Updated Fair Value Estimates and Home Depot’s Dividend Increase

The fair value estimates for all screeners have been updated (occurs weekly). Here are the major increases and decreases since they were last updated:

Fair Value Increases
AMT from $150 to $156
BA from $330 to $337
CORE from $34.18 to $39.80
ERIE from $138.10 to $152.79
HON from $150 to $160
MGRC from $54.91 to $61.16
NEE from $156 to $175
WEC from $64 to $66

Fair Value Decreases
EQM from $46.76 to $42.22
HAS from $92 to $90
LANC from $140.46 to $135.63
NDSN from $121.49 to $115.47
NHI from $77.73 to $69.31
UPS from $113 to $109
WYND from $58.58 to $53.54

Home Depot (HD) Dividend Increase

Home Depot raised its quarterly dividend from $1.03 to $1.36 a massive 32% per share. This makes the tenth year in a row that Home Depot has raised its dividend. Over the past decade the company has been able to grow its dividend at an impressive 16.4% annual rate. Home Depot raised its dividend for 20 straight years prior to 2008 (the year of the great recession) when it kept its dividend unchanged. Full disclosure <grin> this make me very happy because I own 80 shares of HD, so this dividend increase changes the annual dividend income I receive from them from $329.60 to $435.20.

One of the principles of Dividend Growth Investing is to build a portfolio of great companies that increase their dividends each year above the historical rate of inflation (3.1%). This makes your purchasing power in retirement not only maintain its value, but increases to continually raise your standard of living and provide an extra margin of safety. Of course Home Depot’s 32% increase is the exception. Typically you can create a well diversified portfolio of companies with competitive advantages (economic moat) that consistently raises dividend payments in the 6% to 10% range.

Filed in: Dividend Growth Investing • Dividend Increase Announcements • Website Tools