The DivGro Weekly—04.08.23

135 Consecutive dividend increases

This week we received further real-time, tangible evidence of outstanding business progress when Wingstop raised its dividend by 15.8%.

We also collected our quarterly dividends from Stryker and Watsco and became entitled to our quarterly dividends from MarketAxess and Texas Instruments, all higher than this time last year.

Since DivGro's inception we have predicted and benefited from 135 consecutive dividend increases across our portfolio companies. The average rate of these dividend increases is 15.4%.

Watsco, our super dominant leader in the HVAC distribution space in North America, has cultivated a near-peerless dividend growth performance over the last 30 years. While many factors contribute to its privileged position, the fact that its market share is greater than the combined share of its primary competitors, in a large and highly fragmented market, provides Watsco unusually favored status with its suppliers, the OEM HVAC manufacturers. This means Watsco benefits from earlier access to new products, wider range, sharper prices, higher volume rebates, better payment terms etc. Instead of capturing these benefits as higher margins, Watsco chooses to share these with customers, in turn investing in faster service, more convenient locations, better support and lower prices. By doing so Watsco continuously fortifies its leading competitive position, making it stronger and more durable. With over 110 million air conditioning units installed in North America needing ongoing repair and periodic replacement, Watsco enjoys a long and visible runway towards extending its superlative dividend growth record.