Value Investing News

Several companies announced their intent to increase distributions to shareholders. I have separated the dividend raisers of the past week in three groups: dividend achievers, champions and aristocrats; master limited partnerships; and potential dividend achievers

Most casual income investors focus on current yield, which is important. However, if your objective is to build a portfolio of securities with increasing income, then Yield on Cost is an excellent metric to measure your progress.

Dividends from a quality, well-diversified portfolio are much more predictable than capital gains and good companies routinely raise their dividends well in excess of the inflation rate.

Yet another notable dividend aristocrat raised its dividends last week following Procter and Gamble’s 10% dividend increase last week. This brings the total year to date dividend increases in the S&P dividend aristocrats index to 18, versus only 5 dividend cuts so far in 2009.