Dividend frequency often underestimated

 In dividend investing , the emphasis  is not without reason on stocks from the United States.

There is no other country in which dividend is placed central and where such a large number of investors depend on the extra income that dividend shares offer.

The US has the largest number Dividend Aristocrats , with currently over 100 stocks that increase their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years consistently . Moreover, almost all US public companies pay a dividend four times a year.

Which brings me to the automatic link between dividend history and dividend rate, two themes that run like a thread through my articles about dividend investing.

It’s a proven fact that the countries that with on average higher dividend yields, the vast majority of stocks don’t have strong dividend track records.

As said the US stand that respect to dividend region far above all other lands . A striking observation , which will be discussed later on in other articles on this website , is that the UK  comes closest to the United States in terms of dividend frequency and track records .

It’s also a fact that almost all shares from the FTSE -100 index pay a dividend at least twice a year and moreover currently 25 of the 43 European Dividend Aristocrats , which have raised their dividend for at least ten consecutive years, come from the UK. 

The Netherlands for example hardly knows Dividend Aristocrats . Currently  58% of the leading AEX-index and even 71% of the midcap AMX-index stocks pay dividends just once per year . The exception is, not surprisingly, the semi -British Unilever, which pays a quarterly dividend and has raised it’s dividend annually since 1995, according to an email inquiry by us at the company. 

As a serious European dividend investor you should not settle for one payment per year.Semi-annual or even better, quarterly dividends have proven more sustainable given the huge number of American Dividend Aristocrats and give the investor greater advantages when it comes to reinvesting his dividends with several buy moments during the year.