We always love to share good news with respect to holdings in our Dividend Growth portfolio, and today gave us an opportunity. Not only did diversified industrial firm Emerson (EMR) register record operating cash flow of $3.65 billion and robust free cash flow of $3 billion during its fiscal 2013 (ending September) when it reported fiscal fourth-quarter results today–both above original expectations (shown in image below)–but the board also upped the firm’s quarterly dividend 5%, to $0.43 per quarter ($1.72 per share annualized).
Image Source: Emerson, February 2013
Fiscal 2013 marked the 57th consecutive year the firm has increased dividends, and while the 5% dividend increase may not be something to write home about, significantly better-than-expected cash-flow performance suggests to us that additional raises may be just around the corner. We plan to update our dividend report on Emerson with the new information soon. Shares currently yield 2.6%.