12-20-2013, 09:49 AM
Red,
Maybe being younger, I just have a better understanding of what some of these companies are, but some of them are pretty large and well known.
ACN - Accenture - largest consulting company in the world
V - Visa - need I say more?
MSFT - Microsoft - ditto above
TJX - TJ Maxx, Marshalls - discount retailer
TXN - Texas Instrument - semiconductor
RTN - Raytheon - # 4 of the defense companies, but more into surveillance vs making bombs
Robert Allan Schwartz from Seeking Alpha keeps a great website up about the ability to raise a divdend X% over Y years. Only one company has done 8%+ increases each and every year for 20 years. Not average, but every year. You would never guess but it is one of the dollar stores. The point is once you have a well established culture of paying a dividend and increasing the dividend every year, the range is fairly consistent of increase in earnings year over year will be the increase in dividend year over year on a percentage basis. You just can't increase a dividend 20%/year ad infinitum if your EPS is only growing 5%. So, the new guys on the block are trying to find that sweet spot of how much can we increase the dividend per year while retaining enough money for the business to grow? That's why you tend to see much higher DGR on the Challenger list vs the Champions but may have lower starting yields.
Last company, HFC - Holly Frontier - oil and gas company. I own it and the reason why is the special dividend that is not reported. For 10 quarters in a row, they have paid a special dividend of $.50 along with their regular, increasing dividend. It is "special" so yes, it can be changed at any time, but $2 per year gives a nice extra boost on the DRIP cycle.
Best of luck.
DD
Maybe being younger, I just have a better understanding of what some of these companies are, but some of them are pretty large and well known.
ACN - Accenture - largest consulting company in the world
V - Visa - need I say more?
MSFT - Microsoft - ditto above
TJX - TJ Maxx, Marshalls - discount retailer
TXN - Texas Instrument - semiconductor
RTN - Raytheon - # 4 of the defense companies, but more into surveillance vs making bombs
Robert Allan Schwartz from Seeking Alpha keeps a great website up about the ability to raise a divdend X% over Y years. Only one company has done 8%+ increases each and every year for 20 years. Not average, but every year. You would never guess but it is one of the dollar stores. The point is once you have a well established culture of paying a dividend and increasing the dividend every year, the range is fairly consistent of increase in earnings year over year will be the increase in dividend year over year on a percentage basis. You just can't increase a dividend 20%/year ad infinitum if your EPS is only growing 5%. So, the new guys on the block are trying to find that sweet spot of how much can we increase the dividend per year while retaining enough money for the business to grow? That's why you tend to see much higher DGR on the Challenger list vs the Champions but may have lower starting yields.
Last company, HFC - Holly Frontier - oil and gas company. I own it and the reason why is the special dividend that is not reported. For 10 quarters in a row, they have paid a special dividend of $.50 along with their regular, increasing dividend. It is "special" so yes, it can be changed at any time, but $2 per year gives a nice extra boost on the DRIP cycle.
Best of luck.
DD