The DivGro Weekly—12.09.25

197 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 Moody’s, Wingstop and S&P Global and became entitled to our quarterly dividends from Alphabet, all meaningfully higher than this time last year.

How We Are Tracking

Since DivGro's inception we have predicted and benefited from 197 consecutive dividend increases across our portfolio companies, with no decreases. The average rate of these dividend increases is 14.4%.

DivGro in the Press

This week, we featured on Money Magazine’s Friends with Money Podcast. Listen on Apple and Spotify.

Moody’s

If trust is a function of time, Moody’s, nearly 120 years young, is the ultimate custodian of the highest repute. But how does this manifest quantitatively? Since 2010, the credit rating corporation has grown its dividend more than 9x, powered by net profit margins exceeding 50 percent on ratings revenue. So, how does Moody’s pull this off? Regulatory circumstances play a large part. Given governments want to reduce defaults, they are reluctant to issue further debt rating licenses, effectively blocking competitors. This dynamic engenders a duopoly between Moody’s and S&P Global (sister DivGro holding), which together command a market share exceeding 80%. Accordingly, the debt rating giants are 1) insulated from meaningful external competition and 2) given institutional debt buyers generally require debt rated by both entities, their need to compete with each other is minimised. Plus, once an instrument is rated, said rating must be maintained, providing royalty-like fees with typically unending horizons, since issuers prefer to refinance their debt than pay it in full. These installed bases, coupled with Moody’s proverbial time in the ring, also enable the company to fund nascent, fast-growing satellite businesses across cybersecurity ratings and financial disclosure compliance, reinforcing its reputation and likely extension of its formidable dividend growth record.