The DivGro Weekly—10.07.26

220 Consecutive dividend increases

Weekly Dividend Progress

This week we received further real-time, tangible evidence of outstanding business progress when we collected our quarterly dividends from ADP, Salesforce and FirstService and became entitled to our quarterly dividends from American Express and Roper Technologies, all meaningfully higher than this time last year.

How We Are Tracking

Since DivGro's inception we have predicted and benefited from 220 consecutive dividend increases across our portfolio companies, with no decreases. The average rate of these dividend increases is 13.9%.

American Express

While Amex is one of Warren Buffett’s favourite holdings, as Costco was for his late partner Charlie Munger, the two businesses — and DivGro holdings — share many commonalities. How so? Both provide fantastic customer value for a fairly modest annual fee, with Amex and Costco each seeing themselves as agents fiercely protecting the interests of their respective customers. In the case of Amex, cardholders of specific grades are entitled to significant amounts of ultracheap use of money for an extended period of time — provided they settle the balance on the due date. These customers have access to unique Amex amenities: think airport lounges; sold-out tickets to sporting events; concerts; or near-impossible dining reservations. Plus, Amex shines in a common industry pain-point: disputed transactions. Instead of drawn-out, tedious processes, Amex acts as agent for its customer, recognising the opportunity to bat for cardholders to carve out its competitive edge and enhance cardholder loyalty. The net result? Amex generated more than $72 billion in 2025 sales. At 175 years young, with industry-best metrics, especially in seasoned cardholder cohorts, as well as recurring and rising annual subscription fees, Amex has a promising horizon to profitably reinvest in extending its franchise and simultaneously power a strongly growing dividend.