21 Dividend Increases: May 7-11, 2018 (Part 1: Energy, Financials, and Industrials)

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

This past week, 21 companies on my watch list announced dividend increases. Part 1 presents dividend increases from the Energy, Financials, and Industrials sectors. Part 2 will cover the remaining sectors.

Four stocks in the Energy, Financials, and Industrials sectors announced double-digit percentage increases. The top increase is from United Community Banks (UCBI), the bank holding company for United Community Bank, which provides retail and corporate banking services to individuals and businesses. UCBI announced an increase of 25% and the stock now yields 1.81% at $33.24 per share.

The runner-up is First Merchants (XOM), the financial holding company for First Merchants Bank, which provides community banking services in Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. The company announced a dividend increase of 22% and now yields 1.97% at $44.64 per share.

To see details of last week's dividend increases announced by stocks in the Energy, Financials, and Industrials sectors, 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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