Dividend growth screen

Dividend growth investing looks for companies that can keep paying — and raising — their dividends for years, rather than for the highest yield today. The signs are a long record of payments that were never cut, a yield that is healthy but not so high that the market doubts it, a payout the company comfortably covers from earnings, earnings that are still growing, and a balance sheet that does not depend on borrowing.

This screen asks for all of them: a dividend paid for ten years without being lowered, a yield between 1.5% and 8%, a payout ratio no higher than 65% of earnings, earnings per share that grew by more than 5% a year over five years, and less than 1.5 times as much debt as equity. "Without being lowered" is what the record shows — every payment at least as large as the one before — which is not the same as a raise every year. The companies are ordered by yield, highest first.