At the end of the week, our Dividend Achiever Watch List contains 21 companies. Here is our watch list for the week of February 26, 2010.
| Symbol | Name | Price | % Yr Low | P/E | EPS | Div/Shr | Yield | Payout Ratio | |
| THFF | First Financial Corp. | 26.28 | 3.75% | 15.19 | 1.73 | 0.90 | 3.42% | 52% | |
| XOM | Exxon Mobil Corp. | 65.00 | 5.08% | 16.34 | 3.98 | 1.68 | 2.58% | 42% | |
| MON | Monsanto Company | 70.65 | 6.13% | 25.41 | 2.78 | 1.06 | 1.50% | 38% | |
| CWT | California Water Service | 35.88 | 7.14% | 17.94 | 2.00 | 1.19 | 3.32% | 60% | |
| SRCE | 1st Source Corp. | 14.93 | 7.88% | 18.90 | 0.79 | 0.60 | 4.02% | 76% | |
| AWR | American States Water Co. | 32.16 | 8.06% | 19.85 | 1.62 | 1.04 | 3.23% | 64% | |
| WTR | Aqua America, Inc. | 17.12 | 11.24% | 22.53 | 0.76 | 0.58 | 3.39% | 76% | |
| FPL | FPL Group, Inc. | 46.37 | 11.79% | 11.68 | 3.97 | 2.00 | 4.31% | 50% | |
| TMP | Tompkins Financial Corp. | 35.86 | 11.89% | 13.33 | 2.69 | 1.36 | 3.79% | 51% | |
| SHEN | Shenandoah Telecom | 18.03 | 11.99% | 29.08 | 0.62 | 0.32 | 1.77% | 52% | |
| BRO | Brown & Brown, Inc. | 16.78 | 12.24% | 14.98 | 1.12 | 0.31 | 1.85% | 28% | |
| UMBF | UMB Financial Corporation | 38.31 | 13.85% | 17.41 | 2.20 | 0.74 | 1.93% | 34% | |
| WEYS | Weyco Group, Inc. | 23.02 | 14.30% | 23.02 | 1.00 | 0.60 | 2.61% | 60% | |
| WGL | WGL Holdings Inc | 32.85 | 14.90% | 14.60 | 2.25 | 1.47 | 4.47% | 65% | |
| WMT | Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. | 54.07 | 15.04% | 14.61 | 3.70 | 1.09 | 2.02% | 29% | |
| T | AT&T Inc. | 24.81 | 15.72% | 11.70 | 2.12 | 1.68 | 6.77% | 79% | |
| NTRS | Northern Trust Corp. | 53.29 | 16.40% | 16.71 | 3.19 | 1.12 | 2.10% | 35% | |
| NWN | Northwest Natural Gas Co. | 43.99 | 16.65% | 15.22 | 2.89 | 1.66 | 3.77% | 57% | |
| RBCAA | Republic Bancorp, Inc. | 16.87 | 17.40% | 8.35 | 2.02 | 0.53 | 3.14% | 26% | |
| UGI | UGI Corporation | 25.05 | 18.50% | 11.33 | 2.21 | 0.80 | 3.19% | 36% | |
| SYBT | S.Y. Bancorp, Inc. | 21.95 | 20.01% | 15.79 | 1.39 | 0.68 | 3.10% | 49% | |
| 21 Companies | |||||||||
Watch List Summary
The best performer from last week's list is Weyco, which rose 3.7%. Overall performance of last week's list is a gain of 1.5%.
The worst performing stock is Monsanto, which fell 9.1%. We are considering Monsanto as a possible investment. After some diligent research, out team was able to uncover the fact that MON had increased the dividend every year since 1967. In 1999, Pharmacia & Upjohn bought MON which technically discontinued the dividend increases. However, in 2000 Pharmicia spun-off MON which allowed MON to start their dividend increases in 2001.
According to Morningstar, Monsanto has strong double digit return on equity and return assets of 15% and 11% respectively. Additionally, MON has a 3-year growth rate of earnings of 45%, which is exceptional considering the state of the economy over the same period. Among the top 9 wide moat companies in the Morningstar database, MON has the second lowest level of financial leverage at 1.71%.
One company that had been of particular interest was Northern Trust. Northern Trust has increased its dividend for over 20 years. As the stock approached getting within 10% of the low, we ramped up our research of the company. In fact, just before our research was being completed the stock price jumped from $50 to $54 in a matter days. A primary rule of thumb when investing is to never chase a rising stock price. At $53.29, we can only watch from the sidelines. NTRS is a top notch financial institution which would end up being the subject of a bidding war or an acquirer of a substantially undervalued asset.
Exxon Mobil, the largest company by market cap, has been within the 10% range for 6 consecutive weeks. As a sector, the water utilities are the most undervalued in our Dividend Achiever Watch List. A cursory examination and some patience may prove to be fruitful.
Disclosure: Long XOM, CWT, MON
