Dividend Watch: P&G Keeps Pressure on Peers (PG, KMB, CL, CLX, CHD)

Time for the Daily Dividend… Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) might have been up more today if the overall market was cooperating.  The world’s largest consumer products company already has a $175 billion market cap.  Last night came word that P&G was hiking its quarterly dividend payout from $0.4818 to $0.525.

P&G has hiked its payouts for 55 years now, through recession and growth phases alike.  P&G’s new yield based upon Monday’s close right at 3.1%.  This keeps the pressure on competitors  like Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB),  Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE: CL), and Clorox Corporation (NYSE: CLX), and Church & Dwight Co. Inc. (NYSE: CHD).

Colgate-Palmolive hiked its dividend in February to $0.58 per quarter from $0.53 and that will be paid in May.  The current yield is about 2.85% and its market cap is about $40 billion.

Clorox Corporation (NYSE: CLX) is three quarters into its $0.55 dividend so we’d expect a higher payout soon.  The $0.55 per quarter dividend today generates a dividend yield of about 3.1% and its market cap is about $9.6 billion.

It is going to be a while before Kimberly-Clark hikes its dividend.  Its dividend paid out last month was the first of a higher dividend to $0.70 for the quarter versus $0.66 before.  The current dividend yield for Kimberly-Clark is actually over 4.2%.  As far as size, Kimberly-Clark is at $26.5 billion in market cap.

Lastly comes Church & Dwight.  The smallest of our large diversified consumer products companies has boosted its dividend significantly.  In the last year we have seen a $0.14 payout go to $0.17 then to $0.34.  Still, C&D is lagging its peers with a 1.7% dividend yield.

Consumer products companies like these all generally offer safe dividends.  They are also defensive stocks that can hold up during hard times and still grow during growth cycles.  Of course, they have to manage higher commodity prices while keeping currency risks down and maintain margins by keeping their in-store promotion costs at a minimum.

JON C. OGG