Top 10 Dividend Champions: Best Dividend Growers

10 Best Dividend Growers

It’s been said in business that a firm can’t cut its way to sustained profitability.  It’s also been said that if a firm’s not growing, it’s dying.  The universal truth of those statements may be debated.  What’s not debatable is actual, long-term performance.

Ben Graham’s rules for value investors focus on the selection of well established, conservatively financed firms.  Graham defines such firms as those with a record of paying dividends for more than 10 consecutive years, among other criteria. 

The Dividend Champions list provides a host of firms exceeding that criteria.  They are paying out dividends for more than twice as long as Graham recommends while increasing those payments annually.

Below is a list of firms having delivered the largest percentage growth in their dividend payments during the past decade.  This list was filtered from the Dividend Champions updated on 1.31.19.

Company	10-year Growth Rate %
Helmerich & Payne Inc.	31.0
A.O. Smith Corp.	19.9
Stryker Corp.	19.0
Roper Technologies Inc.	19.0
Lowe's Companies	18.4
Jack Henry & Associates	17.3
Cintas Corp.	16.1
Target Corp.	15.4
Computer Services Inc.	15.0
Hormel Foods Corp.	15.0

The top end of this range is the equivalent of seeing your annual pay for each of the past 10 years rise at a rate compounded at 31% during the period; effectively what Helmerich & Payne has done. 

Another way to think of it is to realize that if your annual pay started at $50,000 ten years ago it would be in the neighborhood of $65,000 to $70,000 today.  In the case of dividends, however, you don’t have to work at it.  It just happens.  This is the beauty of Dividend Farming.

The Top 10 Dividend Growers represent the upper end of the Dividend Champions club.  However, any firm throwing off dividends at an increasing rate for decades is an investment force to be taken seriously. 

Relative to firms paying steady or declining dividends, or none at all, the top Dividend Growers may represent the kind of high quality firms capable of delivering solid returns while minimizing investment risk.  Intelligent Investors and Dividend Farmers following Graham’s value investing lead are unlikely to be disappointed.

The thoughts and opinions expressed here are those of the author, who is not a financial professional.  Opinions provided should not be considered investment advice.  They are presented for discussion and entertainment purposes only.  For specific investment advice or assistance, please contact a registered investment advisor, licensed broker, or other financial professional.