Dividend Increase | McCormick & Company $MKC #Dividend

Getting a pay raise while sitting on the couch?  Sign me up!  Thanks McCormick 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 November 29th the Board of Directors at McCormick & Company (MKC) approved an increase in the quarterly dividend payment.  The dividend was increased from $0.37 to $0.39 which is a steady 5.4% increase.  McCormick is a Dividend Champion with 36 consecutive years of dividend growth.  Shares currently yield 1.86% based on the new annualized payout.

The new dividend will be payable January 9th to shareholders of record as of December 30th.

You can read my recent analysis of Amphenol here.

Since I own 35.41 shares of McCormick in my Roth IRA, this raise increased my forward 12-month dividends by $2.83.  This is the 6th raise that I've received from McCormick since initiating a position in 2017 with total organic dividend growth coming to 66%.  

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

McCormick's dividend growth streak is up to 36 years old and with this latest raise is on track to hit the 37 mark.  Not bad for a boring old spice company.

During their streak, McCormick's year over year dividend growth has spanned from 5.0% to 35.7% with an average of 11.9% and a median of 9.4%.

There's been 31 rolling 5-year periods over that time with annualized dividend growth coming in between 7.0% to 27.1% with an average of 11.7% and a median of 9.4%.

Additionally there's been 26 rolling 10-year periods with McCormick's annualized dividend growth ranging from 7.7% to 17.7% with an average of 10.9% and a median of 10.2%.

Over the last ~15 year McCormick's dividend growth has been remarkably predictable with annual dividend growth between 7.5% to 12.5%.  Unfortunately, this raise was only 5.4% which would be the lowest raised since 2002.

The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year rolling dividend growth rates for McCormick since 1985 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 5-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.

McCormick's 5-year average forward dividend yield is 1.60% which corresponds to a share price of $97 based on the new annualized payout.  

I consider the fair value range based on dividend yield theory to be the 5-year moving average yield +/- 10%.  That gives a fair value range of $89 - $108 and suggests that shares are currently trading below the lower end of fair value.

  

  




Wrap Up

This raise increased my forward dividends by $2.83 with zero effort on my part.  That's right, absolutely nothing to contribute to their operations.  Based on my Roth IRA's current yield of 2.40% this raise is like I invested an extra $118 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 15th dividend increase I've received from the companies in my Roth IRA increasing my forward 12-month dividends by $61.42 combined.

This should be the last raise for my Roth IRA for the year barring any surprise increase announcements.  For the year that's 14 of 15 companies that announced an increase, J.P. Morgan (JPM) being the lone hold out.

My FI Portfolio's forward-12 month dividends are $11098.16  Including my FolioFirst portfolio's forward dividends of $233.68 brings my total taxable accounts dividends to $11,331.84.  My Roth IRA's forward 12-month dividends are $1,065.03.  My Rollover IRA's forward dividends are $4,688.25.  Across all accounts I can expect to receive $17,085.12 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.  McCormick'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 McCormick?  How much leeway do you give when dividend growth slows?

Please share your thoughts below.