This week four Dividend Aristocrats declared quarterly dividends, with two announcing year-over-year increases: Family Dollar (FDO) raised their quarterly dividend from 26 to 31 cents, an increase of over 19.2%.  This year's 5 cent increase follows 3 cent and 5 cent increases at the beginning of 2012 and 2013, respectively, which represented increases of 16.7% and 23.8%.  FDO stated that the higher dividend would be paid at the next regular payout, but did not announce when that would be.  If Read more [...]

This week, Walgreens (WAG) increased their dividend to 27.5 to 31.5 cents, a 14.5% increase.  This is the 38th consecutive year that WAG has increased their dividend payout, and the 325th consecutive quarter of dividends.  The higher dividend is payable on March 12th to shareholders of record on February 18th, and results in a yield at its current share price of $60.36 of 2.09%. Three other Aristocrats announced regular quarterly dividends: Target (TGT) announced their latest regular dividend Read more [...]

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) started 2014 off by announcing their quarterly dividend.  JNJ will pay $0.66 per share on March 11th to shareholders of record on February 25th.  This represents the 4th consecutive quarterly payout at the same level; they usually increase their dividend in the June quarter.  At its current value, JNJ’s yield is  2.87%.