Value Investing News

Have you noticed that investing in dividend growth stocks has gone main stream? What a change from a couple of years ago when dividends were considered "stodgy, for old people, yawn, boring!" With its new found attention, dividend growth stocks aren't disappointing their newly acquired fans. When all is said and the last word is written, 2011 was a great year for dividends!

Grainger Inc. is the largest global distributor of industrial and commercial supplies, such as hand tools, electric motors, light bulbs and janitorial items. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

Genuine Parts Co is a leading wholesale distributor of automotive replacement parts, industrial parts and supplies, and office products. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

Grainger Inc. is the largest global distributor of industrial and commercial supplies, such as hand tools, electric motors, light bulbs and janitorial items. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

Any income investor will tell you that it is important for a company to sustain its dividend. However, as an investor in dividend growth stocks, it is not enough to simply sustain the dividend – I want to own companies that are capable of sustained dividend growth.

Genuine Parts Co is a leading wholesale distributor of automotive replacement parts, industrial parts and supplies, and office products. Linked here is a detailed analysis and commentary.

As dividend growth investors, we want to limit our purchases to only the very best stocks. Our first step is to look at published lists of dividend companies such as S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, US Broad Dividend Achievers™ Index and The U.S. Dividend Champions. These lists are used to narrow the population of all publically traded companies down to the very best dividend stocks.

Over the past week twenty-two companies announced that they would be rewarding shareholders with higher dividend payouts. Several solid blue chip companies such as IBM, Costco and Exxon Mobil raised their payouts as well.

In the U.S. and Canada, most companies pay dividends quarterly. In other parts of the world, it is not uncommon for companies to pay an annual or a semi-annual dividend. That is not to say that North American companies sometimes choose not to pay quarterly dividends. Though I prefer quarterly dividends, there is something more important than frequency...

The dividend aristocrats list includes companies which have increased dividends for over 25 years in a row. It is equally weighted and re-balanced once an year. Over the past 3,5 and 7 years the index of elite dividend stocks has managed to outperform the S&P 500 by 5%, 3.7% and 4.40% respectively.