Coca-Cola Dividend Hike Leads in Coke-Pepsi Investor Taste Test

The Coca-Cola board of directors approved the company’s 51st consecutive annual dividend increase on Thursday. The hike is by 10% to a quarterly payout of $0.28 per common share from $0.255 per quarter before. Now that the annualized dividend rose to $1.12 per share from $1.02 per share last year, Coca-Cola investors who are buying the stock today will get close to a 3% yield. Technically it is 2.97%, versus the prior yield of 2.7% before the hike was announced.

Exactly two weeks ago PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) declared its fourth consecutive quarterly dividend of $0.5375 per share. That represented a dividend yield of about 3% at the time, and the current Pepsi price above $75.00 generates a yield for new investors of about 2.86%. The reason we mention Pepsi has telegraphed that it will have a higher dividend starting in June.

24/7 Wall St. recently offered up a list of DJIA stocks from which we expect dividend hikes to come very soon. Coca-Cola was on that list, as were six other DJIA stocks.

After this is the 51st annual dividend hike, you know why they have a list called the dividend aristocrats. This is also one of the top super-fresh dividends for Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as well.