4 More Stocks Boosting Dividends In April

Dividend growth stocks are at the core of every dividend investor’s portfolio. Investors are naturally attracted to a company that can continue to boost profits year after year and return those profits to shareholders by growing dividend payouts. Recently we covered 14 stocks that were about to boost dividend payout that had increased their dividend for 20+ years. Today we have identified 4 stocks that have increased dividend payouts for 10 or more consecutive years. Each of these stocks are set to increase dividends again in April.

Southern Company (SO) has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years and is currently yielding 4.7%. The next dividend increase will be announced in mid-April with an ex-dividend date coming in early May. Southern Company has had modest hikes in recent years. The company recently beat earnings expectations however we are expecting a 4% increase that will be in line with trends from recent years. This southern based utility company is at the core of many income investor portfolios because of its strong growth and consistent dividend payouts.

Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. (OHI) has increased dividend payouts for 12 years in a row and lately has been boosting dividends each quarter. For the last 9 quarters Omega Healthcare has increased its dividend by $.01 each quarter. That currently represents a 10% increase year over year and we expect that trend to continue in April. The company should announce the new dividend around April 16th with an ex-dividend date of May 2nd.

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) is currently yielding 2% and has increased its dividend for 18 years in a row. For the last 4 years the company has increased its dividend by $.10 per year giving it a 3 year dividend growth rate of 13%. We expect IBM to stay consistent and announce another $.10 dividend boost in late April with an ex-dividend date close to May 8th. Warren Buffet recently affirmed his positive outlook on the stock saying that the company would be going through a transformation phase as it moves to increase its cloud offerings.

Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) has increased its dividend for 11 years and has a 3 year dividend growth rate of 23%. We were expecting to see another large dividend increase from Qualcomm around April 9th with an ex-dividend date close to June 3rd. Last year the company increased its dividend by 40%. With a low payout ratio of just 33% it is likely that the dividend will be increased by 15% or more. (Update: QCOM announced a 20% hike).