Walgreens Raises Dividend

I’m glad to see Walgreens (WAG) raise its dividend by 27%.

Drugstore chain Walgreen Co. says it is boosting its quarterly dividend by 27 percent to 17.5 cents from 13.75 cents.
The Deerfield, Ill., company will now pay dividends of 70 cents each year, up from 55 cents. Walgreen says its next dividend is payable Sept. 11 to shareholders of record on Aug. 19.
President and CEO Greg Wasson said the company is confident in its growth plans and its ability to maintain a strong free cash flow.
Walgreen is the biggest drugstore operator in the U.S. It runs 7,541 stores across the country.

For years, Walgreens had been one of those “set-and-forget” stocks that consistently outperformed the market. Even though the past decade was unkind to stocks, Walgreens didn’t suffer too much.
In 2006, the shares began a nasty period of underperformance which I’m not sure is over. This dividend increase eases my worries somewhat.
The dividend increase also maintains Walgreens membership in the Dividend Aristocrats — S&P 500 stocks that have raised their dividends for 20 straight years or more. Last year, WAG raised its dividend by 22%. This is their 35th straight dividend increase. Not including dividends, the stock is up over 100-fold over the last 30 years.
Let’s see a computer beat that!

Posted by on July 14th, 2010 at 12:43 pm


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