18 Dividend Increases: April 30-May 4, 2018

I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis. Companies can only increase their dividends regularly if earnings grow sufficiently.

Last week, 18 companies on my watch list declared dividend increases, including one of the stocks I own. Of the 18 stocks, five announced double-digit percentage increases, which I consider to be significant!

The top increase comes from KLA-Tencor (KLAC), a supplier of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related nano-electronics industries. KLAC announced an increase of 27.1% and the stock now yields 3.81% at $106.66 per share.

The runner-up is Arbor Realty Trust (ABR), a REIT that invests in structured finance assets in the multifamily and commercial real estate markets. ABR announced a dividend increase of 19.1% and now yields 10.65% at $9.16 per share.

To see details of all of last week's dividend increases, please read this article at Seeking Alpha. I include three F.A.S.T. Graphs to illustrate the impressive earnings and dividend growth rates of some of these stocks.

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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