The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) has been erratic this week, with fears of US economic stimulus withdrawal ebbing and flowing from day to day. By early afternoon it’s 28 points up on the day to 6,694, and it’s anybody’s guess whether it will beat last Friday’s close of 6,708 points.
Long-term shareholders won’t really care, and will be basing their strategy partly on income and looking for dividends that beat the FTSE’s 3.1% average. Here are three that raised their dividends this week:
Vodafone
If was first-half results time for Vodafone Group (LSE: VOD) (NASDAQ: VOD.US) on 12 November, and many eyes will have been peeled for its dividend announcement after the telecoms giant downgraded its dividend targets to “at least match” the previous year’s.
What we saw was an encouraging 8% rise to 3.53p per share, after Vodafone reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 7.85p. That’s only about a third of the forecast 10.4p for the full year, but it does at least suggest there’ll be a decent overall increase — an 8% hike to the year-end payment would provide a total of 11p per share, for a yield of 4.7% on the current share price of 234p.
J Sainsbury
J Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY) raised its first-half dividend on 13 November, by 4.2% to 5p per share, after reporting a strong set of results.
Total sales for the period rose 4.4% with like-for-like up 1.4%, leading to a 7% rise in underlying pre-tax profit to £400m and a 9.2% EPS boost to 16.6p. Crucially, Sainsbury gained market share on its biggest rival Tesco, capturing 16.8% of the UK groceries market.
For the full year, there’s a dividend yield of 4.4% on the cards with the share price standing at 410p.
Burberry
Burberry Group (LSE: BRBY) shares have fallen back from their 2013 peak and now stand at 1,465p. But that’s still about 25% up over 12 months, and the fashion firm is set to deliver yet another full-year dividend rise — at least going on interim results, reported on 14 November.
With revenue up 17% to £1,031m and adjusted pre-tax profit marginally up to £174m (but ahead of expectations), the halftime dividend was lifted 10% to 8.8p per share. The current consensus suggests a full-year yield of a modest 2.1%, but it would be well covered by earnings.
