The DivGro Weekly—29.09.23

138 Consecutive dividend increases

This week we received further real-time, tangible evidence of outstanding business progress when Texas Instruments increased its dividend by 5%. We also collected our quarterly dividend from Domino's Pizza and became entitled to our quarterly dividend from Stryker, both significantly higher than this time last year.

Since DivGro's inception we have predicted and benefited from 138 consecutive dividend increases across our portfolio companies. The average rate of these dividend increases is 15.2%.

Founded in 1941, Stryker, our MedTech leader, has achieved the remarkable feat of multiplying its sales 180x from a modest $100m in 1985 to more than $18b today. How? Stryker is relentless in pursuing its mission to bolster its sales and distribution force every single day - its capability in this domain is a prized and peerless business advantage. This edge has powered decades of market share gains, boosted recently by a pickup in surgical volumes delayed by Covid. Stryker pervades the zeitgeist; the phenomenal growth of pickleball, coupled with an aging population, is driving a potent trend of increased joint injuries in need of Stryker's replacements. When demographic tailwinds are coupled with Stryker's marketing and distribution prowess, they reinforce Stryker's ability to extend its record of annual dividend increases, having raised its dividend at a compounded average rate of 16 percent per year since 1993.