Dividend Increase | Walgreens Boots Alliance $WBA #Dividend

Getting a pay raise while sitting on the couch?  Sign me up!  Thanks WBA for another dividend increase!

There's an old Chinese proverb that says "the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the next best time is now".  The reason for this is that it takes time for a tree to grow and prosper and for you to start reaping its benefits.  Dividend growth investing is much the same way.  It takes consistent saving and investing as well as time and patience to let the power of dividend growth take hold.

That's why one of my favorite things is when one of the companies I own decides to pay out more in dividends.  You mean I get a pay raise just for owning a small piece of a company?  Not going and doing R&D for new products or technology.  Not selling any products.  Not managing any employees or inventory.  Not making sales calls.  All I had to do was have the foresight to invest some of my savings in excellent companies.  

On July 13th the Board of Directors at Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) approved an increase in the quarterly dividend payment.  The dividend was increased from $0.4775 to $0.48 which is an underwhelming 0.5% increase.  Walgreens is a Dividend Champion with 47 consecutive years of dividend growth.  Shares currently yield 5.01% based on the new annualized payout.

The new dividend will be payable September 9th to shareholders of record as of August 19th.

Since I own 52.255 shares of Walgreens in my FI Portfolio, this raise increased my forward 12-month dividends by $0.52.  This is the 10th raise I've received from Walgreens since initiating a position in 2012 with total organic dividend growth over that time coming in at 74.6%

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

Walgreens has an impressive dividend growth streak that is nearing 50 years old with dividend growth typically being quite pleasing.  However, recently Walgreens' dividend growth has been very disappointing.  

Dating back to 1976 Walgreens' year over year dividend growth has ranged from 1.3% to 28.0% with an average of 12.6% and a median of 12.7%.  

There's been 43 rolling 5-year periods over that time with annualized dividend growth ranging from 3.8% to 23.7% with an average of 13.3% and a median of 13.6%.

Over the same period there's been 38 rolling 10-year periods with Walgreens' annualized dividend growth ranging from 6.7% to 22.0% with an average of 13.7% and a median of 13.9%.

The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year rolling dividend growth rates for Walgreens since 1972 can be found in the following chart.  

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

For dividend yield theory I consider the fair value range to be the forward dividend yield +/- 10% compared to the 3-year moving average, the under/over value area to be to between 10%-20% deviation from the average and significant over/under value are greater than a 20% deviation from the average.

A full screen version of this chart can be found here.

Walgreens' 3-year average forward dividend yield is 4.0% which corresponds to a share price of $48 based on the new annualized payout.  

I consider the fair value range based on dividend yield theory to be the 3-year moving average yield +/- 10%.  That gives a fair value range of $44 - $53 and suggests that shares are trading below the fair value range and a candidate for further research.

  

  




Wrap Up

This raise increased my forward dividends by $0.52 with zero effort on my part.  That's right, absolutely nothing to contribute to their operations.  Based on my FI Portfolio's current yield of 2.79% this raise is like I invested an extra $19 in capital.  Except that I didn't!  One of the companies I own just decided to send more cash my way. 

That's how you can eventually reach the crossover point where your dividends received exceed your expenses.  That's DIVIDEND GROWTH INVESTING AT WORK!  The beauty of the dividend growth investing strategy is that you build up your dividends through fresh capital investment as well dividend increases from the companies you own.

This is the 34th dividend increase I've received from the companies in my FI Portfolio increasing my forward 12-month dividends by $374.42 combined.

My FI Portfolio's forward-12 month dividends are $10,492.01  Including my FolioFirst portfolio's forward dividends of $184.53 brings my total taxable accounts dividends to $10,676.54.  My Roth IRA's forward 12-month dividends are $1,040.54.  My Rollover IRA's forward dividends are $4,513.62.  Across all accounts I can expect to receive $16,230.70 in dividends over the next year.

I've also started compiling dividend data on many of the companies that I own or would like to own.  Walgreens' can be found here which includes the dividend history (as far back as I can find without spending hours hunting it down), rolling dividend growth rates and dividend yield theory.  To see other companies that I've already gathered the data on you can check out the Dividend Companies page.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Do you own shares of Walgreens?  Do you think they can return to at least mid-single digit annual dividend growth?  Or are there best days behind them?  How much wiggle room do you allow a business with disappointing dividend growth?

Please share your thoughts below.