3 FTSE Dividends Lifted This Week: ARM Holdings plc, Croda International Plc And Dialight Plc

ARM Holdings plc (LON: ARM), Croda International Plc (LON: CRDA) and Dialight Plc (LON: DIA) hand out the cash.

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The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) has been hovering uncertainly this week. Upbeat comments from China suggesting the country’s growth would remain relatively strong gave the mining sector a boost early in the week, and it looked like we might be in for our fifth weekly rise in a row. But things have turned tail a little today, with the index down 50 points to 6,570 at the time of writing.

In uncertain terms, investors can always look to dividends as a cushion, and the FTSE 100 is offering an average yield of around 3.2% — not bad in such low-interest times. But which companies are raising their dividends? Here are three that did it this week:

Dialight

On Monday, lighting and signals specialist Dialight (LSE: DIA) released mixed first-half figures, but raised its interim dividend by a cool 22.5% to 4.9p per share. That came despite underlying pre-tax profit falling 35% to £5.4m, which was blamed on “repositioning of obstruction signals business“. Revenue for the period was up 13% to £59.9m.

Dialight has been steadily lifting its dividend year-on-year, and City analysts are currently predicting a full-year payment of 15.3p per share. On the current share price of 1,182p, that would provide a yield of just 1.3%, but after the strong rise in the first-half payout, the full-year expectation may well be revised upwards now.

Croda International

On Tuesday, specialist chemicals producer Croda International (LSE: CRDA) lifted its interim dividend by a handsome 8.4% to 29p per share, after reporting a 6.3% rise in pre-tax profit from continuing operations. 

Croda shares haven’t had a great year, gaining just a couple of percent over the past 12 months to 2,416p. That’s despite five consecutive years of earnings and dividends rises, with both expected to grow again this year and next — although at a slower pace than before. Still, the shares are on a forward P/E of 18 now, and the dividend yield is around a relatively modest 2.5%.

ARM Holdings

ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM) (NASDAQ: ARMH.US) isn’t exactly known as a big dividend payer — few technology shares in their growth years are. But on Wednesday, the chip designer lifted its first-half payment by a relatively big 26% to 2.1p per share. That does only represent a return of 0.2% on the current share price of 845p, mind, and current forecasts do suggest a full-year yield of only 0.6%.

Still, at least the dividend is starting to grow, and ARM should presumably be offering something decent by the time the current forward P/E of 43 comes down closer to the long-term FTSE average (hopefully due to rising earnings rather than a falling price).

Finally, if you’re looking for top investment ideas, it could well pay to take a close look at what Neil Woodford is buying.

The ace investor, whose Invesco Perpetual High Income fund would have turned £10,000 into £193,000 since its launch in 1988, remains bullish on the Aerospace & Defence sector. If you want to learn more, check out the Fool’s latest examination of Mr Woodford’s holdings.

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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.

Should you invest, the value of your investment may rise or fall and your capital is at risk. Before investing, your individual circumstances should be assessed. Consider taking independent financial advice.

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