and a trust company.

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


Wikio

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Dividend Growth Stocks: 10 Stocks With A Strong Cash To Dividend Coverage



Dividends are not paid with sales, earnings, EPS, EBIT or EBITDA. Instead dividends are paid with cash. As an investor, you want to pay close attention to the cash flow statement. Unfortunately, it is probably the least used and most misunderstood statement.


Ultimately, cash flow is what drives the value of any financial asset. The reason analysts look at revenue, EPS, EBIT, EBITDA and margins, they are trying to estimate the level of cash the company will generate in the future.

Dividends In Downturns

When a company consistently generates more cash than it uses, it is able to increase dividends paid, buy back shares, reduce debt, or acquire another company. However, as we learned in the 2008-2009 economic downturn, businesses sometimes go through lean times.


When the economy slows, investors in dividend growth stocks not only expect their dividend to continue, but they also expect it to continue to grow. Some companies do it with debt or by issuing shares.


However, some really fortunate companies are able to access the cash from an unusual place... directly from their balance sheet.


Cash To Dividend Coverage

Below are several companies that have accumulated large balances of cash relative to their dividends, along with the percentage of cash on hand compared to the cash paid for dividends over the last twelve months:


Intel Corporation (INTC)
Yield: 3.4% | Coverage: 115%
Intel Corporation is the world's largest manufacturer of microprocessors, the central processing units of PCs, and also produces other semiconductor products.


Microsoft (MSFT)
Yield: 2.4% | Coverage: 141%
Microsoft, the world's largest software company, develops PC software, including the Windows operating system and the Office application suite.


Cincinnati Financial Corp. (CINF)
Yield: 5.6% | Coverage: 150%
Cincinnati Financial Corp. markets primarily property and casualty coverage. It also conducts life insurance and asset management operations.


ConocoPhillips Co. (COP)
Yield: 3.5% | Coverage: 183%
ConocoPhillips Co. was formed in 2002 when Phillips Petroleum and Conoco merged and is now is the fourth largest integrated oil company in the world


Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT)
Yield: 2.7% | Coverage: 205%
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the largest retailer in North America and operates a chain of discount department stores, wholesale clubs, and combination discount stores and supermarkets.


Lowe's Companies, Inc. (LOW)
Yield: 2.3% | Coverage: 254%
Lowe's Companies, Inc. sells retail building materials and supplies, lumber, hardware and appliances through more than 1,700 stores in the U.S. and Canada.


Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT)
Yield: 3.6% | Coverage: 337%
Lockheed Martin Corp. is the world's largest military weapons manufacturer and is also a significant supplier to NASA and other non-defense government agencies receiving about 93% of its revenues from global defense sales.


Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Yield: 3.2% | Coverage: 377%
Johnson & Johnson is a leader in the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products industries.


Aflac Incorporated (AFL)
Yield: 2.7% | Coverage: 387%
Aflac Incorporated provides supplemental health and life insurance in the U.S. and Japan. Products are marketed at work sites and help fill gaps in primary insurance coverage. Approximately 80% of earnings comes from Japan and 20% from the U.S.


Walgreen Co. (WAG)
Yield: 1.7% | Coverage: 426%
Walgreen Co. is the largest U.S. retail drug chain in terms of revenues. It operates more than 8,000 drug stores throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Just last week WAG decided to access some of this cash with a record 28% dividend increase.


As an investor in dividend growth stocks, I want to know my company is financially capable of paying me a higher dividend each year, and the cash flow statement is the first place to look when making this determination. Cash on the balance sheet is like an insurance policy for the times when the business sputters.


Full Disclosure: Long INTC, CINF, COP, WMT, LOW, LMT, JNJ, AFL, WAG. See a list of all my dividend growth holdings here.

Wikio

Friday, July 15, 2011

Intel: A Top 40 Dividend-Growth Stock - Seeking Alpha


There has been a lot of interest lately in Intel (INTC) as a dividend or dividend-growth stock, especially after they announced that they will increase their dividend 16% in Q3 2011. That follows a similar increase at the end of last year. With the two increases, Intel’s current (projected) yield has jumped above 3.5%.
Intel just fell short of making my Top 40 Dividend-Growth Stockscompilation earlier this year, being one of the last stocks eliminated when I finalized the list in January. I always encourage investors to keep checking out new ideas throughout the year, so I decided to re-rate Intel to see whether it would make the list now. The answer is Yes.
Summary
Intel is a tech stock, and it is still hard for many people (including me) to get their heads around the idea that a tech stock can be a dividend stalwart. The new paradigm does not require the breakneck growth usually associated with tech stocks but rather sustainable cash-generation capabilities and corporate policies to pay dividends rather than hoard all the cash.
Intel seems to have navigated the difficult transition from corporate adolescence to adulthood. Corporate maturity has brought Intel around to the activities of other consenting adults, such as dividends and share buybacks. Intel no longer retains all of its earnings to fuel turbocharged growth. It doesn’t have to. It has plenty of cash and a solid financial structure to finance all the growth it can muster, yet still pay out some of its earnings as dividends at the same time.
While its first dividend was paid all the way back in 1992, Intel has been raising dividends now for 8 consecutive years and doing it at such a pace that its current (projected) yield is 3.7%. With a balance sheet that resembles a fortress, no debt, monopoly characteristics in its core areas, robust R&D to keep it at the head of the pack, and an apparent commitment to keep raising its dividend, Intel now clearly qualifies as a Top 40 Dividend-Growth stock. Let’s call it Number 41 for 2011.
Type of Company and Stock
In Morningstar’s Style Box, INTC is classified as a large-cap core stock. Morningstar uses “core” to indicate that a stock shows both value and growth characteristics. INTC has a market cap of about $121 billion.
Intel’s cyclicality shows up in volatile earnings and also in its stock price. In the 10-year chart, notice all the peaks, valleys, and sudden trend reversals. E-Trade lists its beta as 1.1, a little more volatile than the market as a whole. A high beta is not a quality usually associated with a dividend-growth stalwart. A little later, we will contrast this price volatility with the past few years’ performance in the company’s dividends. The difference is striking as well as being a key to whether Intel can be considered a dividend stalwart.
The chart also makes Intel look like a stock that has “gone nowhere” in the past 10 years. The 10-year price trend is down, and that is a familiar look to dividend-growth investors who understand that many of the best dividend stocks were way overvalued 10 years ago. The long-term decline in price is in fact one reason that such stocks even have a chance today to be considered cornerstones of a dividend-growth strategy. Without the price declines, their yields would be too low to be of interest. Without Intel’s price decline, even at today’s payout rate, its yield would be about 2.4% rather than the 3.7% that it actually is.
Intel’s website is accessible here. Except where otherwise noted, all figures in this article are from Morningstar, the company’s website, David Fish’s Dividend Champions document, Robert Alan Schwartz’s dividend growth company site for Intel, and my own calculations.
Intel’s Story
The story for a stock examines the company’s business model and sustainable competitive advantages. It answers the question, “How does this company make money?” It’s an important component in my scoring system. If you can’t understand how a company makes money, or it doesn’t make sense to you personally, don’t invest in it.
Intel has a great story. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip maker. Intel designs and manufactures computing and communications components (microprocessors, chipsets, motherboards, and connectivity products), as well as platforms that incorporate these components. The company also develops advanced digital integrated circuits (semiconductor chips etched with electronic switches) and suites of digital computing components. Intel offers products at various levels of integration, but most of its revenue comes from the sale of microprocessors and chipsets.
Intel is about 9 times the size of its chief rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). It has dominated the $30 B computer processor market for many years. Its market share ranges up to 80% by some estimates. AMD briefly narrowed the gap a few years ago, but Intel accelerated away and reasserted its near monopoly in the microprocessor market.
Intel enjoys significant competitive advantages in its massive R&D capability as well as the financial resources to employ cutting-edge manufacturing technologies. Intel keeps raising processor performance while lowering manufacturing costs. The company has laid out aggressive plans to introduce new chip architectures every two years, still following Moore’s Law (faster and faster processing at lower and lower cost) after all these years. Intel recently launched its line of Sandy Bridge chips, which combine computer and graphics processors onto the same device, and it will begin later this year to ramp up the manufacture of state-of-the-art 22-nanometer (circuit size) chips.
Intel faces several challenges, although a couple of them come with silver linings.
  • The PC market is maturing in the developed world, so Intel has a monopoly-like share of a flattening market. However, the silver lining is that the PC market is nowhere near saturation level in less-developed countries. This is a source of continuing growth for Intel that is sometimes overlooked.
  • Smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices comprise the exploding market in computing, and Intel is a weak player in this market. Disruptive competitor ARM Holdings (ARMH) designs processors for smartphones and tablets, and they are better at it than Intel. While the dividing line between PCs and mobile devices is blurring, ARM has been much more successful in processors for mobile devices, because of its advantage in lower power consumption. Mobile devices don’t need Hummer-like strength as much as they need great mileage, which in computing means longer battery life. Intel has recognized the market’s needs, and it is turning significant attention to becoming more competitive with its Atom line of chips. But as of now, Intel has had only limited success in getting its Atom chips designed into tablets and smartphones. Intel bolstered its capabilities in this area by acquiring Infineon's wireless chip business earlier this year.
  • No matter how well it does in that race, the attachment of more and more devices to the Internet is another silver lining for Intel. “Cloud computing” requires massive server build-outs. Intel’s server processor segment is its most lucrative. Its recent acquisition of antivirus and security software maker McAfee was strategic to this area, as Intel believes that security is becoming increasingly important with the proliferation of connected devices. The company can integrate security features directly into its chips and hardware. The rapid proliferation of mobile devices will require substantial build-outs of Internet infrastructure, which in turn should drive demand for server processors. The company expects its data center business to be a source of growth for years to come.
I give Intel about three-fourths of full credit for its story. This is a high score, one that few companies attain, as I try to be a hard marker when it comes to the company’s story.
Financials
Intel has a fortress balance sheet. Its debt/equity ratio is essentially zero. The company is a cash-generating machine, but the machine operates unevenly, because of the cyclical nature of the business. (Cash numbers are in millions.)
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
Free Cash Flow
11,485
6,655
5,729
7,625
4,841
9,005
9,276
7,859
4,426
1,345
Cash at End of Year
5,498
3,987
3,350
7,307
6,598
7,324
8,407
7,971
7,404
7,970
EPS
2.06
0.79
0.93
1.20
0.87
1.42
1.17
0.86
0.47
0.19
EPS Growth
160%
-15%
-22%
38%
-39%
21%
36%
82%
147%
Intel’s current ROE is 27%, but it has been above 15% for only two years in a row, again the result of cyclicality. (Its ROE is not juiced by high debt.) Analysts’ estimates for future EPS growth are 11% per year for the next 3-5 years.
Intel’s fiscal year ends in December. It reported spectacular first-quarter results this year. Revenue was up 12% sequentially and 25% year over year, fueled by spending on computers from enterprises and emerging markets. Average selling prices were boosted by the latest Sandy Bridge chips. Gross margin was 61%.
In a recent press release, the company said, "Worldwide demand for computing continues to increase at a very rapid rate, putting Intel on track for revenue growth of over 20 percent this year, delivering another record year for the company. Intel's current and projected growth is generating strong cash flow, allowing us to further increase our dividend.”
The Dividend Picture
2011 will be the eighth consecutive year that Intel has raised its dividend. Their dividend history divides into two eras. Starting from a negligible dividend in 1992, they embarked on a low-yield Dividend Challenger path, raising their dividend each year through 1999, but then they hit a wall in 2001.
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
$0.01
$0.01
$0.02
$0.02
$0.03
$0.03
$0.06
$0.07
$0.08
$0.08
$0.08
Because I have rounded the figures, it appears that some dividends up to 2000 stayed flat although they were actually increased fractionally every year. But the dividend was held flat at $0.0800 from 2001-2003.
Then the second era began.
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011 e
$0.16
$0.32
$0.40
$0.45
$0.5475
$0.56
$0.63
$0.78
+100%
+100%
+25%
+13%
+22%
+2%
+13%
+24%
The new era is different in amount, percentage increases, and apparent intent. In announcing its latest dividend increase, the company stated, “Intel's dividend payout has steadily increased at a 33 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2003, compared to the Standard & Poor ((S&P)) 500 growth rate of 6 percent over the same period.” And “We are delivering on our commitment to return cash to shareholders with annual dividend growth that's already more than five times the S&P 500."
My interpretation of all this is that Intel now has a real dividend-growth culture, as opposed to the earlier era when it was just sort of messing around with a dividend. It is significant that in 2009, when many companies cut their dividends and Intel itself had suffered EPS declines in three of the preceding four years, the company still managed to increase its dividend, even if just a little bit. That speaks volumes about its new-era dividend policy. So does the fact that it is bragging about its dividend performance in press releases.
Intel also has a share buyback program in place. Intel increased the authorization limit for share repurchases by an additional $10 billion in January to a total of $14.2 billion. I have not studied this program and it plays no role in my evaluation of the company. I do not begrudge the money going to the repurchase program given Intel’s strong recent record of dividend increases.
Valuation
I use several valuation ratios to value stocks, comparing a particular stock’s ratios to market-wide historical benchmarks, as well as the stock’s own P/E ratio to itself historically. By my way of reckoning, Intel has a “Good” valuation right now, meaning that it is undervalued. Its P/E of 11 is much less than its five-year average of 20. It has a PEG ratio of just 0.8, and a P/CF of 8. Intel’s earnings yield (the inverse of P/E) is 9.6% compared to the S&P’s 6.6%.
In looking up the valuation ratios for this article, I noticed that Morningstar has introduced a new data point, Price/Fair Value. That comes in at 1.0, meaning that Morningstar thinks that Intel is just fairly valued at the moment. Its 3-star rating on the stock would suggest the same thing. Morningstar computes “fair value” using a proprietary NPV approach, so they use a different method from mine and reached a different conclusion.
Consensus analysts’ ratings clock in at 1.5 on the familiar 1 (Strong Buy) to 5 (Sell) scale. Intel’s 1.5 equates to about “Buy+.” I normally discount analyst ratings due to historical “sell side” optimism, but nevertheless I give them some credit for directional correctness.
Investment Thesis and Conclusion
Intel is worth a long look as a dividend-growth stock and potential Dividend Champion of the future. The biggest concern is with the cyclical nature of its business and earnings, and the impact the cyclicality could have on consistent dividend increases in the future. But Intel seems to be fairly or even advantageously valued right now, and its 3.7% yield is a strong starting point for a long and prosperous relationship. I don’t believe that Intel will clock many more dividend increases of 20%+, but it does not seem out of the question that the company could average increases in the 10-12% range for several years. At 10% per year, the payout and yield on cost would both double in a little over 7 years.
I conclude that Intel is indeed a Top 40 Dividend-Growth Stock. A few weeks ago, I terminated a Capital Gains Portfolio and moved that money over to a personal Perpetual Dividends Portfolio. On Tuesday, I backed up the truck and used about 20% of that “new” money to purchase Intel. It’s funny: In the late 1990’s, I owned Intel for its growth and made a few bucks. This time, it’s a new era, and I bought it for its dividend. I hope to hold it for a long time and watch its dividend grow every year.
For those who are looking for at least a 4% initial yield, the purchase price required would be $21.00 at the newly announced payout rate of $0.84/year. I saw no reason to wait and got mine at $22.44.
Disclosure: I am long INTC.