The DivGro Weekly—09.08.24

166 Consecutive dividend increases

Weekly Dividend Progress

This week we received further real-time, tangible evidence of outstanding business progress when we collected our quarterly dividends from Stryker, Lowe’s and Costco. We also became entitled to our quarterly dividend from Visa, all meaningfully higher than this time last year.

How We Are Tracking

Since DivGro's inception we have predicted and benefited from 166 consecutive dividend increases across our portfolio companies, with no decreases. The average rate of these dividend increases is 14.83%.

Stryker

Stryker, our medtech leader with roots stretching back to 1941, has increased its dividend at the superlative rate of 16 per cent per annum compounded since its maiden dividend in 1993. This has driven a commensurate share price performance which has solidified Stryker within the upper echelons of stock price outperformers. Since day one, Stryker’s ambition was for its sales, distribution and marketing force to improve every day, gradually benefitting from an edge that compounded over many decades. How does this manifest in the marketplace? Competitors with rival products face an uphill battle when their prospect is already being ‘worked’ by a Stryker salesperson, evidenced by Stryker consistently outpacing the growth of its industry. This elicits a virtuous cycle: given Stryker salespeople likely face better opportunities, receive unmatched sales training, and are therefore more likely to succeed financially, Stryker’s privilege self-sustains as the most ambitious graduates, focused on careers in medtech, prioritise working for Stryker. Plus, with its fast-growing, leading-edge surgical robots catering to an ageing demographic, Stryker faces a huge runway to advance its formidable growth in the future.