The DivGro Weekly—24.07.26
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 Heico and Intuit and became entitled to our quarterly dividends from Watsco and Lowe’s, 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%.
Distribution
This week, we paid our 27th consecutive quarterly distribution. Notably, this distribution is 12.9% higher than the same time last year. DivGro has grown its distributions each year by at least a double-digit percentage increase. Our quarterly distribution is already 3x higher than our first quarterly distribution paid in January 2020.
Watsco
More than a billion viewers of the FIFA World Cup would have noticed an unwelcome factor at several games: the weather. The extreme heat garnered global attention, manifesting on the field in mandatory water breaks to ensure player health and safety. So, how does this relate to Watsco, our dominant US distributor of air-conditioning and heating systems? Today, there are 120 million air-conditioners installed in the US, which require ongoing repair and regular maintenance throughout their lifetime. Like top-flight footballers, air-conditioners used in extremely hot conditions can become overworked, shortening their repair or replacement timetable, and endearing perspiring users to consider with greater urgency upgrading to better, more efficient systems. As the leading distributor, Watsco is excellently positioned to benefit from these warmer climes, especially given its scale privileges. These include more stores; higher location density; wider inventory; and a definitive edge in information technology helping its customers (system installers) save time and money. Against this sunny backdrop, Watsco should foreseeably extend its formidable dividend growth record — which already exceeds 50 years of uninterrupted dividend payments and a 100-fold dividend increase since 2000.