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Six Important Dividend Increases

Dobromir Stoyanov submits:

Any company could afford to boost distributions in a single year. Any type of business could also have a high yield, especially if it distributes all of its cash flows to shareholders. It takes a special kind of a business model to afford a proper balance between investing back into the business and distributing excess profits to shareholders. It is even more exciting when those distributions have been increased regularly for over ten consecutive years. I have highlighted six dividend stocks each of which has consistently raised distributions for over two decades.

Altria Group, Inc. (MO), through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes, wine, and other tobacco products in the United States and internationally. The company’s board of directors raised its quarterly dividend by 2.90% to 35 cents/share. This is the 43rd consecutive dividend increase for Altria Group. The only reason why the company is not on the dividend aristocrat list is because its dividend payment is lower due to the spin-off of Phillip Morris International (PM) in 2008 and Kraft Foods (KFT) in 2007. The company does have a policy to return approximately 75% of earnings to shareholders in the form of cash distributions. Stock currently yields 7%. (analysis)

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