Thursday, December 13, 2018

Dividend Kings List For 2019

A dividend king is a company that has managed to increase dividends to shareholders for at least 50 years in a row.

There are only 26 such companies in the US, and perhaps a couple more in the rest of the world. It is not a small achievement to have been able to reward long-term shareholders with a dividend raise for over half a century.

Over the past 50 years, some calamities experienced include:

- The Vietnam War
- The oil crisis in the 1970s
- Stagflationary 1970s
- Double digit interest rates in the 1980s
- Fall of the Soviet Union in 1991
- 9/11 in 2001
- The Dot-com bubble bursting in 2000
- The housing bubble bursting in 2007 - 2008
- ZIRP and NIRP since 2009
- Seven Recessions since 1967…

Throughout this calamity each of those businesses managed to grow earnings, and raise the dividend to their long-term shareholders. If you are looking for a long-term shareholder base, the best way to build it is by paying those owners more every single year. This is a simple, but novel idea for corporations to embrace.

We had one new addition to the list in 2018, which brought the number of companies to 26. This is a record since we started tracking the list of dividend kings in 2010. When I first came up with the idea for the list of dividend kings in 2010, there were only eleven companies on it. While our 2018 list also included 26 companies, I had to remove Target for now, since its streak of annual dividend increases was only 48 years. I am pretty confident that the retailer will hit 50 years in a row by the end of the decade.

The new addition for the current year include:

Commerce Bancshares (CBSH)


The companies in the 2019 dividend kings list include:



Company Name
Symbol
Industry
Years Dividend  Increases
Price 11/30/2018
Dividend Yield
10-yr Dividend Growth
3M Company
MMM
Conglomerate
60
207.92
2.58%
9.37%
ABM Industries Inc.
ABM
Business Services
51
31.68
2.21%
3.54%
American States Water
AWR
Utility-Water
64
67.08
1.64%
7.61%
California Water Service
CWT
Utility-Water
51
45.72
1.64%
2.19%
Cincinnati Financial
CINF
Insurance
58
81.73
2.59%
3.53%
Coca-Cola Company
KO
Beverages-Non-alcoholic
56
50.40
3.10%
7.94%
Colgate-Palmolive Co.
CL
Personal Products
55
63.52
2.64%
8.55%
Commerce Bancshares
CBSH
Banking
50
63.02
1.49%
4.41%
Dover Corp.
DOV
Machinery
63
84.89
2.26%
10.96%
Emerson Electric
EMR
Industrial Equipment
62
67.52
2.90%
5.88%
Farmers & Merchants Bancorp
FMCB
Banking
54
712.00
1.97%
4.00%
Federal Realty Inv. Trust
FRT
REIT-Shopping Centers
51
132.09
3.09%
5.37%
Genuine Parts Co.
GPC
Auto Parts
62
103.71
2.78%
6.47%
Hormel Foods Corp.
HRL
Food Processing
53
45.09
1.86%
16.32%
Johnson & Johnson
JNJ
Drugs/Consumer Prod.
56
146.90
2.45%
7.44%
Lancaster Colony Corp.
LANC
Food/Consumer Prod.
56
180.32
1.33%
7.52%
Lowe's Companies
LOW
Retail-Home Improv.
56
94.37
2.03%
19.31%
Nordson Corp.
NDSN
Machinery
54
120.41
1.16%
12.53%
Northwest Natural Gas
NWN
Utility-Gas
62
66.33
2.86%
2.72%
Parker-Hannifin Corp.
PH
Industrial Equipment
62
172.04
1.77%
13.21%
Procter & Gamble Co.
PG
Consumer Products
62
94.51
3.04%
7.25%
SJW Corp.
SJW
Utility-Water
51
56.04
2.00%
3.72%
Stanley Black & Decker
SWK
Tools/Security Products
51
130.85
2.02%
7.09%
Stepan Company
SCL
Cleaning Products
51
80.82
1.24%
7.37%
Tootsie Roll Industries
TR
Confectioner
52
35.01
1.03%
4.53%
Vectren Corp.
VVC
Utility-Electric/Gas
59
71.81
2.67%
3.02%

DGI Note: The prices and yields are as of November 30, 2018. Source: December 2018 Dividend Champions List

Vectren Corp. (VVC) is one company that would likely depart the list in 2019, since it is in the process of being acquired. However, there are three companies which are set to potentially join the elite list of dividend kings by the end of 2019:

Atria Group (MO)
Black Hills Corp. (BKH)
H.B. Fuller Company (FUL)

This track record is a testament to the stability of the underlying businesses that generated the earnings growth necessary to grow the dividend for half a century (and longer). This track record is an indication of a business that is relatively immune to outside shocks. This resilience throughout the period manifests itself into the long stretch of dividend increases, spanning over half a century.

While these companies are not investment recommendations, I post them as examples for further study by serious dividend investors. Studying the businesses, their industries, could give you clues as to the type of business that can flourish over a half of a century.

As I mentioned above, I have been compiling the list of dividend kings since 2010. To view the historical changes in the list, please follow the links below:









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