This Stock Has A 13.69% Yield, Sells For Less Than Book And Insiders Have Been Buying

Gallery

15 Best Income And Growth Stocks For 2016

Launch Gallery

16 images

 

In this series, we look through the most recent Dividend Channel ”DividendRank” report, and then we cherry pick only those companies that have experienced insider buying within the past six months. The officers and directors of a company tend to have a unique insider’s view of the business, and presumably the only reason an insider would choose to take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock in the open market, is that they expect to make money — maybe they find the stock very undervalued, or maybe they see exciting progress within the company, or maybe both. So when stocks turn up that see insider buying, and are also top ranked, investors are wise to take notice. One such company is Invesco Mortgage Capital IVR +1.37% Inc. (NYSE: IVR), which saw buying by CEO Richard J. King.

Back on March 14, King invested $24,380.00 into 2,000 shares of IVR, for a cost per share of $12.19. In trading on Thursday, bargain hunters could buy shares of Invesco IVZ -0.23% Mortgage Capital Inc. (NYSE: IVR) and achieve a cost basis 5.4% cheaper than King, with shares changing hands as low as $11.53 per share. It should be noted that King has collected $0.40/share in dividends since the time of their purchase, so they are currently down 2.1% on their purchase from a total return basis. Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. shares are currently trading +1.37% on the day. The chart below shows the one year performance of IVR shares, versus its 200 day moving average:

Looking at the chart above, IVR’s low point in its 52 week range is $9.74 per share, with $16.21 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $11.85. By comparison, below is a table showing the prices at which insider buying was recorded over the last six months:

Purchased	Insider	Title	Shares	Price/Share	Value
11/11/2015	Richard Lee Phegley Jr.	Chief Financial Officer	1,853	$12.95	$23,996.35
03/08/2016	Richard J. King	President & CEO	3,000	$12.16	$36,480.00
03/14/2016	Richard J. King	President & CEO	2,000	$12.19	$24,380.00

The DividendRank report noted that among the coverage universe, IVR shares displayed both attractive valuation metrics and strong profitability metrics. For example, the recent IVR share price of $11.69 represents a price-to-book ratio of 0.7 and an annual dividend yield of 13.69% — by comparison, the average company in Dividend Channel’s coverage universe yields 4.8% and trades at a price-to-book ratio of 2.2. The report also cited the strong quarterly dividend history at Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc., and favorable long-term multi-year growth rates in key fundamental data points.

The report stated, ”Dividend investors approaching investing from a value standpoint are generally most interested in researching the strongest most profitable companies, that also happen to be trading at an attractive valuation. That’s what we aim to find using our proprietary DividendRank formula, which ranks the coverage universe based upon our various criteria for both profitability and valuation, to generate a list of the top most ‘interesting’ stocks, meant for investors as a source of ideas that merit further research.”

The annualized dividend paid by Invesco Mortgage Capital Inc. is $1.60/share, currently paid in quarterly installments, and its most recent dividend ex-date was on 03/23/2016. Below is a long-term dividend history chart for IVR, which the report stressed as being of key importance. Indeed, studying a company’s past dividend history can be of good help in judging whether the most recent dividend is likely to continue.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/dividendchannel/2016/03/24/this-stock-has-a-13-69-yield-sells-for-less-than-book-and-insiders-have-been-buying/#2e1379635ea9

Coca-Cola Set For Growth Going Forward As Investors Continue To Be Rewarded By The Stock

Summary

• Growth investments have started adding toward KO’s top-line and bottom-line numbers.
• Company’s efforts to get leaner cost base will support growth investments and earnings growth.
• KO’s shareholders will continue to enjoy healthy cash returns in the years ahead.

I reaffirm my bullish stance on The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO); the company recently reported strong top-line and bottom-line results for 2Q'15. As a matter of fact, KO's strong global market presence is helping it effectively execute its growth initiatives, under its plan of making 2015 a "Transitional year". Therefore, the company's growth strategies, small bottle sizes but higher prices, attractive partnerships, increased global marketing campaigns and on-track multi-year costs saving plan will positively affect the stock price in future. And owing to its strong growth potentials, I believe the company's cash flows will remain reasonably strong to make healthy cash returns to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.

Financial Highlights of 2Q'15

The company's strategic growth plans focused on growing its top-line numbers, combined with its attractive multi-year cost saving plans, strongly backed its 2Q'15 results. KO's healthy sales volumes increased its 2Q'15 organic sales by 4%. And despite a double-digit increase in advertisement spending during 2Q'15, the company's increased focus on controlling expense burden improved its operating margin by 50bps and grew its operating income by 6%. Moreover, KO's 2Q'15 net income increased by 20% year-over-year and resulted in an EPS of $0.71, which for the fourth consecutive quarter outpaced analyst estimates, as shown in the chart below.

Source: Nasdaq.com

Growth Drivers remain Intact
With its strong portfolio of globally recognized carbonated and non-carbonated brands, KO has a strong market position in the global beverage industry; the company is presently leading the global beverage industry, with the highest market share, as shown in the chart below.

Source: Staista.com

KO's has been taking aggressive measures to improve its financial performance and its idea of getting most out of transitional year 2015 is working very well. And given the fact that KO is planning to continue the execution of its growth-generating plans, well beyond 2015, I believe the company will remain an impressive growth story in the years ahead.

Packaging Initiatives

One of the most important and intelligent strategic growth initiatives taken by KO, during the first half of 2015, was changing its packaging strategy; under its new packaging strategy, the company increased focus on selling reduced can sizes in the U.S. KO's initiative of selling mini cans came in the wake of increasing healthcare concerns, which shifted people away from carbonated soft drinks to other healthy drinking options. This new packaging strategy seems to have paid off well during 2Q'15; volume of its mini cans witnessed adouble-digit growth during the quarter. Along with the packaging strategy, KO's plan of benefiting from its strong brand positioning by raising prices on its traditional 12-ounce cans added well towards the company's North American region's revenue and profitability base. In fact, KO's North American net revenue and profit figure improved by 3% and 7%, respectively, during 2Q'15. Given this success of disciplined pricing and the reduced packaging strategy, the company is planning to continue with these initiatives in the years ahead, which I believe will keep KO on a growth track.

Partnerships

Along with its attractive pricing policies and intelligent packaging changes, the company has also accelerated its efforts to make intelligent strategic acquisitions. The company's partnerships with Monster Beverages (NASDAQ:MNST) and Keurig (NASDAQ:GMCR) have been positively affecting KO's top-line numbers; KO reported that the distribution of MNST's beverages has added a one-percentage point to its North American sales volume base, year-to-date in 2015.Also, the company is eyeing to acquire Chinese multi-grain drink producer Culiangwang Beverages Holding Limited for $400 million. The company's partnerships and acquisition will allow it to improve its competitive position among other energy drink producers, which will portend well for its long-term growth.

Accelerated Marketing Spending

In its efforts to improve its sales volume, KO has adopted an aggressive marketing strategy. In this regard, the company's globally launched "Share a Coke" campaign has been doing pretty well in gaining volume and revenue growth. In fact, in China, KO's Coca-Cola Break consumer promotion has also seen an impressive customer response. As a matter of fact, both Share a Coke and Coca-Cola Break campaigns have helped the company gain double-digitvolume gains for its flagship Coca-Cola brand in China during 2Q'15. Moving ahead, as KO remains focused on gaining more customers through its successful marketing campaigns, I believe that both the company's global market share and overall revenues will grow at a healthy pace in future.

Slashing Cost

In its efforts improve its cost structure and back its growth investments, KO has designed an attractive costs saving plan. Under this plan, the company is actively saving cost by managing its supply chain network. Thus far, KO has consolidated around three distribution centers and has closed one in North America. Moreover, KO's plan to create an efficient system by refranchising most of its company-owned bottling territories is also on-track. Owing to these on course cost saving plans, I believe the company is rightly headed to attaining its management's anticipated annualized costs savings of around $3 billion, least by 2019, which will positively affect its bottom-line growth.

Investors Remain Rewarded At KO

The company has been regularly returning healthy portions of its cash flows to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. During the first half of 2015, around $3.8 billion of cash has been returned in the form of dividends and share repurchases. In fact, KO currently offers an attractive dividend yield of 3.23%. Moving ahead, as KO continues with its attractive growth plans, I believe that its cash flow productivity will improve, which will support its cash return policy. The company has announced that around $2 to $2.5 billion worth of common shares will be repurchased during 2015, which will better KO's future EPS and will positively grow its ROE.

Risks

One of the major risks faced by the company is from declining sales of its diet coke brand; during 2Q'15, global diet coke sales volume decreased by 7%. Moreover, a stronger dollar will remain an overhang on sales and earnings growth of the company. Furthermore, KO will continue to face increased competitive headwinds from innovative product launches of its major competitor, PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP). In addition, unforeseen negative economic changes and changing consumer preferences are key risks that might hamper the company's future stock price performance.

Conclusion

KO's regular growth investments to enhance and improve its product portfolio, regular price hikes and increased advertising activity are rightly headed to make 2015 a transitional year for the company. Although these growth investments have started adding toward KO's top-line and bottom-line numbers, I believe the full impact of these efforts will be reflected in 2016 and beyond. In addition, the company's efforts to get a leaner cost base are rightly headed to support its growth investments and will support its earnings growth. Owing to strong growth potentials of KO's strategic growth plans, I believe the company's shareholders will continue to enjoy healthy cash returns in the years ahead. Also, analysts have projected a healthy next five-years growth rate of 6.7% for KO, as shown below. Due to the aforementioned factors, I am bullish on KO.

Source: Nasdaq.com

Buy These 11 Small-Cap Stocks for Their Solid Dividends

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Investors love dividend stocks.

Companies offering strong dividends typically are in the financial services, materials and utilities sectors. But these small-cap stocks with strong dividends span a variety of sectors.

The thing with small-cap stocks is that you need to be very careful when investing in them: They can be very volatile and investors who invest in these kinds of small stocks often do poorly. 

That's why we generated these picks using TheStreet Ratings, TheStreet's proprietary ratings tool.

The 11 stocks have buy ratings with B- rating or better. They also have the highest annual dividend yields in their various sectors, according to TheStreet Ratings. Check out which stocks made the list. And when you're finished be sure to read about which large-cap oil stocks you should sell immediately.

TheStreet Ratings projects a stock's total return potential over a 12-month period including both price appreciation and dividends. Based on 32 major data points, TheStreet Ratings uses a quantitative approach to rating over 4,300 stocks to predict return potential for the next year. The model is both objective, using elements such as volatility of past operating revenues, financial strength, and company cash flows, and subjective, including expected equities market returns, future interest rates, implied industry outlook and forecasted company earnings.

Buying an S&P 500 stock that TheStreet Ratings rated a "buy" yielded a 16.56% return in 2014 beating the S&P 500 Total Return Index by 304 basis points. Buying a Russell 2000 stock that TheStreet Ratings rated a "buy" yielded a 9.5% return in 2014, beating the Russell 2000 index, including dividends reinvested, by 460 basis points last year. Note: Reports are dated Apr. 26, 2015. Year-to-date returns are based on April 27, 2015 closing prices. UBCP data by YCharts 

11. United Bancorp Inc. (UBCP)
Market Cap: $39.3 million
Sector: Financial Services/Regional Banks 
Annual Dividend Yield: 4.58%
Rating: Buy, B-
Year-to-date return: -2.5%

United Bancorp, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for The Citizens Savings Bank that provides commercial and retail banking services to individuals, businesses, and other organizations in Northeastern, Eastern, Southeastern, and South Central Ohio.

"We rate UNITED BANCORP INC/OH (UBCP) a BUY. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its increase in net income, expanding profit margins, growth in earnings per share and attractive valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The company, on the basis of net income growth from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly outperformed against the S&P 500 and exceeded that of the Commercial Banks industry average. The net income increased by 22.4% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $0.60 million to $0.73 million.
• The gross profit margin for UNITED BANCORP INC/OH is currently very high, coming in at 83.08%. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of 14.83% is above that of the industry average.
• UNITED BANCORP INC/OH has improved earnings per share by 25.0% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. Stable Earnings per share over the past year indicate the company has sound management over its earnings and share float. During the past fiscal year, UNITED BANCORP INC/OH increased its bottom line by earning $0.53 versus $0.52 in the prior year.
• UBCP, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 0.4%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 3.5%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share.

• You can view the full analysis from the report here: UBCP Ratings Report

Must Read: Sell These 5 Large-Cap Stocks Despite Their Juicy Dividends

   SAR data by YCharts 

10. Saratoga Investment Corp. (SAR - Get Report)
Market Cap: $88.2 million
Sector: Financial Services/Asset Management & Custody Banks
Annual Dividend Yield: 5.33%
Rating: Buy, B-
Year-to-date return: 10.4%

Saratoga Investment Corp. is a business development company specializing in leveraged and management buyouts, acquisition financings, growth financings, recapitalization, debt refinancing, and transitional financing transactions at the lower end of middle market companies.

"We rate SARATOGA INVESTMENT CORP (SAR) a BUY. This is driven by several positive factors, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, increase in stock price during the past year, increase in net income, attractive valuation levels and expanding profit margins. Although the company may harbor some minor weaknesses, we feel they are unlikely to have a significant impact on results."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 4.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 25.9%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
• Compared to where it was a year ago today, the stock is now trading at a higher level, reflecting both the market's overall trend during that period and the fact that the company's earnings growth has been robust. Turning our attention to the future direction of the stock, it goes without saying that even the best stocks can fall in an overall down market. However, in any other environment, this stock still has good upside potential despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year.
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Capital Markets industry. The net income increased by 173.6% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $1.27 million to $3.47 million.
• The gross profit margin for SARATOGA INVESTMENT CORP is rather high; currently it is at 62.68%. Despite the high profit margin, it has decreased significantly from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, SAR's net profit margin of 47.44% significantly outperformed against the industry.

• You can view the full analysis from the report here: SAR Ratings Report

   KFFB data by YCharts 

9. Kentucky First Federal Bancorp (KFFB)
Market Cap: $70 million
Sector: Financial Services/Thrifts & Mortgage Finance
Annual Dividend Yield: 4.89%
Rating: Buy, B-
Year-to-date return: 1.2%

Kentucky First Federal Bancorp operates as the holding company for First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Hazard, and First Federal Savings Bank of Frankfort that provide various banking and financial products and services.

"We rate KENTUCKY FIRST FEDERAL BNCRP (KFFB) a BUY. This is driven by several positive factors, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its good cash flow from operations and expanding profit margins. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 102.57% to $0.79 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, KENTUCKY FIRST FEDERAL BNCRP has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of -184.63%.
• The gross profit margin for KENTUCKY FIRST FEDERAL BNCRP is currently very high, coming in at 83.35%. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 17.08% trails the industry average.
• Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 8.1%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 2.8%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to not be hurting the bottom line, shown by stable earnings per share.
• KENTUCKY FIRST FEDERAL BNCRP reported flat earnings per share in the most recent quarter. The company has suffered a declining pattern earnings per share over the past two years. During the past fiscal year, KENTUCKY FIRST FEDERAL BNCRP reported lower earnings of $0.23 versus $0.37 in the prior year.
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed compared to the Thrifts & Mortgage Finance industry average, but is greater than that of the S&P 500. The net income has decreased by 3.2% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $0.60 million to $0.58 million.

• You can view the full analysis from the report here: KFFB Ratings Report

Must Read: 3 Big Cable Companies to Add to Your Portfolio, Including Time Warner and Comcast

   DOM data by YCharts 

8. Dominion Resources Black Warrior Trust (DOM)
Market Cap: $47.2 million
Sector: Energy/Oil & Gas Exploration & Production
Annual Dividend Yield: 11.73%
Rating: Buy, B-
Year-to-date return: 5.4%

Dominion Resources Black Warrior Trust operates as a grantor trust in the United States.

"We rate DOMINION RES BLACK WARRIOR (DOM) a BUY. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity, increase in net income and expanding profit margins. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 20.3%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.7%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
• DOM has no debt to speak of therefore resulting in a debt-to-equity ratio of zero, which we consider to be a relatively favorable sign.
• The company's current return on equity greatly increased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of significant strength within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market, DOMINION RES BLACK WARRIOR's return on equity significantly exceeds that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the S&P 500 and greatly outperformed compared to the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry average. The net income increased by 1.5% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $1.39 million to $1.41 million.
• The gross profit margin for DOMINION RES BLACK WARRIOR is currently very high, coming in at 100.00%. DOM has managed to maintain the strong profit margin since the same quarter of last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, DOM's net profit margin of 84.54% significantly outperformed against the industry.

• You can view the full analysis from the report here: DOM Ratings Report

   CSPI data by YCharts 

7. CSP Inc. (CSPI)
Market Cap: $25.7 million
Sector: Technology/IT Consulting & Other Services
Annual Dividend Yield: 6.3%
Rating: Buy, B-
Year-to-date return: -3.6%

CSP Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops and markets information technology (IT) integration solutions and high-performance cluster computer systems to industrial, commercial, and defense customers in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

"We rate CSP INC (CSPI) a BUY. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

These Five Dividend Growers Just Announced Dividend Hikes

Another week and another round of pay raises.

That’s right.

As a dividend growth investor, you can look forward to consistent “pay raises” throughout the year.

What I mean by pay raises is dividend increases.

See, if you own stock in a company that has a reliable record of not only paying a dividend, but also increasing that dividend on a regular basis, then you’re very likely not only going to collect a check, but you’re likely going to collect a check that gets bigger and bigger every year.

What’s not to like about that?

I can’t really think of anything, which is probably why that’s a rhetorical question.

But I don’t just talk the talk; I also walk the walk – I have almost all of my worldly wealth invested in such dividend growth stocks, as you can see in my portfoliowhich I publicly track.

And true to their reliable nature, fivedividend growth stocks recently announced dividend increases.

Each one of these stocks is featured on David Fish’s Dividend Champions, Contenders, and Challengers list, which tracks and documents more than 600 US-listed stocks that have increased their respective dividends for at least the last five consecutive years.

So let’s see which five just handed their shareholders a pay increase…
( click to enlarge )

Not a massive list, but more money is more money, right?

To narrow down the focus a bit more, I’m going to highlight one specific stock today and see if there’s a present opportunity to pick up shares.

Norwood Financial Corp. (NWFL) is a holding company that, through its subsidiary, Wayne Bank, offers traditional banking services as well as personal and business credit services, trust and investment products, and real estate settlement services to clients across four counties in Pennsylvania.

Norwood Financial just increased their quarterly dividend from $0.30 to $0.31 per share, an increase of 3.3%. The new dividend is payable on May 1, 2015 to shareholders of record as of April 15, 2015.

The stock now yields a sizable 4.33%.

What’s fairly impressive here is that even though NWFL is a very small bank, they’ve increased their dividend now for 17 consecutive years.

And over the last decade, that dividend has grown by an annual rate of 7.4%, though that rate has slowed as of late.

The payout ratio, after the new dividend is factored in, now stands at 59.3%, which is as high as it’s been over the last decade. That probably explains the slowing dividend growth rate.

Next, let’s take a look at some fundamentals.

We’ll first investigate growth over the last decade, which may explain why that payout ratio is so high.

Revenue has increased from approximately $19 million to approximately $30 million from fiscal years 2005 to 2014. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 5.21%, which is fairly healthy for a bank, especially considering the financial crisis happened during this period.

Earnings per share, meanwhile, grew from $1.75 to $2.10 over this time frame, which is a CAGR of just 2.05%.

This is why the payout ratio has been rising to its current state of moderately high – EPS growth hasn’t kept up with dividend growth. This is apparently due in part to the fact that the company has issued shares over this period, which can be explained by the fact that they paid a stock dividend in 2013.

The bank’s balance sheet is in line with peers and banks in general, which is to say there’s low leverage here with a long-term debt/equity ratio of 0.22.

However, one area that is potentially concerning is the deteriorating return on equity. ROE, a key measure for a bank’s profitability, has been steadily declining over the last decade. ROE was 8.02% last fiscal year, a significant decline from the 11.72% they posted in FY 2005. Margins have also declined since then as well.

Banking has long been a very profitable business model. The cost of capital is quite low and banks tend to make a good chunk of change from the spread between their cost of capital and what they’re able to lend capital out at. Low interest rates have no doubt constrained profitability, which you see here with NWFL. As such, with interest rates seemingly having nowhere to go but up, there could be a long-term tailwind in effect here.

Furthermore, local banking is seen by many as a great way to keep business local. As long as local branches provide the level of service and breadth of products that the community needs, they should do well and grow.

However, keep in mind that this is a very small bank. The market cap is only $105 million. As such, special risks are present, as it’s not completely uncommon for smaller banks to fail over time. That said, NWFL has built up an outstanding track record of stability and growth.

Shares are trading hands for a P/E ratio of 13.68 right now. That’s quite high, in my view, as it’s well above the five-year average for NWFL, which is 11.4. Furthermore, small banks traditionally trade at low P/E ratios due to the inherent risks. Meanwhile, this P/E ratio is on par with some of the larger national institutions.

I valued shares using a dividend discount model analysis with a 10% discount rate and a 4.5% long-term growth rate. That growth rate was used to factor in the bank’s fairly limited growth in EPS over the last decade and the moderately high payout ratio. It’s unlikely that future dividend growth will be much higher than this unless EPS growth substantially improves. In fact, it’s arguable that this is too aggressive. The DDM analysis gives me a fair value of $23.56.

Bottom line: Norwood Financial Corp. (NWFL) is a small bank with a big dividend. A lot to like with the yield and lengthy dividend growth record, but limited profit growth, special risks, and a high valuation leaves me on the sidelines here. That said, there are four other quality dividend growth stocks to consider on this list which also recently handed out pay raises to shareholders. Even better, you had to do nothing – other than own or buy shares – to collect that pay raise. Doesn’t get much better than that.

– Jason Fieber, Dividend Mantra

Source : http://dailytradealert.com/2015/03/18/these-five-dividend-growers-just-announced-dividend-hikes/