This week saw three dividend growth stocks, including a food company, a communications company and a utility holding company announce regular dividend payments:

Hormel Foods announced their 345th quarterly dividend.
Photo courtesy theimpulsivebuy/flickr.com.

Dividend Aristocrat Hormel Foods (HRL) will make its 345^th consecutive quarterly dividend payment on November 14^th to shareholders of record on October 20^th. Investors will receive 20 cents for each share owned. Hormel produces food and meat products including Spam® and is currently expanding in the ready-to-eat meals sector. Hormel has paid a dividend since coming public in 1928 and has increased dividends since 1967. Hormel is one of only a few Dividend Aristocrats that has doubled its dividend payout over the last 5 years, going from 38 cents per share in 2009 to this year’s 80 cents per share. I expect Hormel to announce the 49^th consecutive year of dividend increases in December, and to pay the increased dividend in February 2015. Hormel stock currently yields 1.59%.

Communications giant AT&T (T), which has been a Dividend Aristocrat since 2009, will pay a quarterly dividend of 46 cents per share on November 3^rd to shareholders of record on October 10^th. AT&T has increased quarterly dividends by a penny a share since 2008; when they announce their 31^st consecutive annual dividend in December, I expect that they’ll increase it to 47 cents per share. With that low rate of dividend increases, the company’s 5-year compounded annual dividend growth rate is only 2.38%. To compensate for this low dividend growth rate, AT&T stock yields a very high 5.22% at current prices.

WGL Holdings (WGL), which provides energy to residential and commercial customers in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area and other areas in the Mid-Atlantic region, is paying a quarterly dividend of 44 cents per share on November 1^st to shareholders of record on October 10^th.  WGL Holdings, which is a High Yield Dividend Aristocrat, has paid common stock dividends for more than 163 years and increased them for 38 consecutive years. The company increased the dividend by 4.8%, from an annualized $1.68 to $1.76 per share in February 2014. Like most utilities, WGL pays a relatively high yield of 4.19% at current prices.

There are over 50 S&P 500 companies that have increased dividends for more than a quarter century.  See the full list of S&P Dividend Aristocrats.