7 Dividend Increases: May 14-18, 2018

Companies that regularly increase their dividends show confidence in future earnings growth potential. Monitoring dividend increases for stocks on my watch list helps me to 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. Last week, seven companies on my watch list declared dividend increases, and the list includes one of the stocks I own.

Three of the seven increases are double-digit increases.

The top increase is from Packaging Corp of America (PKG), a company that manufactures and sells containerboard and corrugated packaging products in North America and Europe. PKG announced an impressive increase of about 25% and now yields 2.61% at $121.18 per share.

United Fire Group (UFCS) and Marsh & McLennan (MMC) both announced increases of about 11%.

UFCS  provides insurance protection for individuals and businesses in the United States. The stock now yields 2.34% at $53.08 per share.

MMC is a professional services firm that offers advice and solutions in areas of risk, strategy, and people. The stock now yields 2.05% at $81.17 per share.

To see all the dividend increases announced last week, 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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