The DivGro Weekly—03.01.25

177 Consecutive dividend increases

Weekly Dividend Progress

This week we received further real-time, tangible evidence of outstanding business progress when we became entitled to our quarterly dividends from FirstService and Stryker, both meaningfully higher than this time last year.

How We Are Tracking

Since DivGro's inception we have predicted and benefited from 177 consecutive dividend increases across our portfolio companies, with no decreases. The average rate of these dividend increases is 14.56%.

Stryker

Since its maiden dividend in 1993, our medtech leader, Stryker, has continuously increased its dividend in the stellar order of 16 per cent per annum compounded. The company’s open secret? Since inception in 1941, Stryker has been relentless in its pursuit of results — in other words, in its pursuit of sales. The company is laser-focused on optimising its sales and marketing teams, with a mission to make them better every single day. Fractional improvements, compounded over decades, yield outsized returns and Stryker is a noteworthy exemplar. Its sales and marketing force has become the envy of its peers. Since crossing its first $100 million in sales in 1985, Stryker has multiplied its sales another 200x since — a remarkable outpacing of its industry. Naturally, this has elicited a virtuous cycle wherein the most ambitious and highly motivated graduates, focused on a career in medtech sales, recognise Stryker’s superior sales training and inevitable payoff from a successful career within the company, potentially many multiples more lucrative than a similar career elsewhere. This self-selection saves Stryker both time and money, arming the company with a meaningful recruitment edge that enables Stryker to strengthen its competitive advantages in sales and distribution. Plus, with its super-successful Mako robotics division intersecting an active but ageing population, Stryker is excellently positioned for a long continuation of its impressive dividend growth credentials.