Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week-2020-03-19

One potential response to declining markets is moving a portion of an investment portfolio into equities that continue their extended records of steady dividend hikes.

Income investors seek vehicles that can maintain long streaks of annual dividend increases because these tend to outperform market averages over extended time horizons. Equities with steady dividend hikes generally deliver slightly higher total returns versus investments with flat dividend distributions, and substantially higher total returns over equities that do not pay any dividends.

In addition to higher total returns over the long term, equities with rising dividends also offer some protection against market pullbacks, and fluctuations over the short term. Extended bear markets will certainly lead to dividend cuts and outright dividend eliminations. However, most equities – – especially larger companies with steadily rising dividend distributions – – will generally maintain their rising dividends through minor market pullbacks over short periods.

Furthermore, because the dividend yield is inversely proportional to an equity’s share price, investors get higher yields when buying stocks at lower share prices. Also, unlike other alternative safety investments, such as treasuries, which will become less desirable after markets turn higher, dividend-paying equities can still deliver substantial returns. Therefore, by investing in such equities, investors are under less pressure to shift their funds from the safety of treasuries or cash equivalents, back into stocks to avoid missing the market recovery.

This Week’s Dividend Boost Announcements

More than 500 equities have declared dividend hikes in just the first three weeks of February 2020. In the first two days of this week, more than 120 equities announced upcoming dividend distributions that are higher than their previous payouts. However, many of those equities are  mutual funds. Mutual funds dividend distributions are just pass-through payouts and fluctuate based on the amount and timing of dividends from the funds’ underlying holdings. Therefore, we can not consider these as true dividend hikes.

The list below comprises 15 equities with market capitalizations between $75 million – ALPS REIT Dividend Dogs ETF (NYSE:RDOG) – and nearly $97 billion – American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT). Furthermore, only three equites – ALPS RiverFront Dynamic Unconstrained Income ETF (NYSE:RFUN), Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE) and ALPS REIT Dividend Dogs ETF (NYSE:RDOG) – boosted their annual dividend for at least two  years. All other equities on the list have at least three years of dividend boosts. The Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O) has the longest streak of 20 consecutive years.

The Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O) has the lowest relative dividend hike with 0.22%. On the top of the list, Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd (NYSE:KL) more than doubled its previous dividend payout with a 108.3% dividend boost. The dividend yields range from 1.6% for the  Independence Holding Company (NYSE:IHC )to nearly 7% ALPS REIT Dividend Dogs ETF (NYSE:RDOG).

Sorted by percentage increase, below is the full list of equities that declared dividend hikes so far this week:

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #15

Realty Income Corporation (NYSE:O)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.2325

New Dividend Payout: $0.233

Dividend Increase: $0.0005, (0.22%)

Dividend Yield: 6.59%

Ex-Dividend Date: March 31, 2020

Pay Date: April 15, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 1994

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 19 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $42.50

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #14

ALPS RiverFront Dynamic Unconstrained Income ETF (NYSE:RFUN)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.0983

New Dividend Payout: $0.0986

Dividend Increase: $0.0003, (0.31%)

Dividend Yield: 5.35%

Ex-Dividend Date: April 20, 2020

Pay Date: April 22, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 2016

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 1 year

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $22.41

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #13

MGM Growth Properties LLC (NYSE:MGP)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.47

New Dividend Payout: $0.475

Dividend Increase: $0.005, (1.06%)

Dividend Yield: 14.31%

Ex-Dividend Date: March 30, 2020

Pay Date: April 15, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 2016

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 3 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $13.28

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #12

WBI BullBear Global Income ETF  (NYSE:WBII)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.0736

New Dividend Payout: $0.0752

Dividend Increase: $0.0016, (2.17%)

Dividend Yield: 5.14%

Ex-Dividend Date: April 20, 2020

Pay Date: April 22, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 2014

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 5 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $21.39

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #11

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.21

New Dividend Payout: $0.22

Dividend Increase: $0.01, (4.76%)

Dividend Yield: 2.25%

Ex-Dividend Date: April 20, 2020

Pay Date: June 11, 2020

Sector: IT & Communications

First Dividend: 2005

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 2 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $39.18

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #10

Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNTY)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.18

New Dividend Payout: $0.19

Dividend Increase: $0.01, (5.56%)

Dividend Yield: 3.30%

Ex-Dividend Date: March 27, 2020

Pay Date: April 08, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 1998

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 2 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $23.01

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #9

ALPS RiverFront Dynamic Core Income ETF (NYSE:RFCI)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.047

New Dividend Payout: $0.0498

Dividend Increase: $0.0028, (5.96%)

Dividend Yield: 2.66%

Ex-Dividend Date: April 20, 2020

Pay Date: April 27, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 2016

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 3 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $24.03

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #8

Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.15

New Dividend Payout: $0.16

Dividend Increase: $0.01, (6.67%)

Dividend Yield: 4.34%

Ex-Dividend Date: March 30, 2020

Pay Date: April 14, 2020

Sector: Industrials

First Dividend: 2018

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 1 year

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $14.75

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #7

American Tower Corporation (NYSE:AMT)

Previous Dividend Payout: $1.01

New Dividend Payout: $1.08

Dividend Increase: $0.07, (6.93%)

Dividend Yield: 1.99%

Ex-Dividend Date: April 13, 2020

Pay Date: April 29, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 2011

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 5 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $217.14

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #6

Hurco Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ:HURC)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.12

New Dividend Payout: $0.13

Dividend Increase: $0.01, (8.33%)

Dividend Yield: 2.48%

Ex-Dividend Date: March 27, 2020

Pay Date: April 13, 2020

Sector: Industrials

First Dividend: 1990

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 6 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $21.00

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #5

Independence Holding Company (NYSE:IHC)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.20

New Dividend Payout: $0.22

Dividend Increase: $0.02, (10.00%)

Dividend Yield: 1.60%

Ex-Dividend Date: June 12, 2020

Pay Date: June 29, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 1997

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 6 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $27.53

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #4

Deep Value ETF (NYSE:DVP)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.6629

New Dividend Payout: $0.7348

Dividend Increase: $0.0719, (10.85%)

Dividend Yield: 10.29%

Ex-Dividend Date: April 20, 2020

Pay Date: April 22, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 2014

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 2 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $17.59

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #3

ALPS Equal Sector Weight ETF (NYSE:EQL)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.4789

New Dividend Payout: $0.636

Dividend Increase: $0.1571, (32.80%)

Dividend Yield: 3.28%

Ex-Dividend Date: April 20, 2020

Pay Date: April 27, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 2009

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 2 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $57.64

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #2

ALPS REIT Dividend Dogs ETF (NYSE:RDOG)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.5113

New Dividend Payout: $0.6844

Dividend Increase: $0.1731, (33.85%)

Dividend Yield: 6.99%

Ex-Dividend Date: March 19, 2020

Pay Date: April 27, 2020

Sector: Financials

First Dividend: 2009

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 1 year

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $26.31

Stocks That Declared Dividend Hikes This Week: #1

Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd (NYSE:KL)

Previous Dividend Payout: $0.06

New Dividend Payout: $0.125

Dividend Increase: $0.065, (108.33%)

Dividend Yield: 2.10%

Ex-Dividend Date: March 30, 2020

Pay Date: April 13, 2020

Sector: Materials

First Dividend: 2017

Consecutive Annual Hikes: 2 years

March 18, 2020 Closing Price: $23.78

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