The Top Dividend Stocks for the Week
Last week was a busy one as many food-related stocks increased dividends. For example, packaged food conglomerate ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG) - Get Report boosted its dividend 5.6% and Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. (RMCF) - Get Report increased its dividend by 5.3%, and neither of them made it to the top 10 in terms of percentage increase of quarterly payments.
Stockpickr.com scrutinized all the dividend raisers for last week and came up with the
stocks with the biggest dividend increase
.
At the top of the list was another food company,
Diamond Foods, Inc.
(DMND)
. The processor and marketer of nuts and snack foods raised its dividend by 50% to $0.045 per share. On Sept. 21, the stock was upgraded by BB&T Capital Markets from a Hold to a Buy. The stock has a price to earnings ratio of 38 and its price earnings to growth ratio is 1.5. The yield is 0.9%.
Diamond is part of the Stockpickr portfolio called the
Most Probable Major Advertises During Super Bowl XLI
, which is a portfolio of the companies expected to be the biggest advertisers in Super Bowl 41. As it turned out, Diamond did have an Emerald Nuts television advertisement. A couple of other stocks in the portfolio that also ran super bowl commercials included
Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.
(BUD) - Get Report
and
FedEx
(FDX) - Get Report
.
Tied with Diamond for skyrocketing dividends is
National Semiconductor Corporation
(NSM)
. The technology leader also increased its dividend by 50%. National Semi raised the quarterly dividend to $0.06, bringing the yield to 0.60%. The company just won the Golden Mousetrap Award, given by Design News Magazine, in the Analog Control Category for the third year in a row. It has a P/E of 25 and a PEG of 1.7.
National Semi is part of the
Barron's Kopin Tan's International Growth Basket 9-08-2007
portfolio, which has companies that generate at least 66% of their revenue abroad. Other stocks in the list include
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.
(FCX) - Get Report
and
Transocean Inc.
(RIG) - Get Report
.
Another dividend hike came from
Curtiss-Wright Corporation
(CW) - Get Report
. This aerospace and defense product manufacturer increased its dividend by 33% to $0.08 per share. On Sept. 25, the company announced an agreement with Westinghouse Electric to provide reactor coolant pumps for nuclear power plants in China. The stock has a P/E of 24, a PEG of 1.4, and a yield of 0.7%.
CW appears in the
portfolio, which contains stocks that have had steady growth, low volatility and
S&P 500
outperformance over a five-year period. Other stocks in this portfolio include
Metlife
(MET) - Get Report
and
Royal Bank of Canada
(RY) - Get Report
.
Go to Stockpickr.com to see all the
stocks with the biggest dividend increases last week
, including a couple other food companies, such as
Sanderson Farms, Inc.
(SAFM) - Get Report
and
Campbell Soup Company
(CPB) - Get Report
.
At the time of publication, Altucher and/or his fund had no positions in stocks mentioned, although positions may change at any time.
James Altucher is president of Stockpickr LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of TheStreet.com and part of its network of Web properties, and a managing partner at Formula Capital, an alternative asset management firm that runs a fund of hedge funds. He is also a weekly columnist for
The Financial Times
and the author of
Trade Like a Hedge Fund
,
Trade Like Warren Buffett
and
SuperCa$h
. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Altucher appreciates your feedback;
to send him an email.
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