30 Dividend Challengers of the (Near) Future - Seeking Alpha

The Dividend Champions spreadsheet and PDF have been updated through 4/29/11 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. The term “CCC” refers to the listing as a whole.

Companies in Waiting

As companies extend their streaks, usually with annual announcements of increases, Contenders graduate to Champion status and even more Challengers graduate to Contender status. That leaves it to new companies to replenish the Challengers list, and there are many firms working their way toward inclusion. Since last fall, I have been building a listing of those companies that have paid higher dividends for four straight years, which is included each month as an Appendix on the Notes tab of the CCC document. Already in 2011, 18 companies have made their way unto the Challengers list, including such diverse names as Dun & Bradstreet (DNB), Teekay Offshore Partners (TOO), and Union Pacific (UNP). Listed below are the current components of the Appendix of companies with four straight years of higher dividends:

		5/18 *	5/18 *
Company	Symbol	Price	Yield	Ex-Div
Altera Corp.	ALTR	48.05	0.5	8/6/10
Bancorp Rhode Island	BARI	43.53	1.8	11/15/10
Baxter International Inc.	BAX	60.26	2.1	12/8/10
Broadridge Financial	BR	22.48	2.7	9/13/10
Brookfield Infrastructure	BIP	24.23	5.1	2/24/11
Cablevision Systems	CVC	33.73	1.7	5/12/11
CMS Energy Corp.	CMS	20.16	4.2	11/3/10
Coca-Cola Enterprises	CCE	29.20	1.8	6/8/11
Comcast Corp. (1)	CMCSA	25.37	1.8	4/4/11
Covidien plc	COV	57.40	1.4	9/30/10
El Paso Pipeline Partners	EPB	34.31	5.4	1/28/11
Enbridge Energy Partners	EEP	30.34	6.7	8/3/10
Evercore Partners Inc.	EVR	35.93	2.0	11/23/10
Finish Line Inc.	FINL	21.85	0.9	2/21/11
Frisch's Restaurants	FRS	22.15	2.7	9/16/10
Goodrich Corp.	GR	91.32	1.3	11/29/10
Guess? Inc.	GES	43.26	1.9	12/6/10
Health Care REIT Inc.	HCN	51.49	5.6	5/6/11
Hubbell Inc. A (2)	HUB.A	61.50	2.5	4/11/11
Kaydon Corp.	KDN	37.42	2.0	9/9/10
Lazard Limited	LAZ	38.40	1.6	5/4/11
Lorillard Inc.	LO	112.90	4.7	2/25/11
National CineMedia Inc.	NCMI	16.72	4.8	11/16/10
Navios Maritime Partners	NMM	19.40	8.6	2/7/11
Northfield Bancorp Inc.	NFBK	13.58	1.8	5/9/11
NorthWestern Corp.	NWE	32.88	4.4	3/11/11
NV Energy Inc.	NVE	15.74	3.1	12/3/10
Quaker Chemical Corp.	KWR	41.43	2.4	7/13/11
Vanguard Natural Res.	VNR	28.99	7.7	2/3/2011
Western Gas Partners	WES	35.12	4.4	1/28/11
* Per Yahoo Finance
(1) Also CMCSK
(2) Also Class B

Expansion Continues

Since I only started listing companies with four-year streaks last fall, there are probably several others that will show up, either as additions to the Appendix or as new Challengers, once they announce a fifth year of higher dividends. Generally, that means any company that announced a third or fourth straight year of higher dividends during the middle of last year, so I anticipate a steady stream of replacements as these companies graduate to Challenger status.

As you can see, the up-and-comers include a wide variety of companies, ranging from restaurants and retailers to utilities and Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and offering yields ranging from 0.5% to 8.6%. Although they don't have long streaks of dividend increases, it's clear that management at these companies is expressing confidence that their firms will be able to sustain strong enough earnings growth to support rising dividend payouts to shareholders. As always, I welcome suggestions in the comment section below.

Disclosure: I am long UNP.