I have begun preparing the 2011 edition of my Top 40 Dividend Stocks series, which I will release in January. One of my favorite sources every year is David Fish’s “Dividend Champions” document. David has made many improvements this year, including reducing the number of consecutive years of increased dividend payouts down to 5 years for a stock to appear in the document. (Stocks with 25-year+ streaks are called “Champions,” those with 10-24 year streaks are “Contenders,” and those with 5-10 year streaks are “Challengers.”)
In doing my research this year, I was struck by how many banks and other financial companies never cut or froze their dividend during the financial crisis. Common wisdom is that most banks suffered near-death experiences during 2007-2009, and therefore slashed or eliminated their dividends, but in fact many did not. Most of the biggest banks did, but there are plenty of local and regional banks that never stopped increasing their dividends every year.
“Financial” companies are not limited to banks, so I have included insurance and consumer financial services companies. I did not include REITs nor business-to-business companies. I also eliminated companies that have not increased their dividend since 2008, on the theory that there is almost no chance, this late in the year, that they will continue their streak of increasing dividend payouts every year with a late-2010 increase.
Here are the banks and other financial-sector companies that increased their dividends every year through the financial crisis and are still doing so. The table is sorted by the final column, Current Yield, with highest yielders first.
Company | Ticker | Streak (Years) | Current Yield % |
W. P. Carey | WPC | 13 | 7.2 |
NB&T Financial Group | NBTF | 9 | 6.2 |
Cincinnati Financial | CINF | 50 | 6.0 |
Mercury General | MCY | 23 | 6.0 |
United Bankshares | UBSI | 36 | 5.2 |
Hudson City Bancorp | HCBK | 12 | 5.2 |
Cheviot Financial | CHEV | 7 | 5.2 |
First Capital | FCAP | 10 | 5.1 |
People’s United Financial | PBCT | 17 | 4.9 |
Landmark Bancorp | LARK | 9 | 4.8 |
Community Trust Bancorp | CTBI | 30 | 4.6 |
Harleysville Group | HGIC | 24 | 4.5 |
Arrow Financial | AROW | 17 | 4.4 |
Citizens Holding | CIZN | 10 | 4.4 |
Community Bank System | CBU | 17 | 4.3 |
Ohio Valley Banc | OVBC | 15 | 4.2 |
Norwood Financial | NWFL | 12 | 3.9 |
Southside Bancshares | SBSI | 16 | 3.8 |
National Bankshares | NKSH | 11 | 3.8 |
Auburn National Bancorp | AUBN | 9 | 3.8 |
Enterprise Bancorp | EBTC | 6 | 3.8 |
Tompkins Financial | TMP | 24 | 3.7 |
1st Source | SRCE | 20 | 3.7 |
Erie Indemnity | ERIE | 20 | 3.7 |
Cullen/Frost Bankers | CFR | 17 | 3.5 |
First Financial | THFF | 22 | 3.2 |
Republic Bancorp KY | RBCAA | 12 | 2.9 |
Westamerica Bancorp | WABC | 19 | 2.8 |
Chubb | CB | 45 | 2.7 |
PartnerRe Limited | PRE | 17 | 2.7 |
Axis Capital Holdings | AXS | 8 | 2.7 |
Commerce Bancshares | CBSH | 42 | 2.6 |
Alterra Capital Holdings | LTE | 10 | 2.6 |
Eaton Vance | EV | 29 | 2.5 |
AFLAC | AFL | 28 | 2.5 |
T. Rowe Price | TROW | 23 | 2.5 |
ACE Limited | ACE | 18 | 2.5 |
BancFirst OK | BANF | 16 | 2.5 |
UMB Financial | UMBF | 19 | 2.3 |
StanCorp Financial Group | SFG | 12 | 2.3 |
American Financial Group | AFG | 6 | 2.3 |
BOK Financial | BOKF | 6 | 2.3 |
Hanover Insurance Group | THG | 6 | 2.3 |
New Alliance Bancshares | NAl | 5 | 2.3 |
RLI | RLI | 35 | 2.2 |
Prosperity Bancshares | PRSP | 12 | 2.2 |
HCC Insurance Holdings | HCC | 13 | 2.1 |
AmTrust Financial Services | AFSI | 5 | 2.1 |
Bank of Marin Bancorp | BMRC | 6 | 1.9 |
RenaissanceRe Holdings | RNR | 15 | 1.8 |
Ameriprise Financial | AMP | 6 | 1.7 |
Brown & Brown | BRO | 16 | 1.6 |
Bank of the Ozarks | OZRK | 12 | 1.6 |
SEI Investments | SEIC | 18 | 1.1 |
Franklin Resources | BEN | 29 | 0.9 |
Wesco Financial | WSC | 38 | 0.5 |
As always, this compilation should not be viewed as a recommendation of any stock, just as a source of information and ideas. Do your own due diligence before investing in anything.
Disclosure: No positions
