Is there anything sweeter than opening up your laptop after a hard day’s work, checking your dividend portfolio, and then realizing that one of your holdings increased their dividend that day? It is such a sweet/satisfying feeling, one that Lanny and I cannot get enough of. We’ve constantly calling and texting each other the minute we find out that our forward dividend increased without lifting a finger! Each month, we try to identify as many companies as we can that are expected to announce an increased dividend in the coming month so we can hopefully share our excitement with some of you! Let’s see which companies are expected to announce dividend increases in May!

Actual dividend increases in April 2018

Before looking ahead to May, I wanted to take a minute to see if the companies from the previous month’s article delivered. I’m excited to report that April was another very busy month for dividend investors as a lot of companies announced dividend increases. We have a lot to cover, so let’s just dive right in!

• Procter & Gamble (PG) –  The two of us were all over this dividend increase and eagerly awaited the announcement at the beginning of the month. While we were hoping for a high single-digit percent increase from PG this year, we were happy that the 4% increase in their quarterly dividend was greater than the previous year and is trending in the right direction. The 4% increase didn’t stop me from purchasing the company twice in April and Lanny once, especially when the price decreased in the middle/later portion of the month.
• Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) – Another one of our Top 5 Foundation stocks increased their dividend here in April.  JNJ increased their dividend 7.1%, which is in line with the 5-year average DGR of 7.1%. I’ve gotta say, I’m happy with this increase!
• International Business Machines (IBM) –  Ah, IBM.  While IBM sports a double-digit 5-year average dividend growth rate, the company’s dividend growth has continued to slow of late. This year, the company announced just a 4.7% increase in their dividend. Still, the company is on the doorstep of becoming a Dividend Aristocrat and their yield is currently over 4%.
• Bonus Company 1: Kinder Morgan (KMI) – We’ve known this dividend increase was coming for a while now. The company announced their intentions to increase their dividend last year. Finally, in April, the expected increase because official. KMI announced a 60% increase in their quarterly dividend! This had an insane impact on my forward dividend income, adding over $50 to my total. All I can say is it is about time!
• Bonus Company 2: Exxon Mobil (XOM) –  The oil giant strikes again. Here was a company that I should have included on my last watch list; however, I left them off for some reason. But XOM delivered a 6.5% increase in their annual dividend. This represents the 36th consecutive year that XOM increased their dividend!
• Bonus Company 3: Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) – Another Dividend Aristocrat that I did not include in my last article but wanted to discuss after the fact. ADP posted a 9.5% increase in their quarterly dividend and continued their recent streak of high single-digit percent dividend increases.
• Bonus Company 4: Southern Company (SO) –  This is a company that has been a darling of the dividend growth investing community recently.  SO delivered shareholders a $.02/share increase in their quarterly dividend, or a 3.5% increase. Not too shabby!
• Bonus Company 3: W.W.Grainger (GWW) – I personally do not own this stock, but I live vicariously through Lanny after he purchased GWW in the prior years. We are constantly joking and laughing at the company, the countless radio advertisements, and all of the Grainger trucks we pass on a regular basis. Well, GWW just announced a 6.3% increase in their quarterly dividend. Boom!

Man oh man, I’m exhausted just from typing out all of those dividend increases that were announced in April. This year has been insane and unlike any other year in my dividend growth investing career. We’ve enjoyed the surprise increases and updating our dividend forward income totals as soon as the increases are announced. Now, let’s look ahead to the companies that are expected to announce a dividend increase in May!

• Chubb Limited  (CB) –  Chubb is on the verge of becoming a Dividend Aristocrat as the company has announced 24 consecutive annual dividend increases! After some very nice, large double-digit percent dividend increases from 2013 – 2015, CB’s dividend growth rate has slowed over the last several years. But in this post-Tax Reform era of insane dividend increases, I’m excited to see if the company will revert back to their double-digit percent increase streak.
• Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (LOW) – This is a wild card here. Over the past four years, LOW has announced their dividend increase in the final week of May twice and the first week of June twice.  Which makes it a slight gamble including LOW in this article. Regardless, we should expect to receive a nice dividend increase from this Dividend Aristocrat soon. LOW announced a 17% increase in their quarterly dividend last year and has a five-year average dividend growth rate of 20%.  So lookout shareholders, this should be an exciting dividend increase!
• Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (LEG) –  Another Dividend Aristocrat here that  I personally do not follow closely. LEG’s current dividend yield is over 3% and the company’s five-year average dividend growth rate is not much higher (4.61%). That being said, we have seen some crazy, unexpected dividend increases announced this year and let’s see if LEG has one of those up its sleeve.

Well, it looks like May won’t be as action packed as April and the months before it based on the listing above. But, I’ve mentioned this several times already in this article, this has been an insane years for dividend increases so far and a lot of companies have unexpectedly announced a dividend increase. So let’s hope this list is much longer when I write the June installment of this article. For those of you that received dividend increases from the companies listed in the April section….CONGRATULATIONS! Now, let’s keep our fingers crossed as we eagerly await a new batch of dividend increases in May.

Do you own any of the companies expected to announce dividend increases in May? Did I miss a company that you are awaiting a dividend increase from this month? What dividend increases did you receive in April? What was the largest?