Rising Dividends: My Dividend Growth Portfolio 2011-2012 Report - Seeking Alpha

Rising Dividends: My Dividend Growth Portfolio 2011-2012 Report - Seeking Alpha: I yanked my head out of the sand the other day to see what is going on in the world. I finally finished the 2012 edition of Top 40 Dividend Growth Stocks for 2012. I've been buried in that effort since Halloween. I'm ready to write some articles. If I can find my napkins somewhere, I've got a bunch of good ideas scribbled down. At least they seemed good when I scribbled them.

As many know, I maintain a public demonstration Dividend Growth Portfolio (DGP).

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Becton, Dickinson: A Healthy Dividend Growth Stock On Sale - Seeking Alpha

Becton, Dickinson: A Healthy Dividend Growth Stock On Sale - Seeking Alpha: One of the great long-term benefits that a recession brings is the opportunity to invest in extremely high-quality companies at low valuations. This is especially true of companies that have proven themselves as being highly recession-resistant on an operating basis. In other words, companies whose businesses remain strong even when economic times are difficult, as they have recently been.

We believe that Becton, Dickinson & Co. (BDX) represents an opportunity to invest in an extremely high-quality Standard & Poor’s Dividend Aristocrat and a David Fish Dividend Champion that has increased its dividend every year for 40 consecutive years. Classified as a healthcare equipment company, Becton Dickinson operates in three segments: BD Medical, representing approximately 51% of sales, BD Diagnostics, representing approximately 32% of sales, and the remainder from BD Biosciences. The following excerpt taken from their website summarizes Becton Dickinson:

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Dividend Challengers: 30 Increases Expected In The Next 11 Weeks - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Challengers: 30 Increases Expected In The Next 11 Weeks - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here), I get to see those companies 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.

New Year, New Opportunities

As mentioned in the most recent installments in this series, I've modified the schedule to aim for a 3-4 week frequency. Monthly articles allowed some increases to “slip through the cracks” and publishing the listings twice each month seems a tad too frequent, with too many companies carried over and not enough being “checked off,” so I hope the current scheduling works better.

Dividend Champions: 26 Increases Expected By March 30 - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Champions: 26 Increases Expected By March 30 - 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.

New Year, New Opportunities

As mentioned in the most recent installments in this series, I've modified the schedule to aim for a three- to four-week frequency. Monthly articles allowed some increases to “slip through the cracks” and publishing the listings twice each month seems a tad too frequent, with too many companies carried over and not enough being “checked off,” so I hope the current scheduling works better.

Dividend Contenders: 24 Increases Expected By The End Of March - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Contenders: 24 Increases Expected By The End Of March - 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.

New Year, New Opportunities

As mentioned in the most recent installments in this series, I've modified the schedule to aim for a three- to four-week frequency. Monthly articles allowed some increases to “slip through the cracks” and publishing the listings twice each month seems a tad too frequent, with too many companies carried over and not enough being “checked off,” so I hope the current scheduling works better.

Wikio

42 Dividend Contenders For Above Average Total Return - Seeking Alpha

42 Dividend Contenders For Above Average Total Return - Seeking Alpha: With interest rates hovering near all-time lows, investors needing income are faced with very limited choices. The traditional high yield available from bonds and other fixed income vehicles are no longer available to meet the needs of retirees needing income to live off. Moreover, it is almost a certainty that today’s low yields are not adequate enough to fight inflation. Consequently, there is a growing investor interest in dividend paying common stocks, especially those that have a long record of increasing their dividend every year. This has led many lay, and even many professional investors, to assume that dividend paying common stocks are becoming overvalued. In addition to being too general to be relevant, these assumptions do not stand up to closer scrutiny.

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2012 Canadian Dividend Aristocrats -The Passive Income Earner

2012 Canadian Dividend Aristocrats � The Passive Income Earner: Here is the list many of you have been waiting for

The 2012 Canadian Dividend Aristocrats!

Unless you are tracking many companies on your own with historical data, the following dividend aristocrat list is a must have resource for any dividend investor. You can also review last year’s Dividend Aristocrats if you want.

Canadian Dividend Aristocrat Requirements
The rules have changed … Was there some lobbying to alleviate the impact on the lack of dividend increase during the financial crisis?!? The Canadian Dividend Aristocrats must now meet the following requirements to be included in the list.

43 Dividend Champions On Sale: A Rare Opportunity - Seeking Alpha

43 Dividend Champions On Sale: A Rare Opportunity - Seeking Alpha: We believe that based on earnings, 2012 is starting out with the stock market undervalued. We believe in the long-term ownership of great businesses purchased at sound and attractive valuations. Consequently, we view the stock market as merely the store that we shop at in order to buy the businesses we want to own.

Furthermore, we do not rely on the market to set the price at which we are willing to buy or sell. Instead, we prefer to calculate the intrinsic value of the business based on the company’s earnings power. If the market price is at or below that level of valuation we will be a buyer, if not, we either look elsewhere or patiently wait for the True Worth™ valuation to manifest.

Wal-Mart: The World's Greatest Retailer, After a Long Hiatus, Is A Solid Buy - Seeking Alpha

Wal-Mart: The World's Greatest Retailer, After a Long Hiatus, Is A Solid Buy - Seeking Alpha: We are going to start the new year off by looking at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) , which we believe is a blue-chip growth and dividend income selection that can be purchased at a sound and attractive valuation. Additionally, we offer Wal-Mart with its historical business results and price performance as an excellent example extolling the principles of sound investing versus speculation. We believe the lessons that this analysis offers are both important and invaluable to investors.

Most rational thinking common stock investors intuitively understand, and we believe would agree, that shareholder value is ultimately created through the operating success of the business behind the stock.

Dividend Contenders Smackdown XXII - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Contenders Smackdown XXII - Seeking Alpha: In recent installments of the Smackdown series, I have screened the Dividend Champions (which can be found here) starting with the same factors that I used in the first two Smackdowns (back in mid-2010): Most Recent Percentage Increase (in November) and Yield (in December). This month, I'll start with a new column that I've titled Confidence Factor, which can be found in column BS.

(Note that I have 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 have streaks of 5-9 years. I use the same Roman numeral for all three articles.)

Dividend Challengers Smackdown XXII - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Challengers Smackdown XXII - Seeking Alpha: In recent installments of the Smackdown series, I have screened the Dividend Champions (which can be found here) starting with the same factors that I used in the first two Smackdowns (back in mid-2010): Most Recent Percentage Increase (in November) and Yield (in December). This month, I'll start with a new column that I've titled Confidence Factor, which can be found in column BS. (No, it's just a coincidence, really!)

(Note that I have 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 have streaks of 5-9 years. I use the same Roman numeral for all three articles.)

Dividend Champions Smackdown XXII - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Champions Smackdown XXII - Seeking Alpha: In recent installments of the Smackdown series, I have screened the Dividend Champions (which can be found here.) starting with the same factors that I used in the first two Smackdowns (back in mid-2010): Most Recent Percentage Increase (in November) and Yield (in December). This month, I'll start with a new column that I've titled Confidence Factor, which can be found in column BS. (No, it's just a coincidence, really!)

(Note that I have separated 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 use the same Roman numeral for all three articles.)

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Dividend Champions For January 2012 - Seeking Alpha

Dividend Champions For January 2012 - Seeking Alpha: The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 12/30/11 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.

Patience Rewarded?

Last month, I wrote that I had not yet found the time to add a column for the Confidence Factor, but hoped to do so by year-end, along with the columns for 2011 dividends paid and for 2011 vs. 2010. The latest update now includes those columns and I have reset the formulas for 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year Dividend Growth Rate to use the 2011 dividends paid, instead of 2010, as well as expanded the ranges for the Mean and Standard Deviation to include the 2011-vs.-2010 dividend growth. Please note the following:

2012 Dogs Of The Dividend Contenders - Seeking Alpha

2012 Dogs Of The Dividend Contenders - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get a chance to screen the database using a number of criteria, and I often run across related strategies that might be of interest to readers. One such approach is the well known “Dogs of the Dow” strategy that simply picks the 10 highest yielding stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the start of the year and holds them until the end of the year. It was highlighted by the book Beating the Dow by Michael B. O'Higgins and John Downes in 1991 and even has its own website (here).

The success of the Dow Dog strategy has varied in recent years as its popularity has attracted more participants. And there are many variations of the approach, such as a “Small Dogs” version that suggests owning the five lowest-priced stocks from among the 10 high yielders. Naturally, attempts have been made to apply the “Dogs” strategy to other indices or groups of companies, and that brings us to this article.

2012 Dogs Of The Dividend Challengers - Seeking Alpha

2012 Dogs Of The Dividend Challengers - Seeking Alpha: In compiling the Dividend Champions list (found here) I get a chance to screen the database using a number of criteria, and I often run across related strategies that might be of interest to readers. One such approach is the well known “Dogs of the Dow” strategy that simply picks the 10 highest yielding stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial Average at the start of the year and holds them until the end of the year. It was highlighted by the book Beating the Dow by Michael B. O'Higgins and John Downes in 1991 and even has its own website (here).

The success of the Dow Dog strategy has varied in recent years as its popularity has attracted more participants. And there are many variations of the approach, such as a “Small Dogs” version that suggests owning the five lowest-priced stocks from among the 10 high yielders. Naturally, attempts have been made to apply the “Dogs” strategy to other indices or groups of companies, and that brings us to this article.