Dividend Increase | Lockheed Martin $LMT #Dividend

Dividend | Dividend Growth | Financial Independence | Freedom | Passive Income
Getting a pay raise while sitting on the couch?  Sign me up!  Thanks Lockheed Martin 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 September 30th the Board of Directors at Lockheed Martin (LMT) approved an increase in the quarterly dividend payment.  The dividend was increased from $2.80 to $3.00 which is a solid 7.1% increase.  Lockheed Martin is a Dividend Contender with 20 consecutive years of dividend growth.  Shares currently yield 3.11% based on the new annualized payout.

The new dividend will be payable December 30th to shareholders of record as of December 1st.

Since I own 29.082 shares of Lockheed Martin in my Rollover IRA, this raise increased my forward 12-month dividends by $23.27.  This is the 4th raise that I've received from Lockheed Martin since initiating a position in 2019 with total organic dividend growth coming to 36%.  


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

Lockheed Martin's dividend growth streak is up to 20 years now.  Although there is a dividend cut in 2000 when the dividend was cut by 50%.  Lockheed Martin resumed dividend growth in 2003 and has been raising it every year since.

During their streak year over year dividend growth has ranged from 7.5% to 56.9% with an average of 18.2% and a median of 15.0%.

Across the 18 rolling 3-year periods Lockheed Martin's annualized dividend growth has come in between 8.2% and 33.6% with an average of 17.3% and a median of 18.2%.

There's been 16 rolling 5-year periods with annualized dividend growth spanning 8.9% to 27.3% with an average of 17.2% and a median of 18.5%.

There's also been 11 rolling 10-year periods with Lockheed Martin's annualized dividend growth ranging between 10.6% to 25.2% with an average of 17.4% and a median of 17.6%.

The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year rolling dividend growth rates for Lockheed Martin since 2002 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.

Lockheed Martin's 3-year average forward dividend yield is 2.73% which corresponds to a share price of $440 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 $398 - $488 and suggests that shares are currently trading below the low end of fair value.
  
  




Wrap Up

This raise increased my forward dividends by $23.27 with zero effort on my part.  That's right, absolutely nothing to contribute to their operations.  Based on my Rollover IRA's current yield of 2.60% this raise is like I invested an extra $894 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 16th dividend increase I've received from the companies in my Rollover IRA increasing my forward 12-month dividends by $351.26 combined.

My FI Portfolio's forward-12 month dividends are $10,806.92  Including my FolioFirst portfolio's forward dividends of $233.17 brings my total taxable accounts dividends to $11,040.09.  My Roth IRA's forward 12-month dividends are $1,052.85.  My Rollover IRA's forward dividends are $4618.27.  Across all accounts I can expect to receive $16,711.21 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.  Lockheed Martin's 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 Lockheed Martin?  Do think fears of defense budget cuts are overblown?

Please share your thoughts below.

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