With interest rates around the world dipping into negative territory and U.S. Treasury rates at all-time lows, stock dividends
may be the best alternative for investors being choked by lower fixed-income yields. In the past seven days, seven companies have
upped their appeal to dividend investors by officially raising their payouts:
- 7/7/16- Paychex, Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYX)
raised its dividend 10 percent to $0.46.
- 7/7/16- Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) raised its quarterly dividend 5.3 percent to $0.40.
- 7/7/16- PNC Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE: PNC) raised its quarterly dividend 8 percent to $0.55.
- 7/13/16- Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ: WBA) raised its quarterly dividend 4.2 percent to $0.375.
- 7/13/16- Lakeland Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: LKFN) raised its quarterly dividend 14% to $0.28.
- 7/13/16- Home Federal Bancorp Inc of Louisiana (NASDAQ: HFBL) raised its quarterly dividend 12.5 percent to $0.09.
- 7/13/16- J M Smucker Co (NYSE: SJM)
raised its quarterly dividend 12 percent to $0.75.
Related Link: 'Chicken Bulls'
Are Driving This Bull Market
In addition to the dividend hikes mentioned above, most of the big banks that submitted CCAR plans were approved for hikes.
Incredibly, the current 10-year U.S. Treasury yield is only around 1.5 percent, while the dividend yield for the S&P 500 is
over 2.0 percent.
So far this year, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) is up 6.1 percent, while the iShares Barclays 7-10 Year Trasry Bnd
Fd (NYSE: IEF) is up 6.3 percent.
Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.
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