The DivGro Weekly—08.05.26

218 Consecutive dividend increases

Weekly Dividend Progress

This week we received further real-time, tangible evidence of outstanding business progress when we collected our dividends from L’Oréal, Stryker and Watsco and became entitled to our dividend from Costco, all meaningfully higher than this time last year.

How We Are Tracking

Since DivGro's inception we have predicted and benefited from 218 consecutive dividend increases across our portfolio companies, with no decreases. The average rate of these dividend increases is 14%.

Stryker

Stryker, our global medtech leader founded in 1941, is a prototypical example of a business with a can-do, no-excuses DNA. Founded in a challenging era, Stryker had little advantage but realised it could conceive a rare asset: the unrivalled will of its salesforce to outperform far larger competitors through greater effort, longer hours and sheer grit. Over time, this emergent edge scaled into an entrenched attitudinal advantage that has become the envy of the industry. Since 1985, Stryker has outperformed its peers and multiplied its sales more than 200x, facilitating a dividend growth rate of circa 16% compounded since its 1993 maiden dividend and powering a phenomenal stock price uplift in tandem. Recently the subject of a cyber-attack, Stryker lost several weeks of sale days — an event most other companies would blame for any consequent softness. Not Stryker. On its recent investor call, the company reiterated it would still achieve its 2026 sales guidance notwithstanding the attack, doing whatever it takes to execute. Blessed with an unparalleled product line which benefits from an ageing population (especially its Mako robotics division), and bolstered by its distinctive sales and distribution edge, Stryker is excellently positioned to extend its leadership and in turn build upon its impressive dividend growth record of nearly 35 years.