New Year Updates – Dividend Growth and Quality Scores

Dividend Growth Rates

The website screeners have been updated to reflect the dividend increases for 2019 which is reflected in the 1 Year Dividend Growth Rate column (1 Yr DGR). Naturally the 2019 dividend increases are now reflected in the averages for the ‘3 Yr DGR’ column and the ‘1,3,5 Yr Avg DGR’ column, which is the average of the 1 year, 3 year and 5 year dividend growth rate averages.

Quality Scores

Also, the quarterly update of the Value Line ‘Safety’ and ‘Financial Strength’ metrics has been completed. For example, it appears that Value Line lowered their ‘Safety’ rating on both UPS and FDX, due to the increased shipping competition from Amazon. If you are like me I saw a lot of their Prime vans make Amazon deliveries over the holiday season.

Here are the companies that moved up or down in overall quality score from Value Lines rating changes:

Higher Quality Score

BEN from 18 to 19
CHE from 18 to 19
CHRW from 18 to 19
JBHT from 20 to 21
KWR from 14 to 16
MKTX from 19 to 20
MPLX from 12 to 15
NI from 12 to 13
TSCO from 19 to 20
WTS from 17 to 18

Lower Quality Score
A from 23 to 22
ARMK from 15 to 14
BRC from 19 to 18
FDX from 22 to 21
LEG from 19 to 17
MDLZ from 22 to 20
SJI from 19 to 18
UPS from 21 to 20

Filed in: Dividend Growth Investing