Dividend Increases: March 25-29, 2019

Summary

• I monitor dividend increases for a selection of stocks in the CCC list.
• Companies that regularly raise their dividend payments show confidence in future earnings growth potential.
• This article presents dividend increases announced last week and concludes with a table of upcoming ex-dividend dates.

I monitor dividend increases for stocks on my watch list of dividend growth stocks to identify candidates for further analysis. Companies can only increase their dividends regularly and sustainably if earnings grow sufficiently.

The CCC List provides a good starting point, but I limit the number of stocks to monitor by applying the following screens:

• Dividend Yield ≥ 1.0%
• Market cap ≥ $1 billion
• No stocks that are being acquired
• No Over-The-Counter or Pink Sheet stocks

Recently, three companies that announced dividend increases passed these screens.

The following table provides a summary of these increases.

The table is sorted by the percentage increase, %Incr. Dividends are annualized and in US$, unless otherwise indicated. Yield is the new dividend yield for the market close Price on the date listed. Yrs are years of consecutive dividend increases, while 5-yr DGR is the compound annual growth rate of the dividend over a 5-year period. 1-yr %Incr is the percentage increase from the year-ago dividend (Some companies increase their dividends more than once a year, so this puts the most recent dividend increase in context).

Summary of Dividend Increases: March 25-29, 2019

Previous Post: Dividend Increases: March 18-22, 2019

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Oxford Industries (OXM)

OXM is an apparel company that designs, sources, markets, and distributes products of company-owned brands, including Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer brand. The company also provides apparel under licensed brands, including Kenneth Cole, Dockers, Geoffrey Beene, Nick Graham, and Andrew Fezza. OXM was founded in 1942 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

The company announced a quarterly DIV increase of 8.82% to 37¢ per share. The dividend is payable on May 3 to shareholders of record on April 18.

Banner (BANR)

BANR is a bank holding company. The company plans, directs, and coordinates the business activities of its subsidiaries, Banner Bank and Islanders Bank. These banks provide commercial banking and financial products and services to individuals, businesses, and public sector entities. BANR was founded in 1890 and is based in Walla Walla, Washington.

The board of directors of BANR has declared a quarterly dividend of 41¢ per share. The new dividend is 7.89% above the prior dividend of 38¢ per share. The ex-dividend date is April 8 and the dividend will be paid on April 18 to shareholders of record on April 9.

UDR (UDR)

UDR is an independent real estate investment trust. The company owns, operates, acquires, renovates, develops, redevelops, disposes of and manages multifamily apartment communities located in various markets across the United States. Previously known as United Dominion Realty Trust, Inc., UDR was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

The board of directors of UDR has declared a quarterly dividend of 34.25¢ per share. The new dividend is 6.20% above the prior dividend of 32.25¢ per share. The quarterly dividend will be paid on April 30 to shareholders of record on April 9. The ex-dividend date is April 8.

Please note that I'm not recommending any of these stocks. Readers should do their own research on these companies before buying shares.

Below, I'm including charts from F.A.S.T. Graphs for two of this week's dividend raisers: OXM and UDR.

In these charts, the black line represents the share price, and the blue line represents the calculated P/E or P/AFFO multiple at which the market has tended to value the stock over time. The orange line is the primary valuation reference line. It is based on one of three valuation formulas depending on the earnings growth rate or the AFFO growth rate achieved over the time frame in question. (The Adjusted Earnings Growth Rate represents the slope of the orange line in the chart).

OXM's price line (black) is above the primary valuation line (orange) and below the stock's normal P/E ratio (blue). The stock is trading at about fair value. An investment in OXM in February 2009 would have returned 32.7% on an annualized basis (with dividends included).

UDR's price line is above the stock's normal P/AFFO ratio and above the primary valuation line. The stock is trading at a premium to fair value. An investment in UDR in January 2009 would have returned 16.4% on an annualized basis (with dividends included).

Upcoming Ex-Dividend Dates

As a bonus, here is a summary of available ex-dividend dates for the next two weeks. You must own a stock before its ex-dividend date to be eligible to receive the next dividend.

The table is sorted by Ticker, and as before, Next Div is annualized.

Summary of Upcoming Ex-Dividend Dates: April 2-15, 2019

Company	Ticker	Yield	Recent Price	Yrs	5-Yr DGR	Next Div.	Ex-Div Date	Pay- able Date
AbbVie	ABBV	5.30%	$80.79	7	17.50%	$4.28	04/12	05/15
ABM Industries	ABM	1.97%	$36.58	52	3.10%	$0.72	04/03	05/06
Abbott Laboratories	ABT	1.60%	$80.11	6	14.90%	$1.28	04/12	05/15
Accenture	ACN	1.66%	$175.97	14	9.90%	$2.92	04/10	05/15
American Tower	AMT	1.86%	$193.78	9	22.30%	$3.60	04/10	04/26
American Express	AXP	1.40%	$111.39	7	10.90%	$1.56	04/04	05/10
Banner	BANR	2.97%	$55.13	7	27.20%	$1.64	04/08	04/18
Bristol-Myers Squibb	BMY	3.45%	$47.52	10	2.70%	$1.64	04/04	05/01
Brady	BRC	1.81%	$46.91	33	1.70%	$0.85	04/08	04/30
Brixmor Property	BRX	6.15%	$18.21	6	N/A	$1.12	04/04	04/15
Comcast	CMCSA	2.09%	$40.21	12	14.20%	$0.84	04/02	04/24
Cisco Systems	CSCO	2.56%	$54.60	9	14.50%	$1.40	04/04	04/24
Quest Diagnostics	DGX	2.34%	$90.49	8	10.20%	$2.12	04/05	04/22
Erie Indemnity	ERIE	2.03%	$177.69	29	7.20%	$3.60	04/05	04/23
Glacier Bancorp	GBCI	2.55%	$40.79	7	11.00%	$1.04	04/08	04/18
General Dynamics	GD	2.37%	$172.35	28	10.60%	$4.08	04/11	05/10
Graco	GGG	1.27%	$50.49	22	9.60%	$0.64	04/12	05/01
General Mills	GIS	3.81%	$51.40	15	6.70%	$1.96	04/09	05/01
Gentex	GNTX	2.16%	$21.27	9	9.40%	$0.46	04/09	04/24
Hormel Foods	HRL	1.91%	$43.91	53	17.10%	$0.84	04/12	05/15
Healthcare Trust of America	HTA	4.38%	$28.33	7	1.30%	$1.24	04/02	04/10
InterDigital	IDCC	2.08%	$67.32	6	36.10%	$1.40	04/09	04/24
JPMorgan Chase	JPM	3.09%	$103.70	8	12.80%	$3.20	04/04	04/30
Kadant	KAI	1.03%	$89.20	7	28.30%	$0.92	04/08	05/07
Lincoln National	LNC	2.42%	$61.27	9	22.40%	$1.48	04/09	05/01
Mid-America Apartment Communities	MAA	3.55%	$108.23	9	5.80%	$3.84	04/12	04/30
Masco	MAS	1.21%	$39.60	5	7.70%	$0.48	04/11	05/13
McGrath RentCorp	MGRC	2.64%	$56.83	27	6.00%	$1.50	04/12	04/30
McCormick	MKC	1.53%	$148.79	33	8.90%	$2.28	04/05	04/22
Marsh & McLennan	MMC	1.76%	$94.55	9	10.50%	$1.66	04/09	05/15
MSC Industrial Direct	MSM	3.00%	$84.09	16	14.00%	$2.52	04/08	04/23
New Residential Investment	NRZ	11.69%	$17.11	6	32.50%	$2.00	04/03	04/26
NetApp	NTAP	2.29%	$69.72	6	32.00%	$1.60	04/04	04/24
OGE Energy	OGE	3.42%	$42.71	12	10.30%	$1.46	04/09	04/30
Oracle	ORCL	1.77%	$54.18	11	12.60%	$0.96	04/10	04/25
Patterson	PDCO	4.70%	$22.12	9	10.90%	$1.04	04/11	04/26
Children's Place	PLCE	2.30%	$97.52	6	N/A	$2.24	04/12	04/26
Royal Gold	RGLD	1.16%	$91.01	18	4.60%	$1.06	04/04	04/19
Raytheon	RTN	2.05%	$184.24	15	9.60%	$3.77	04/09	05/09
Synnex	SNX	1.53%	$98.22	6	N/A	$1.50	04/11	04/26
Simpson Manufacturing	SSD	1.45%	$60.76	5	11.50%	$0.88	04/03	04/25
Sysco	SYY	2.33%	$66.83	49	5.20%	$1.56	04/04	04/26
AT&T	T	6.43%	$31.73	35	2.10%	$2.04	04/09	05/01
Thor Industries	THO	2.46%	$63.37	9	14.30%	$1.56	04/03	04/18
Trinity Industries	TRN	3.06%	$22.23	9	15.80%	$0.68	04/12	04/30
UDR	UDR	3.05%	$44.91	8	6.70%	$1.37	04/08	04/30
Universal	UVV	5.16%	$58.14	47	5.40%	$3.00	04/05	05/06
Verizon Communications	VZ	4.09%	$58.93	14	2.70%	$2.41	04/09	05/01
Watsco	WSO	4.39%	$145.86	6	37.20%	$6.40	04/12	04/30

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Thanks for reading and take care, everybody!

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.