Investing in an accelerating dividend is one of the best ways to consistently increase your wealth over the long-term. With these three stocks having a long history of dividend growth and expected pay increases coming in May, now is a great time to add them to your portfolio.
Dividend growth is the driving force of successful and profitable income stock investing. The announcement of a dividend increase provides several benefits to the health of your brokerage account. Often you can get an early jump on some share price gains if you buy shares before the next increase is announced.
I maintain a database of about 140 real estate investment trusts (REITs) that helps me track dividend changes and yields. About two-thirds of the REITs on my list have histories of regular dividend increases. Most of these companies announce their new dividend rate at the same time each year, and then pay the new rate for the next four quarters.
I have found that most of the investing public is not aware of the actual timing of dividend increases from different companies. As a result, the announcement of a new higher payout rate comes as a positive surprise that often lifts the share price by a significant amount. If you buy a stock a few weeks before the announcement of a dividend boost, you could get the double benefit of a nice share price gain and a higher dividend cash flow income going forward.
There are REITs that increase their dividend payments in almost every month of the year. In July, two companies should announce higher dividend payments for the following four quarters.
Education Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:EDR) is one of the nation’s largest developers, owners, and managers of high-quality collegiate housing communities. Currently, the company owns or manages 73 communities with 40,000 beds, serving 53 different universities. In 2015, EDR increased its total assets by 14%. Last year, the dividend was increased by 2.8%, which is significantly less that the growth in the previous few years. The company restructured its equity vs. debt balance last year, which led to lower FFO per share growth.
