Fruits of my Labor Day Labor

As a dividend growth investor, I find Dave Fish's list of Dividend Champions invaluable. The accompanying spreadsheet provides extensive financial data of companies with long track records of consecutive years of dividend increases. I use the spreadsheet as a basis for compiling a watch list of dividend growth stocks as well as when writing monthly posts identifying dividend growth stock candidates worth consideration. 

This weekend, while reviewing changes to the spreadsheet, a recent change listed in the Revisions tab of the spreadsheet caught my eye: 

8/8/13

Replaced FinViz Sector names with GICS (Global Industry Classification Standard)

One of the frustrating things I've found is that different financial websites and institutions use different sector and industry classification schemes. I don't have a particular preference, but I wish we could just all agree on a standard and stick to it! So, good for Dave Fish for choosing the GICS... I'm doing my part and following suit!

I've updated my watch list with the 10 GICS sector names, using the opportunity to separate out non-CCC (Champions, Contenders, and Challengers) stocks and identifying some of those as Near Challengers. Also, I've assigned new color schemes to indicate payment frequency, as well as K-1 stocks, for which I have different selection criteria. 

My watch list now contains over 200 stocks, of which 25 do not appear in Dave Fish's CCC list of 472 stocks. To trim the CCC list, I removed most stocks with yields less that 2% and market caps less that $250m. Additionally, I used the Chowder Dividend Rule to pre-screen stocks in sectors with an abundance of candidates. 

Let me know what you think of the new watch list presentation.