7 High-Quality Dividend Growth Stocks With Accelerating Total Returns

As a dividend growth investor, I invest in high-quality dividend growth stocks trading at reasonable valuations. I use DVK Quality Snapshots to assess the quality of dividend growth stocks and systematically determine fair value estimates for all the dividend growth stocks in Dividend Radar.

This article presents seven dividend growth stocks with accelerating total returns. Two stocks are rated Exceptional with perfect quality scores of 25, and five stocks are rated Excellent with quality scores of 23-24 (out of 25). 

The Only Dividend Radar Stocks With Perfect Quality Scores

My watch list for candidates is Dividend Radar, a list of stocks trading on U.S. Exchanges with dividend increase streaks of at least five years. The list is updated and published every Friday and is available for free download here. The latest edition (dated July 23, 2021) contains 762 stocks.

DVK Quality Snapshots provide a simple yet elegant way to assess the quality of dividend stocks. Devised by David Van Knapp, the system assigns 0-5 points to each of five quality indicators for a maximum quality score of 25 points. 

Only seven Dividend Radar stocks have perfect quality scores, and I rate these stocks Exceptional.

Dividend Increases: July 17-23, 2021

We monitor dividend announcements for stocks in Dividend Radar, a spreadsheet we update and publish for free every Friday. The spreadsheet provides key data of stocks with dividend streaks of five years or more. 

The Dividend Radar spreadsheet separates stocks into categories three categories: Champions (with increase streaks of 25+ years), Contenders (10-24 years), and Challengers (5-9 years).

In the past week, fourteen companies in Dividend Radar announced dividend increases. One company announced a dividend cut during this time period. As usual, the article focuses on one of the companies that increased its dividend and provides several charts from Portfolio Insight. 

Upcoming Ex-Dividend Dates: July 27-August 9, 2021

This article series provides a summary of upcoming ex-dividend dates of stocks in Dividend Radar, a weekly automatically generated spreadsheet listing dividend growth stocks with dividend streaks of five years or more. We cover ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

The ex-dividend date of stocks is usually set one business day before the record date, the cut-off date for determining which shareholders will receive the next dividend payment. To receive the next dividend, be sure to buy a stock before its ex-dividend date! If you buy the stock on or after the ex-dividend date, the seller will receive the next dividend.

Monthly Review Of DivGro: June 2021

Every month, I review my portfolio of dividend growth stocks, DivGro. My goal is to share updates and provide a summary of the dividends I collected. I also monitor DivGro's projected annual dividend income (PADI) and its monthly counterpart, PMDI. 

In June, I added a position due to a spinoff and reduced my holdings in one position. Five DivGro stocks announced dividend increases in June. The net result of these changes is that PADI decreased by about 0.3% in June. Year over year, PADI increased by 10.3%.

As for dividend income, in June I received dividends totaling $5,308 from 47 stocks in my portfolio, a new record for monthly income! So far in 2021, I've collected $18,417 in dividends or about 53% of my 2021 goal of $34,500.

Home Run Number 37

I announced DivGro's 36^th Home Run less than two weeks ago, and here I'm back announcing another home run!

Recall that I call any stock in my portfolio that has doubled my original capital outlay in total returns, a Home Run. It's a fun milestone to celebrate and I love writing these articles! 

As a dividend growth investor, I have a reasonable expectation that the majority of the stocks in my portfolio will someday reach home run status. Dividend growth investing is a long term strategy, and the longer I'm invested in a stock, the higher is the likelihood that it will double my original capital outlay!

Options Update: June 2021 (Part 2)

As I mentioned in the introduction to Part 1 of June's Options Update, I've fallen behind on updating readers about my options trading activity. I've decided to skip June and July's Expired Options articles and rather capture all the details of June's trades and expirations in this two-part article.  

In Part 1, I covered assignments, expirations, and closed options, and provided a listing of options expiring in the next two months. June turned out to be a great month with lots of expirations, allowing me to secure $3,744 in options income. Additionally, I closed four options early, securing an additional $652 in options income. 

In Part 2, I'm covering rolled options and put options trades that generated income in June. 

Options Update: June 2021 (Part 1)

I've fallen behind on updating readers on my options trades. Work obligations and family matters have made it hard to keep up, so I'm foregoing June and July's Expired Options articles. But here, finally, is June's Options Update article!

In May I added only $501 to my options income tally, bringing the year-to-date total to $5,177. Given my goal of collecting $24,000 in 2021, this put me far behind the pace needed to achieve my options income goal.  

Fortunately, June was a great month and I made up some lost ground! In Part 1, I'll cover assignments, expirations and closed options, and I'll provide a listing of options expiring in the next two months. Part 2 will cover rolled options and put options trades that generated income in June. 

7 Best Financials Sector Dividend Stocks

In this article series, I present the top-ranked dividend growth stocks in each GICS sector. My watch list for candidates is Dividend Radar, a list of stocks trading on U.S. Exchanges with dividend increase streaks of at least five years. The list is updated and published every Friday and is available for download here. The latest edition (dated July 16, 2021) contains 762 stocks, 267 of which are in the Financials sector.

Sector diversification is one of the ways to mitigate portfolio risk. Investing in different sectors recognizes the fact that some sectors perform better than others in different economic conditions.

This article presents the seven top-ranked dividend growth stocks in the Financials sector.

Dividend Increases: July 10-16, 2021

We monitor dividend announcements for stocks in Dividend Radar, a spreadsheet we update and publish for free every Friday. The spreadsheet provides key data of stocks with dividend streaks of five years or more. The Dividend Radar spreadsheet separates stocks into categories three categories: Champions (with increase streaks of 25+ years), Contenders (10-24 years), and Challengers (5-9 years).

In the past week, fourteen companies in Dividend Radar announced dividend increases, including two of the stocks I hold in my portfolio. Note there were no dividend cuts or suspensions announced for Dividend Radar stocks during this period.

The article focuses on one of the companies that increased its dividend, providing several charts from Portfolio Insight and a fair value estimate for the stock. 

Upcoming Ex-Dividend Dates: July 20-August 2, 2021

This article series provides a summary of upcoming ex-dividend dates of stocks in Dividend Radar, a weekly automatically generated spreadsheet listing dividend growth stocks with dividend streaks of five years or more.

The ex-dividend date of stocks is usually set one business day before the record date, the cut-off date for determining which shareholders will receive the next dividend payment. If you buy a stock on its ex-dividend date or after, you will not receive the next dividend payment. Instead, the seller will receive the next dividend. If you buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, you will receive the dividend.

I co-produce this article series with James Marino Sr. of Portfolio Insight.

10 Dividend Growth Stocks For July 2021

In my monthly series of 10 Dividend Growth Stocks, I rank a selection of dividend growth stocks in Dividend Radar and present the 10 top-ranked stocks for consideration. 

To rank stocks, I use DVK Quality Snapshots to determine quality scores and sort those in descending order, breaking ties with additional metrics.

This month,

 I screened for stocks in Dividend Radar with quality scores above 18 and offering a 5-year Yield on Cost (YoC) of at least 4.0%.

Home Run Number 36

After just more than two months, I'm happy to announce another home run, DivGro's 36^th!

The stock that just doubled my original capital outlay has delivered annualized returns of 51% over just less than two years of ownership. I'd be very happy if all my investments returned even half of that rate on an annualized basis!

I notice that another stock in my portfolio is on the brink of attaining home run status, so expect another one of these posts soon!

7 Best Energy Sector Dividend Stocks

As a dividend growth investor, I look to diversify my portfolio by investing in different sectors. Doing so helps to mitigate risk. Some sectors perform better than others in different economic conditions.

Since we don’t know which sectors will outperform the S&P 500 this year and in future years, it is sensible to consider investing in different sectors. 

In this article series, I present the top-ranked dividend growth stocks in each GICS sector. My watch list for candidates is Dividend Radar, a list of stocks trading on U.S. Exchanges with dividend increase streaks of at least five years. The list is updated and published every Friday and is available for download here. The latest edition (dated July 2, 2021) contains 761 stocks and 22 Energy sector stocks. 

This article presents the seven top-ranked dividend growth stocks in the Energy sector.

Dividend Increases: July 3-9, 2021

We monitor dividend announcements for stocks in Dividend Radar, a spreadsheet of stocks with dividend streaks of five years or more. Readers are invited to download the spreadsheet for free. The Dividend Radar spreadsheet separates stocks into categories based on the length of the streak: Champions (25+ years), Contenders (10- 24 years), and Challengers (5-9 years).

This past week, three companies in Dividend Radar declared dividend increases. Note there were no dividend cuts or suspensions announced for Dividend Radar stocks during this period.

The article focuses on one of the companies that increased its dividend, providing several charts from Portfolio Insight and a fair value estimate for the stock. 

Upcoming Ex-Dividend Dates: July 13-26, 2021

This article series provides a summary of upcoming ex-dividend dates of stocks in Dividend Radar, a weekly automatically generated spreadsheet listing dividend growth stocks with dividend streaks of five years or more. We cover ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks.

The ex-dividend date of stocks is usually set one business day before the record date, the cut-off date for determining which shareholders will receive the next dividend payment. To receive the next dividend, be sure to buy a stock before its ex-dividend date! If you buy the stock on or after the ex-dividend date, the seller will receive the next dividend.

Dividend Increases: June 26-July 2, 2021

We monitor dividend changes of stocks in Dividend Radar, a weekly automatically generated spreadsheet listing stocks with dividend streaks of five years or more. 

The Dividend Radar spreadsheet separates stocks into categories based on the length of the streak: Champions (25+ years), Contenders (10- 24 years), and Challengers (5-9 years).

This week, four companies in Dividend Radar announced dividend increases. Note there were no dividend cuts or suspensions announced for Dividend Radar stocks during this period. 

7 Dividend Growth Stocks For July 2021

This article is the first in a new monthly series on TheStreet.com that will rank selections of Dividend Radar stocks and present seven top-ranked stocks for consideration. Dividend Radar tracks stocks trading on U.S. exchanges with dividend increases streaks of five years or more.

To rank stocks, I’ll use DVK Quality Snapshots to determine quality scores and tie-breaking metrics when necessary. DVK Quality Snapshots employs five widely used quality indicators from independent sources and assigns 0-5 points to each quality indicator, for a maximum of 25 points.

Each month, I’ll consider different screens to narrow down the more than 750 Dividend Radar stocks. Screens will focus on various aspects of dividend growth investing, such as dividend yield, dividend growth rate, and stock valuation.

Upcoming Ex-Dividend Dates: July 6-July 19, 2021

This article series provides a summary of upcoming ex-dividend dates of stocks in Dividend Radar, a weekly automatically generated spreadsheet listing dividend growth stocks with dividend streaks of five years or more.

The ex-dividend date of stocks is usually set one business day before the record date, the cut-off date for determining which shareholders will receive the next dividend payment. If you buy a stock on its ex-dividend date or after, you will not receive the next dividend payment. Instead, the seller will receive the next dividend. If you buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, you will receive the dividend.

I co-produce this article series with James Marino Sr. of Portfolio Insight.

7 Best Consumer Staples Sector Dividend Stocks

In June, I started a new article series to present the top-ranked dividend growth stocks in each GICS sector. The first article introduced the best dividend growth stocks in the Communication Services sector, while the second article presented the best in the Consumer Discretionary sector. 

Today, we’ll consider dividend growth stocks in the Consumer Staples sector. The Consumer Staples sector contains companies that provide essential products, such as food, beverages, and household items. These are products that individuals are either unwilling or unable to cut from their budgets even in times of financial hardship. The Consumer Staples sector typically outperforms the market during recessions and economic downturns. For this reason, stocks in this sector are defensive stocks.

Top Holdings Of Dividend ETFs (Part 2a: The Top Defensive Sector Stocks)

In Part 1 of this article, I presented the top 50 holdings of dividend ETFs. The top holdings in May 2021 are Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). 

The top holdings are not distributed evenly among the eleven GICS sectors. For example, the Information Technology sector has nine representatives in the top 50 holdings, whereas the Materials sector has only one. 

For investors looking to build a diversified portfolio, an uneven distribution across sectors is of little use. In Part 2 of this article, I'm presenting the top seven stocks in each GICS sector, regardless of ranking.