* Dividend Stocks In the News: July 24, 2008

With Bank of America's (BAC) big announcement this week, there appears to be life after financial crisis. Will it last? Who knows. If you are a dividend investor, it doesn't matter. If the market goes up, you can enjoy your paper-profits on recent purchases. If it goes down, it provides more opportunities to pick up some value-priced bargains. Below are several companies that increased their dividends last week:

• Arrow Financial Corporation (AROW) Increases Dividend 4.2% to $0.25/share
• Ethan Allen (ETH) Increases Qtr. Dividend 13.6% to $0.25/Share
• Norfolk Southern (NSC) Increases Quarterly Dividend 10% to $0.32/Share
• International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) Raises Qtr. Dividend 9% to $0.25/Share
• The Stanley Works (SWK) Raises Qtr. Dividend 3.2% to $0.32/Share
• Harleysville Savings Financial (HARL) Increases Dividend 5.9% to $0.18/Share

If BAC was the good-guy bank this week, here are a few of bad-boys. Wachovia (WB) reports a Q2 loss of $4.20 and cuts its dividend to $0.05. KeyCorp (KEY) cuts dividend 50% to $0.1875; Regions Financial (RF) misses Q2 EPS by $0.03 and slashes its dividend. Another two dividend Aristocrats fall off the wagon.
After running these companies through my D4L-PreScreen.xls model, only ETH with a NPV of MMA Differential of $24,642 warrants additional consideration. I have added it to my list of stocks waiting for a full evaluation.

Disclosure: Long in BAC

(Photo: Steve Woods)


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