Dividend Watch: Big Companies With Big Dividend Hikes (IR, NEM, PNC, QCOM)

It is time for The Daily Dividend and today’s review is on yet another flurry of dividend hikes from key companies.  Ingersoll-Rand Plc (NYSE: IR), Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM), PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC), and QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) are all out with very impressive gains in shareholder treatment today via dividends and/or buybacks.

Ingersoll-Rand Plc (NYSE: IR) had a  huge payout hike and a buyback to boot.  The industrial and commercial products maker is hiking its quarterly payout by more than 70% (yes, seventy) to $0.12 per quarter from $0.07 per quarter.  This takes the yield of 0.6% to 1% with shares up around $49.00.  The company also authorized $2 billion for buybacks against what is only a $16 billion market cap.

A key gold dividend announcement came from Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM) as the company said that it plans to boost its output and more importantly that it would peg its annual dividend to the price of gold.  The firm sees about $1.00 being paid per year where gold prices are currently. The current dividend is about $0.60, or a 1.1% yield,  and the new dividend based on adjusted prices is about 1.7% if it remains static.   Shares have risen over 3% to $58.45 today and that makes Newmont the dividend king in the gold sector by far.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC) is one we had expected to see after the Federal Reserve picked which companies could hike their payouts to shareholders.  The hike is a monster one, up 250% to $0.35 per quarter from a current rate of only $0.10 per quarter.  The prior 0.6% yield will jump to about 2.2% based on today’s share price nearing $64.00.  PNC now also plans to begin repurchasing shares under a 25 million share buyback plan and that was noted as about $500 million for the rest of 2011.  The market cap is just over $33 billion.

QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) may not seem like a traditional dividend player but that just is proving to not be the case. The new payout is going to $0.215 per quarter from $0.19 per quarter before.  The company has hiked its payout since at least 2004 and the new yield will be about 1.6%.  With its margins it seems like the dividend hikes can continue.  For a reference, Thomson Reuters has its non-GAAP earnings estimate at $3.04 for Fiscal September 2011.

JON C. OGG