33 Dividend Increases: February 19-23, 2018 (Part 2: Consumer Discretionary and Materials Sectors)

Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list helps me identify candidates for further analysis. I look for announcements from stocks in the CCC list, but I use several screens to limit the number of stocks to monitor.

In the past week, 33 companies on my watch list decided to increase their dividends, including two of the stocks I hold in my portfolio.

Part 1 presented dividend increases of stocks in the Real Estate and Financials sectors. This is Part 2, which covers dividend increase announcements from Consumer Discretionary and Materials sector stocks. The upcoming Part 3 will provide a summary of dividend increases from stocks in the remaining sectors.

Seven out of ten increases from the Consumer Discretionary and Materials sectors are double digit increases! In fact, three stocks announced increases topping 20%!

The top increase is from Ruth's Hospitality Group (RUTH), a company that develops, operates, and franchises fine dining restaurants under the trade name Ruth's Chris Steak House. RUTH announced an increase of 22% and now yields 1.77% at $25.15 per share.

Steel Dynamics (STLD) and Magna International (MGA) announced increases of 21% and 20%, respectively. STLD is engaged in the manufacture and sale of steel products, processing and sale of recycled ferrous and nonferrous metals, and fabrication and sale of steel joists and deck products. The stock now yields 1.60% at $47.47 per share. MGA is an automotive supplier with manufacturing operations and product development, engineering, and sales centers in more than 30 countries The stock now yields 2.43% at $56.50 per share.

To see all the dividend increases in the Consumer Discretionary and Material sectors, please read this article at Seeking Alpha. As a bonus, I'm including a summary of ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks. Scan the list of stocks to see if there's a stock you want to pick up before the ex-dividend date so you can grab the next dividend.

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