34 Companies Expected to Raise Dividends in the Next 8 Weeks - Seeking Alpha

34 Companies Expected to Raise Dividends in the Next 8 Weeks - 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.

New Format

My previous articles in this series were generally published just after mid-month and included companies with Ex-Dividend Dates in the following month. However, as some commenters noted, this led to a few companies “falling through the cracks” because they had Ex-Dividend Dates in the month after that, but announced increases several weeks in advance. So, beginning with this article, I am going to switch from a monthly format to a twice-monthly one and extend the forward look to a period of about eight weeks. I expect to submit these articles on about the 7^th through 10^th of the month and again about two weeks later, dropping companies that have announced their next dividend (whether or not it has increased) and adding companies at the “back end” of the time period. This will lead to some carry-over in the listings, but should help to avoid having companies failing to be mentioned simply because they fall in between monthly articles. Based on last year's announcements, I'm expecting the following companies to announce dividend increases between now and the anniversary of their previous increase:

Dividend Champions (25 or more years):

		No.	3/31		Qtrly	LY%	LY
Company	Symbol	Yrs	Price	Yield	Rate	Inc.	Ex-Div
H.B. Fuller Company	FUL	41	21.48	1.30	0.0700	2.94	4/27/10
Procter & Gamble Co.	PG	54	61.60	3.13	0.4818	9.50	4/28/10
W.W. Grainger Inc.	GWW	39	137.68	1.57	0.5400	17.39	5/6/10
ExxonMobil Corp.	XOM	28	84.13	2.09	0.4400	4.76	5/11/10
Sonoco Products Co.	SON	27	36.23	3.09	0.2800	3.70	5/12/10
Mine Safety Appliances	MSA	39	36.67	2.73	0.2500	4.17	5/20/10
NACCO Industries	NC	25	110.67	1.89	0.5225	0.97	5/27/10
Weyco Group Inc.	WEYS	29	24.46	2.62	0.1600	6.67	5/27/10
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	48	59.25	3.65	0.5400	10.20	5/28/10
PepsiCo Inc.	PEP	38	64.41	2.98	0.4800	6.67	6/2/10

Dividend Contenders (10-24 years):

		No.	3/31		Qtrly	LY%	LY
Company	Symbol	Yrs	Price	Yield	Rate	Inc.	Ex-Div
People's United Fin'l	PBCT	17	12.58	4.93	0.1550	6.90	4/29/10
Tompkins Financial	TMP	24	41.55	3.27	0.3400	10.00	5/5/10
Int'l Business Machines	IBM	15	163.07	1.59	0.6500	18.18	5/6/10
Franklin Electric Co.	FELE	18	46.20	1.13	0.1300	4.00	5/11/10
Chevron Corp.	CVX	23	107.49	2.68	0.7200	5.88	5/17/10
Southside Bancshares	SBSI	16	21.40	3.18	0.1700	5.00	5/25/10
Factset Research Sys.	FDS	12	104.73	0.88	0.2300	15.00	5/26/10
Expeditors International	EXPD	16	50.15	0.80	0.2000	5.26	5/27/10
Cullen/Frost Bankers	CFR	17	59.02	3.05	0.4500	4.65	5/28/10
Imperial Oil Ltd.	IMO	18	51.07	0.85	0.1090	14.74	6/1/10

Dividend Challengers (5-9 years):

		No.	3/31		Qtrly	LY%	LY
Company	Symbol	Yrs	Price	Yield	Rate	Inc.	Ex-Div
Empresa Nacional/Elec	EOC	7	55.62	2.77	0.7690	45.64	4/29/10
Donegal Group Inc. A	DGICA	8	13.37	3.44	0.1150	2.22	4/29/10
Donegal Group Inc. B	DGICB	8	16.75	2.45	0.1025	2.50	4/29/10
Southern Company	SO	9	38.11	4.78	0.4550	4.00	4/29/10
Ameriprise Financial Inc.	AMP	6	61.08	1.18	0.1800	5.88	5/5/10
Costco Wholesale	COST	7	73.32	1.12	0.2050	13.89	5/5/10
AmeriGas Partners LP	APU	6	48.06	5.87	0.7050	5.22	5/6/10
United Community Bp	UCBA	5	7.25	6.07	0.1100	10.00	5/10/10
BOK Financial Corp.	BOKF	6	51.68	1.93	0.2500	4.17	5/12/10
Assurant Inc.	AIZ	7	38.51	1.66	0.1600	6.67	5/20/10
Analog Devices Inc.	ADI	8	39.38	2.23	0.2200	10.00	5/26/10
Northrop Grumman	NOC	7	62.71	3.00	0.4700	9.30	5/27/10
Arch Coal Inc.	ACI	7	36.04	1.11	0.1000	11.11	5/27/10
Knight Transportation	KNX	7	19.25	1.25	0.0600	20.00	6/2/10
Suncor Energy Inc.	SU	5	44.84	0.88	0.0990	6.45	6/2/10

There may be other companies that announce increases in the coming weeks, such as those that increase the payout on a quarterly or irregular basis. (Companies generally make dividend declarations anywhere from two days to six weeks before the Ex-Dividend Date.) Not all of these companies will meet the strict standards of every investor, but they may be appropriate for portfolio diversification. Potential investors should do more research before committing funds.

The Flip Side

Next week, I plan to submit an article listing companies whose latest dividend increase might be considered “overdue.” In other words, these will be companies that have gone more than a year since their previous increase, something that might be considered a sign that the dividend (or at least the streak of increases) is in danger. (Note that the dates for these companies appears in Red in the Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF.) Of course, some companies regularly go more than a year between increases, so the anticipated listing may only be an “early warning” sign that some of the companies listed may be worthy of concern.

I hope that next week's article will help to augment David Van Knapp's new series about possible “Dividends in Danger,” and could become a regular series. As we get closer to year-end, such a listing will act as a dividend streak “death watch,” since it will equate to a listing of companies that will be deleted if they fail to increase the dividend in 2011, making the payout unchanged from that of 2010.

Disclosure: I am long PG, XOM, JNJ, PEP, COST, ACI.