It’s never easy being a retail investor trying to dig through the mountains of information searching for a deal. We don’t have a staff to read every company’s financial reports and comb through their balance sheets. Well, fear not, I have done a bit of the heavy lifting to (hopefully) find some diamonds in the rough! This is my list of September U.S. Dividend Kings.
About my list
There are over 5000 stocks on the U.S. exchanges and only 7 made my September list! As you can see by the list below, it’s not easy being a U.S. Dividend King and these stocks all had to pass a series of test to make it on the list.
The Criteria
- The company must have 25 or more years of uninterrupted dividend growth.
- The company must have a Graham number greater than its current share price. *I considered BEN close enough (cough,cough I’m long BEN)
- Its payout ratio must be under 70%
- Its P/E ratio must be under 15
- The company must have a price to book ratio under 2
| Ticker Symbol | Streak Years | Div Yield | Aug 31 Price | Graham Value | TTM P/E | TTM EPS | Ann Dividend | Payout Ratio | P/Book | 5-yr DRG |
| 1 | EFSI | 29 | 3.37 | $23.75 | $33.86 | 10.75 | $2.21 | $0.80 | 36.20 | 1.03 | 3 |
| 2 | CPKF | 25 | 2.37 | $21.10 | $26.90 | 13.44 | $1.57 | $0.50 | 31.85 | 1.03 | 9.3 |
| 3 | ORI | 35 | 3.90 | $19.23 | $24.10 | 12.57 | $1.53 | $0.75 | 49.02 | 1.14 | 1.4 |
| 4 | AFL | 33 | 2.21 | $74.18 | $86.70 | 12.20 | $6.08 | $1.64 | 26.97 | 1.35 | 6.7 |
| 5 | THFF | 28 | 2.45 | $40.88 | $47.52 | 13.76 | $2.97 | $1.00 | 33.67 | 1.21 | 1.5 |
| 6 | CTBI | 36 | 3.47 | $36.86 | $40.88 | 13.96 | $2.64 | $1.28 | 48.48 | 1.31 | 1.9 |
| 7 | BEN | 36 | 1.97 | $36.50 | $35.26 | 13.47 | $2.71 | $0.72 | 26.57 | 1.79 | 15.4 |
These are the companies that made it onto the list.
| Ticker |
Company name |
Industry |
| EFSI |
Eagle Financial Services |
Banking |
| CPKF |
Chesapeake Financial Shares |
Banking |
| ORI |
Old Republic International |
Insurance |
| AFL |
AFLAC Inc. |
Insurance |
| THFF |
First Financial Corp. |
Banking |
| CTBI |
Community Trust Banc. |
Banking |
| BEN |
Franklin Resources |
Financial Services |
Final Thoughts
The best way to use my U.S. Dividend Kings list is as a starting point for your own research. Don’t feel confined to my methods. Look up the values that mean the most to you. Like any screening method , the purpose of the U.S. Dividend Kings list is to help you dig through the stock market to find some hidden gems, which can then be further research by you.
Disclosure. I’m long BEN and ORI and may or may not purchase shares in any of the stocks in this post.
Resources from: Morningstar, Google Finance, Zacks,
The U.S. Dividend Champions are maintained by Dave Fish of Moneypaper’s DirectInvesting.com.
