8 Dividend Increases: May 23-27, 2016

Includes: BG • DCI • EE • EXR • FLO • LOW • OMC • TIF 

Summary

• Companies that regularly increase dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential.
• I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis.
• This past week, 8 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases.

Recent Buy: Valero Energy Corporation

May 20, 2016: Bought 32 shares of VLO at $55.84 per share.

Founded in 1955 and based in San Antonio, Texas, Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE:VLO) is an independent petroleum refining and marketing company. The company's refineries produce conventional and premium gasoline, including gasoline meeting the specifications of the California Air Resources Board. VLO's ethanol segment produces ethanol and distillers grain.

VLO is a Dividend Challenger with a 6-year streak of dividend increases. The company pays quarterly dividends of 60¢ per share in the months of March, June, September and December. At the current share price of $55.28, the stock yields 4.34%.

11 Dividend Increases: May 16-20, 2016

Includes: CB • CLX • GNTX • GPI • JPM • KEY • MMC • MSA • NOC • RBCAA • SYBT 

Summary

• Companies that regularly raise their dividend payments show confidence in future earnings growth potential.
• I like monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks, because I consider such stocks to be candidates for further analysis.
• Recently, 11 companies on my watch list decided to increase their dividends, including 2 of my DivGro holdings.

Recent Buy: Apple Inc

May 3, 2016: Bought 26 shares of AAPL at $94.07 per share.
May 12, 2016: Bought 30 shares of AAPL at $90.20 per share.

Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) designs, manufactures, and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players. The company also sells a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content. AAPL was founded in 1977.

AAPL has a 5-year streak of consecutive dividend increases. The company pays quarterly dividends of 57¢ per share in the months of February, May, August and November.

10 Dividend Growth Stocks for May 2016

Includes: HFC • HOG • HRL • JLL • NKE • PII • PRU • TROW • VFC • VLO

Summary

• Every month I rank a selection of David Fish's CCC stocks to identify top candidates worthy of further analysis. 
• This month I decided to do a preliminary ranking of most of the CCC stocks using data provided in the CCC spreadsheet.
• After selecting 40 of the top-ranked stocks, I collected additional data from several online sources and ranked the stocks again using all available data. 
• This article reveals May's top 10 ranked stocks.

7 Dividend Increases: May 9-13, 2016

Includes: CTWS • FDS • LII • LYB • MSA • SCI • TEL 

Summary

• Companies can only raise their dividends regularly if earnings grow sufficiently.
• One way to identify dividend growth stocks for further analysis is to monitor dividend increases.
• In the last week, 7 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases.

Monthly Review: April 2016

In April, I completed the consolidation of my portfolios of dividend paying stocks. DivGro now contains stocks and closed-end funds (CEFs) from 5 different accounts. I'll be managing DivGro as a single portfolio using the investment strategies developed when I started this blog.

This monthly review is the 40^th I've compiled since creating DivGro. I'm somewhat astonished to see the progress... DivGro's market value just crossed the $300k level and, more importantly, projected annual dividend income is approaching $12,000. When that target is reached, it means that the portfolio will be generating $1,000 per month of dividend income, on average, in perpetuity!

17 Dividend Increases: May 2-6, 2016

Includes: BPL • CAH • CPK • FNV • JCOM • MAN • MAR • MIC • NHC • PAG • PEP • SBRA • SBSI • SEP • TSCO • UFS

Summary

• Companies that regularly raise dividends show confidence in the potential growth of future earnings.
• I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis.
• In the past week, 17 companies on my watch list declared dividend increases, including 1 of the stocks I own.

Recent Buy: Gap Inc

April 28, 2016: Bought 105 shares of GPS at $23.40 per share.

Gap Inc. (NYSE:GPS) is a global apparel retail company that offers apparel, accessories, and personal care products under the Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy brands, among others. The company operates in the specialty, outlet, online, and franchise channels. It has 375 franchise stores in 41 countries. GPS was founded in 1969, and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

GPS has an 11-year streak of consecutive dividend increases. The company pays quarterly dividends of 23¢ per share in the months of January, April, July and October.

I already own 60 shares of GPS, acquired in March 2015 at a cost basis of $41.42 and a yield on cost (YoC) of 2.22%. The stock price has been trending lower since then, so I'm lowering my cost basis and increasing average YoC with this buy.

28 Dividend Increases: April 25-29, 2016 (Part 2: Non-Financials)

Includes: AAPL • AVY • GILD • GWW • IBM • JNJ • JNS • LM • POR • UGI • UTX • XLNX • XOM 

Summary

• Companies that regularly increase dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential.
• Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch is one way to identify candidates for further analysis.
• In the last week, 28 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases, including 5 of the stocks I hold in my portfolio.
• I presented the Financials and a few MLPs that announced dividend increases in Part 1.
• This article presents the non-Financials that announced dividend increases in the last week.

28 Dividend Increases: April 25-29, 2016 (Part 1: Financials and MLPs)

Includes: AMP • APU • BBT • CFR • CMA • COLB • ETP • FFIN • IVZ • PFG • PFS • PSA • SXL • WBS • WFC • WTBA 

Summary

• Companies that regularly raise their dividend payments show confidence in future earnings growth potential.
• One way to identify dividend growth stocks for further analysis is to monitor dividend increases.
• This past week, 28 companies on my watch list decided to increase their dividends.
• In this article, I present the Financials and a few MLPs that announced dividend increases.
• A follow-up article will present the non-Financials that increased their dividends this past week.