J&J Shareholders Should Expect Higher Dividend Next Week

If you look through the investor relations website for J&J, the earnings of 2012 in April were about a week before the dividend hike and that coincided with the company’s annual meeting of shareholders. It appears that 2013 is on track for a repeat of 2012.

After looking through the J&J news and upcoming events the 2013 annual meeting of shareholders is set for Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

We have also suggested in a recent CNBC appearance that we would only look for a normalized dividend hike. Last year’s dividend hike was by about 7% and we do not expect anything heroic from the company. If J&J lifts its $0.61 per quarter payout to $0.65 per share then it will be paying out roughly 48% of its adjusted earnings expectations.

As far as what else will drive an expected dividend hike, J&J shares hit an all-time high of $83.54 on Tuesday and it closed up 2.1% at $83.44 on above-average trading volume of over 12.4 million shares.

We would also take one more note home here on why this dividend is going higher. When J&J announced its dividend hike last year it market the 50th consecutive year where the company has raised its dividend.

J&J looks to be a shoe-in for a higher dividend in 2013. Our first guess is that the dividend will move up from $0.61 per share per quarter to $0.65, with a possibility of $0.66 being seen.