40 Blue Chips Increasing Dividends in Q3 2012

by Kyle Woodley | October 1, 2012 8:50 am

[1]If you kept your eyes on the headlines this past quarter, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking 2012 might just be the year of the dividend. For instance:

• “Standard & Poor’s is predicting that the S&P 500 index will pay a record total dollar amount of dividends this year.” (Investopedia[2])
• “More U.S. stocks are paying dividends that exceed bond yields than any time in at least 15 years.” (Daily Crux[3])
• “U.S. technology companies have pushed their dividends to the highest level on record. Computer and software makers … will pay out $45.10 in total dividends per share in the next 12 months.” (Bloomberg Businessweek[4])

That last point highlights one of the more interesting aspects about the stocks featured in the past quarter’s worth of Companies Increasing Dividends[5] lists. Yes, they included traditional dividend heavyweights, like telecoms and tobacco. But they also featured technology stocks — a noticeably growing area of dividend improvement[6] — as well as a number of financials from our friendly neighbor up north[7].

Also of note: Some of the top-paying components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average — the high-water market for blue-chips — hiked their payouts, too.

So, if you’re looking for large, more dependable companies that are increasingly using their cash to reward shareholders, this list of 40 blue-chip dividend stocks is a good place to start. In fact, several of the stocks listed here have yet to go ex-dividend, giving you time to get in before their first newly fattened payout.

Here’s a look at these 40 companies, including the new payout, the percentage increase, yield based on the end-of-quarter stock price, and payment and record dates:

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF)

New Payout	% increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record date
$0.175/share	3%	2.06%	Sept. 11	Aug. 27

Altera Corp. (ALTR)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.10/share	25%	1.18%	Sept. 4	Aug. 10

Altria (MO)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.44/share	7.3%	5.27%	Oct. 10	Sept. 14

Altria (NYSE:MO[8]) was one of two tobacco companies bolstering their payouts this quarter; its spun-off international unit, Philip Morris (NYSE:PM[9]), was the other. Altria has been paying out dividends for 25 years now and has been steadily increasing them the whole time. Of course, its 5%-plus dividend is hardly a sign that the growth is over, and MO shares have just barely underperformed the market this year, posting respectable gains of more than 12% year-to-date.

Bank of Montreal (BMO)

new payout	% increase	Yield as of 10/1	payment date	record date
$0.72/share	2.7%	4.94%	Nov. 28	Nov. 1

Bank of Montreal (NYSE:BMO[10]) was one of several Canadian financials that jacked up their dividends[11] in the course of a week earlier this quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS[12]), Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY[13]) and Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE:TD[14]) all joined in, too, though BMO is the highest-yielding of the quartet at nearly 5%.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.58/share	6%	4.23%	Oct. 29	Oct. 2

Baxter International (BAX)

New payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.45/share	34%	2.99%	Oct. 1	Sept. 7

BCE (BCE)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$2.27/share	4.6%	5.29%	Oct. 15	Sept. 14

CBS (CBS)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.12/share	20%	1.23%	Oct. 1	Sept. 10

Cincinnati Financial (CINF)

new payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.4075/share	12.5%	4.3%	Oct. 15	Sept. 9

Cincinnati Financial (NASDAQ:CINF[15]) is one of our Dependable Dividend Stocks[16] — companies that have increased dividend payouts for a minimum of 25 consecutive years. Of course, CINF is far past the bare minimum, with more than 50 straight years of writing bigger checks — and its yield is a healthy 4.3%.

Cisco Systems (CSCO)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.14/share	75%	2.93%	Oct. 24	Oct. 4

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO[17]) has had a relatively weak 2012 but got back into the black for the year-to-date after announcing Street-beating fourth-quarter earnings[18] — as well as putting a monster charge into its dividend the same day. Cisco, which started paying out a dividend only in early 2011, now yields almost 3%.

ConAgra (CAG)

new payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.25/share	4%	3.62%	Dec. 4	Oct. 31

Covidien (COV)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.26/share	16%	1.75%	Nov. 5	Oct. 11

Cummins (CMI)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.50/share	25%	2.17%	Sept. 1	Aug. 22

Expedia (EXPE)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.13/share	44.4%	0.9%	Sept. 18	Aug. 28

Travel site Expedia‘s (NASDAQ:EXPE[19]) big-time dividend increase certainly was welcome, though the stock still yields less than 1%. And the new payout is a mere footnote compared to the stock’s performance in 2012. Expedia is the third best-performing stock in the S&P 500[20], having nearly doubled in just nine months!

Fastenal (FAST)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.19/share	11.8%	1.77%	Aug. 24	July 27

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.10/share	25%	2.58%	Oct. 18	Sept. 28

Harris (HRS)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.37/share	12%	2.89%	Sept. 19	Sept. 7

Like Expedia, Harris (NYSE:HRS[21]) — a Florida-based communications and IT firm — has had a blowout 2012, netting shareholders 40%-plus gains through the first three quarters. And like Expedia, HRS decided to share a little more wealth with investors with a 12% payout hike earlier this year. Unlike Expedia, Harris’ nearly 3% yield isn’t something to sneeze at.

J.M. Smucker (SJM)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.52/share	8%	2.41%	Sept. 4	Aug. 10

Kinder Morgan (KMI)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.35/share	9%	3.94%	Aug. 15	July 31

Lockheed Martin (LMT)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$1.10/share	15%	4.93%	Dec. 28	Dec. 3

Marathon Petroleum (MPC)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.35/share	40%	2.56%	Sept. 10	Aug. 16

How is Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC[22]) doing after being spun-off from Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO[23]) more than a year ago? Pretty darn good, thanks for asking! MPC shares have returned 46% since July 2011, including a 64% run year-to-date. And most recently, it boosted its quarterly dividend by a whopping 40% to yield roughly 2.5%.

McDonald’s (MCD)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.77/share	10%	3.36%	Dec. 17	Dec. 3

How is McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD[24]) doing? Well … not as well as MPC. McDonald’s dividend increase is probably one of the year’s better pieces of news for MCD investors, who have watched their shares lose more than 8% this year while the rest of the market thrives.

Microsoft (MSFT)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.23/share	15%	3.09%	Dec. 13	Nov. 15

While Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT[25]) is up 15% this year — good enough to rank fourth in our Top 10 Stocks for 2012[26] contest — there’s serious concerns about the company’s ability to rake in future gains amid a seeming decline in innovation over the years[27]. Still, a dividend north of 3% should prove enough to entice at least a few more income investors.

Monsanto (MON)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.375/share	25%	1.65%	Oct. 26	Oct. 5

Mosaic (MOS)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.25/share	400%	1.74%	Aug. 16	Aug. 2

The ag sector was another thriving area for dividend improvements this quarter. Seeds and chemicals firm Monsanto (NYSE:MON[28]), as well as Mosaic (NYSE:MOS[29]) and Potash (NYSE:POT[30]) — which produce phosphates, potash and other agricultural products — all hiked their payouts. But Mosaic was the belle of the dividend ball, injecting a 400% booster shot to its quarterly check.

Motorola Solutions (MSI)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.26/share	18%	2.06%	Oct. 15	Sept. 14

Murphy Oil (MUR)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.3215/share	14%	2.33%	Sept. 4	Aug. 17

Norfolk Southern (NSC)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.50/share	6.4%	3.14%	Sept. 15	Aug. 13

It has been a pretty poor year for railroad operator Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC[31]), with shares down more than 12% year-to-date. Things were looking good during the summer, as NSC staged a recovery and announced a slight increase in its dividend, but lowered guidance announced in September[32] took NSC shares off the tracks.

ONEOK (OKE)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment Date	Record Date
$0.33/share	8.2%	2.73%	Aug. 15	Aug. 6

Philip Morris International (PM)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.85/share	10.4%	3.78%	Oct. 11	Sept. 27

Philip Morris (NYSE:PM[9]) continued to catch up with its higher-yielding tobacco brethren this quarter. After its latest increase, PM now is paying out 85 cents a share — an 80%-plus improvement upon its original post-spin-off dividend, resulting in a yield of almost 3.8%.

Potash (POT)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.21/share	50%	1.93%	Nov. 5	Oct. 15

Royal Bank of Canada (RY)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.60/share	5%	4.21%	Nov. 23	Oct. 25

Royal Caribbean (RCL)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.12/share	20%	1.59%	Oct. 9	Sept. 25

Seagate Technology (STX)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.32/share	28%	4.13%	Aug. 29	Aug. 14

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX[33]), a manufacturer of hard-disk drives and other memory products, also ranks among the best-performing stocks through 2012[34]. But in addition to roughly 80% gains in 2012, STX investors also were rewarded with a plumper dividend as of August.

Stanley Black & Decker (SWK)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.49/share	20%	2.57%	Sept. 18	Sept. 7

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.77/share	7%	3.72%	Oct. 31	Oct. 3

Texas Instruments (TXN)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.21/share	24%	3.05%	Nov. 19	Oct. 31

Williams Cos. (WMB)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.3125/share	4%	3.57%	Sept. 10	Aug. 24

Verizon (VZ)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.515/share	3%	4.52%	Nov. 1	Oct. 10

Telecom giant Verizon (NYSE:VZ[35]) didn’t do much to its dividend, ticking it up a mere 3% in the third quarter, but investors aren’t complaining. For one, Verizon is boasting market-matching 14% gains year-to-date — a nice move for a supposedly no-growth telecom stock. But more important, at 4.5%, Verizon continues to be the second-best-yielding Dow Dividend stock[36], outdone only by rival AT&T (NYSE:T[37])

Yum! Brands (YUM)

New Payout	% Increase	Yield as of 10/1	Payment date	Record date
$0.335/share	18%	2.02%	Nov. 2	Oct. 12

Kyle Woodley[38] is the assistant editor of InvestorPlace.com[39]. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. Follow him on Twitter at @IPKyleWoodley[40].

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2012/10/40-blue-chips-increasing-dividends-in-q3-2012/

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