Slow Week for Dividend Increases

The past week was one of the slowest for dividend increases for many months. In the meantime the number of dividend cuts keeps increasing. Just last week Cedar Fair LP (FUN), a dividend achiever which owns and operates 11 amusement and water parks in the United States and Canada, cut its quarterly distribution in half to $0.25/share. This ended the Sandusky Ohio based company’s streak of 20 years of consistent dividend increases.

Other dividend cuts were mainly in the financial sector, where Capital One Financial (COF) cut its dividends by 88% and Synovus (SNV) cut its already lowered dividend by 83%.

W.P. Carey & Co (WPC), which is an investment management company, increased its quarterly dividends to $0.496 from $0.494 paid in 4Q 2008. This represents a 2.90% increase over the dividend paid in 1Q 2008. W.P. Carey & Co has consistently increased its dividends at least once per year since 1999. This limited liability company currently yields 9.40%.

Equity Lifestyles Properties Inc. (ELS), which is a publicly owned real estate investment trust (REIT), increased its quarterly dividend payment by 25% to $0.25 from $0.20/share. The company cut its dividends in 2004, after which it has kept increasing them. The new payment is still about half ELS’s dividends in 2003 however. This REIT currently yields only 2.60%.

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