All I Want for Christmas Are Dividend Aristocrats

Image Source: Five Furlongs It may not be as catchy as Mariah Carey’s Christmas hit, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” but if you ask a dividend growth investor what they might want for Christmas as it relates to an investment, they might start singing about a long list of Dividend Aristocrats–a list of companies that have increased their dividends in each of the past 20-25+ years. Therefore, we wanted to do something special this Christmas for members. We’ve aggregated a list of every non-financial Dividend Aristocrat in our 16-page stock report coverage universe and made a list conveniently available below, including some key data and links directly to their 16-page stock reports (pdf). To access the 16-page stock … Read more

Dividend Increases/Decreases for the Week December 25

Below we provide a list of firms that raised their dividends during the week ending December 25. The dividend reports of covered firms on this list will be updated shortly with the new information. To access our dividend reports use the ‘Symbol’ search box in our website header. Firms Raising Their Dividends This Week AMCON Distributing Company (DIT): now $5.00 per share special dividend, was $0.18. Bank First (BFC): now $0.21 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.20. Cosan (CZZ): now $1.02340096 per share dividend, was $0.11189896. Extended Stay America (STAY): now $0.35 per share special dividend, was $0.01. Flexsteel (FLXS): now $0.10 per share quarterly dividend, was $0.05. Franklin Limited Duration Income Trust (FTF): now $0.0776 per share monthly dividend, … Read more

Korn Ferry Is Ridiculously Underpriced, A Huge Market Inefficiency Exposed

Image Shown: Korn Ferry has meaningful global reach and caters to a wide variety of end industries. Image Source: Korn Ferry – Second Quarter of Fiscal 2021 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan Korn Ferry (KFY) is a global organizational consulting firm that provides recruiting solutions, research offerings, various consulting services and other solutions to a wide array of industries. The firm has meaningful global reach. By investing in its digital capabilities and talent acquisition (growing its highly-skilled workforce) while expanding its worldwide footprint, Korn Ferry aims to differentiate itself from its peers including Ernst & Young, McKinsey, Willis Towers Watson PLC (WLTW) and Deloitte. We see Korn Ferry as having substantial capital appreciation upside as our fair value estimate … Read more

Lockheed Makes an Intriguing Acquisition

Image Source: Lockheed Martin Corporation – December 2020 IR Presentation covering Lockheed Martin Corporation’s pending acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc By Callum Turcan On December 20, Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) announced it was acquiring Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc (AJRD) for $56.00 per share in cash, or $51.00 per share after taking into account a special $5.00 per share pre-closing cash dividend payment that Aerojet Rocketdyne plans to pay out. The deal has a total equity value of ~$5 billion when including the special dividend component and is expected to close in the second half of 2021. In our view, this deal is highly complementary to Lockheed Martin’s existing operations. Combining Aerojet Rocketdyne’s propulsion and power systems business segments with … Read more

Omni-Channel Strategy at Dick’s Sporting Goods Makes It a Long-Term Dividend Growth Idea

Image Source: Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc – Third Quarter of 2020 Earnings Infographic By Callum Turcan The ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic, due to the desire of households to socially distance, has driven a meaningful amount of consumer spending to e-commerce platforms. Retailers that invested heavily in their online operations, while also bulking up their omni-channel sales capabilities, were in a much better position when the pandemic hit than those that had to rely largely on their physical footprint. Over the past year, “contactless” delivery options have become much more popular. That includes fulfillment options such as curbside pickup and in-store pickup (usually in specially designated areas), where consumers purchase goods online and then travel to the relevant physical store location … Read more

UnitedHealth Group’s Dividend Growth Potential is Impressive

Image Shown: UnitedHealth Group Inc has a tremendous dividend growth runway, one that is supported by its high-quality cash flow profile, pristine balance sheet, and improving near-term outlook. Shares of UNH have staged an impressive recovery over the past several months since crashing in March 2020 due to headwinds arising from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We added UnitedHealth Group to our Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio on November 27, 2020. By Callum Turcan On November 27, we added UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH) to the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio (link here). The company has an “EXCELLENT” Dividend Growth rating as the firm is well-positioned to push through meaningful dividend increases in the coming years. Additionally, UnitedHealth Group earns an “EXCELLENT” Dividend Safety … Read more

Congress Seeks to Strike a Deal

Image Shown: The S&P 500 (SPY) is trading near all-time highs as of December 16, but political risk could cause some choppiness in the near term. The potential for yet another government shutdown is upon us, but according to key leaders on both sides of the aisle, a deal appears to be within reach. Certain provisions may be left out in order to reach an accord sooner rather than later, however. In any case, we remain bullish long term, as the world continues to work to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind it. By Callum Turcan and Brian Nelson, CFA Funding for most US federal government agencies may run out by the end of this week if both sides of the … Read more

Public Storage Receives Interest from Activist Investor

Image Shown: A look at Public Storage’s geographical footprint at the end of 2019, keeping in mind some of these properties are owned by its strategic partners. Image Source: Public Storage – 2019 Annual Report By Callum Turcan We are big fans of the self-storage industry and include Public Storage (PSA) in our High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio. One of the greatest things about Public Storage is the ability for this self-storage real estate investment trust (‘REIT’) to generate sizable positive free cash flows, a rarity in the REIT world. We have covered this dynamic in detail in the past (link here). Shares of PSA yield ~3.6% as of this writing and we see room for significant payout growth over … Read more

Honeywell Is a Tremendously Resilient Enterprise and a Rock-Solid Dividend Payer

Image Shown: Honeywell International Inc expects its financial performance will post a significant rebound in 2021. Please note this guidance assumed a safe and viable COVID-19 vaccine would get distributed by early-2021, though distribution activities started before then in December 2020, which supports Honeywell’s near-term outlook. Image Source: Honeywell International Inc – Third Quarter of 2020 IR Earnings Presentation By Callum Turcan We added one of our favorite industrial stocks Honeywell International Inc (HON) to the Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio on November 27 (link here) as the firm’s operational and financial performance has proven to be incredibly resilient in the face of the ongoing coronavirus (‘COVID-19’) pandemic. As global health authorities begin to put an end to the pandemic, aided … Read more