Image: iStock
Many investors are familiar with the Dividend Aristocrats (the term Dividend Aristocrats is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC). These are shares of companies in the S&P 500 that have increased their dividends for at least 25 years in a row.
But there’s an even more elite group of dividend stocks that don’t get as much attention. Dividend kings don’t have to be part of the S&P 500, but they do have to meet another criterion: at least fifty consecutive years of dividend increases.
Rising prices, high energy costs and slowing economic growth mean dividend stocks are among the few things investors can count on: solid companies committed to returning value to shareholders. And the companies that consistently increased their payouts outperformed all other stock categories over the past fifty years.
There are only 47 – it’s a very exclusive list. Seven of them have fallen in price by 10% to 30% over the past year, including three with a very generous dividend policy:
Leggett & Platt
Leggett & Platt makes mattresses, pillows, flooring and car upholstery. This makes it cyclically sensitive. Due to the related share price drop, the dividend yield is now 7% – and a company that has increased its dividend for 52 years in a row is unlikely to simply go under.
Black Hills
Black Hills supplies gas and electricity to 1.3 million households in the United States. Utilities may be boring, but they are reliable: Black Hills has also increased its dividend for 52 years in a row. The share price fell when the company decided to invest less for a while, but that will change next year. In the meantime, the dividend yield has risen to 4.5%.
Northwest Natural
Northwest Natural is also a utility company: it supplies gas and water. The price fell because the heavily regulated sector cannot directly pass on the increased costs to its customers, but is already recovering. The biggest king on this list has increased its dividend for 67 years in a row, and now yields 4.8%.
Also read: 2 monthly dividend payers with eye-popping returns
Of Editorial of IEX consists of a team of content managers, journalists and analysts, with more than a hundred years of experience in producing and publishing investment information and opinions. The information in this column is not intended as professional investment advice or as a recommendation to make certain investments. It is possible that editorial staff hold positions in one or more of the funds mentioned.
2023-09-21 09:30:00
#reliable #dividend #increasers #offer
