Dividend Aristocrats for Week Ending Jan 17, 2014: FDO Increases Dividend 19%

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 [...]

Dividend Aristocrats for Week Ending January 10, 2014: Walgreens Increases Dividend

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 [...]

Dividend Aristocrats for Week Ending Jan 3, 2014: JNJ Announces Quarterly Dividend

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%.

2013 Returns for the Dividend Aristocrats

As we stand at the beginning of 2014, it’s useful to take a look back at the previous year and see how the 54 Dividend Aristocrat (DA) stocks did in 2013.  A couple of quick facts: 53 of the 54 Dividend Aristocrats ended up for the year 28 of the 54 Dividend Aristocrats beat the S&P 500 index 32 of them now have a higher dividend yield than the S&P 500 index Of course, all of the 54 Dividend Aristocrats increased their payouts this year; 4 of them increased their dividends by Read more [...]

What is a Dividend Aristocrat Stock?

Investing in stocks for current income can be an excellent strategy.  Investors looking for income will often look for companies with high dividend yields, where the dividends are a large percentage of the share price.  However, this can be risky.  A high yield may indicate a company that has a problem; as the stock price has gone down due to selling, the dividend yield has gone up.  Companies with artificially high yields may not keep paying out dividends at the same level.  Depending on an Read more [...]