The fourth quarter is upon us. 9 months of dividend income in the books, 3 more to go for 2017. It has been an exciting journey so far, that’s for sure! Last week, we published our monthly dividend income summary article where we review the growth and progress from a lot of fellow bloggers in the dividend growth community! Not only does it have me motivated, but it show the true power that dividend re-investment and dividend increases can have on your portfolio. Today, we will look ahead to the month of October and see which companies are expected to announce dividend increases in the coming month!
actual dividend increases – september 2017
In our article from last month, I listed four powerhouse companies that were expected to announce a dividend increase in September. Now I know there are other companies that increased their dividend as well; however, this section will only summarize the four from the previous article. But if I left out a notable dividend increase or one of your holdings/favorite stocks increased during the month. PLEASE share the dividend increase and the impact it may have had on your forward income in the comment section. Did these four companies deliver??
- McDonalds (MCD) – Lanny and I had quite the celebration when MCD increased their dividend towards the end of September. The company announced a $.07/share increase in their quarterly dividend, or 7.4%. This dividend increase had a HUGE impact on my forward income, increase my forward dividend income by $11.22! Now I’m loving that!
- Lockheed-Martin Corp (LMT) – Boom! Right as the month comes to a close, LMT delivers a 10% increase in their quarterly dividend. Lanny nearly fell out of his seat when he learned about the increase because it provided him with over $26 in additional annual income! Here was his instant reaction:
Anyone else loving #LockheedMartin's 10% #Dividend increase?
— Dividend Diplomats (@DvdndDiplomats) September 28, 2017
- Microsoft – (MSFT) – Last month I mentioned that I was interested to see if management posted a mid-to-high single digit dividend increase or if they would revert to a double-digit dividend growth rate for the year. Well, MSFT increased their dividend 7.7% during the year. Which is not bad, but once again, lower than the high dividend growth rates posted earlier by MSFT and by others in the industry. Investors that own shares of Microsoft, what are your thoughts about this increase??
- Philip Morris International (PM) – PM posted a 2% dividend increase in 2016, so the bar to cross was pretty low entering into the month. In September, PM increased their quarterly dividend by 2.88%. The increase wasn’t what I was hoping for, especially given the large increase by their competitor Altria Group, but it was an increase from the prior period. Hopefully PM will continue to grow their dividend growth rate in the coming years! This increase had a modest impact on my forward income totals and our annual dividend income increased by $4.26 as a result.
Expected Dividend Increases – October 2017
Okay, okay. Now we are in business. September had some exciting dividend increases and hopefully all of you benefited from the four increases listed above. We are still so pumped about the MCD increase and the extra income it produced! This month, I once again found four great companies that are expected to increase their dividend in October. The expectations are HUGE, so let’s take a look at the four companies and some of their recent dividend increases to see what type of increase we should expect in the coming month.
- VF Corp. (VFC) – VF Corp has increased their dividend for 44 consecutive years, and hopefully October will represent the 45th increase. Last year, VF Corp announced a 14% increase in their quarterly dividend. While this may seem like a large increase compared to other companies, a 14% increase last year was par the course for VFC as the company has a five-year average dividend growth rate of ~18%. Amazing. Maybe it is time to finally re-visit the company that Lanny covered a lot at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017.
- AEP (AEP) – This electric utility is not a Dividend Aristocrat; however, I am a shareholder and I was excited to see that they are expected to increase their dividend in the coming month! AEP’s recent dividend increases have not been flashy. On average over the last five years, the company has increased their dividend by 4.66%. Let’s see if they have a surprise up their sleeve.
- Aflac (AFL) – When it comes to Aflac, all I can ever think about are the commercials with the duck quacking “Aflac.” All jokes aside, AFL is another Dividend Aristocrat that is expected to announce a dividend increase in the coming month. AFL increased their dividend nearly 5% last year, which is consistent with their 5 year average growth rate of 5.44%. Will AFL continue their streak of 5% dividend icnreases? We shall see!
- Cintas (CTAS) – Here is what is interesting. CTAS only pays on annual dividend. Probably one of the few companies that I have covered in this series that only pays an annual dividend. CTAS may have a low dividend yield, but CTAS shareholders had to of loved their 26.6% dividend increase in 2016. That will be hard to beat!
Do you own any of the companies on this listing? What did you think about MCD’s dividend increase? What companies are you expecting to increase their dividend during the month? Do you closely track/build expectations for all of the companies in your portfolio prior to the dividend increase announcement?
-Bert