A person's character is defined not in the good times, but how they react in the time of a crisis. History is littered with examples of ordinary people doing extraordinary things at a critical time. Names like Rosa Parks (civil rights), Frank Fong (WW II fighter pilot) and James A. Lovell (astronaut) will forever be remembered as a result of their actions in a time of crisis. In much the same way, dividend investors in the future will look back at the 2008-2009 economic crisis and judge the character of dividend companies by how they reacted.Wednesday, Walgreen (WAG) showed its character by increasing in its quarterly dividend 22% to $0.1375/share. This is the 35th consecutive year WAG has increased its dividend. The dividend is payable Sept. 12, 2009, to shareholders of record Aug. 21, 2009. The company is the largest U.S. retail drug chain in terms of revenues. It operates about 6,500 drug stores throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The current yield with the new dividend is 1.87%.
Other than WAG, it has been a quite week for dividend increases. There will be other companies stepping up with dividend increases in the coming weeks. For stocks with a long string of consecutive dividend increases, see this list.
Full Disclosure: No position in the aforementioned stock. See a list of all my income holdings here.
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