Income investors value reliability and consistency, as well as high dividend yields. Some stocks provide a combination of these factors, such as the Dividend Champions -- stocks that have raised their payouts for at least 25 years in a row.

These companies have proven that they can manage through recessions, while continuing to pay dividends each year, and raise their dividends on an annual basis.

These 3 Dividend Champions have long histories of dividend growth, market-beating yields, and the ability to raise their dividends each year going forward.

Medtronic plc (MDT)

Medtronic is the largest manufacturer of biomedical devices and implantable technologies in the world. It serves physicians, hospitals, and patients in more than 150 countries and has over 90,000 employees. Medtronic has four operating segments: Cardiovascular, Medical Surgical, Neuroscience and Diabetes. Medtronic has raised its dividend for 45 consecutive years. The company generated $32 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year.

In late August, Medtronic reported (8/23/22) financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2023. Organic revenue dipped -4% over last year’s quarter due to supply chain shortages and especially strong ventilator sales amid the pandemic in last year’s period. Due to these headwinds, earnings-per-share declined -17%, from $1.36 to $1.13. On the bright side, Medtronic expects a recovery of its business in the back half of the year and reiterated its guidance for the full year, anticipating 4%-5% growth of organic revenue and essentially flat adjusted earnings-per-share of $5.53-$5.65.

Medtronic’s most compelling competitive advantage is its intellectual leadership in a complicated industry within the healthcare sector. Medtronic also has a strong product pipeline that should drive its growth for the foreseeable future. The stock has a current dividend yield of 3.2%.

John Wiley & Sons (WLY)

John Wiley & Sons is a publishing and research company whose operations are split into three segments: Research, Publishing, and Solutions. The company offers scientific, technical, medical and scholarly research journals, reference books, databases, clinical decision support tools, laboratory manuals, scientific and education books, and test preparation services. Its services also include learning, development and assessment services for businesses and professionals and online program management services for higher education institutions.

In the most recent quarter, the company announced that its revenues totaled $545 million during the quarter, which represents an increase of 2% versus the prior year’s quarter, which was slightly less than the company’s growth rate during the previous quarter. Earnings-per-share came in ahead of the analyst consensus, at $1.08, which was down by 6% year over year, therefore underperforming the company’s revenue growth due to some margin pressure.

John Wiley & Sons’ dividend payout ratio was never especially high. Most of the time, it remained below 50%. John Wiley & Sons has raised its dividend continually throughout the last decade. We believe that the dividend is relatively safe, especially as John Wiley’s dividend was not in danger during the Great Recession, either. Shares of WLY currently yield 3.6%.

Sonoco Products (SON)

Sonoco Products provides packaging, industrial products and supply chain services to its customers. The markets that use the company’s products include those in the appliances, electronics, beverage, construction and food industries. The company generates about $7.2 billion in annual sales. Sonoco Products is now composed of 2 segments, Consumer Packaging and Industrial Packaging, with all other businesses listed as “all other”.

On July 21st, 2022, Sonoco Products reported second quarter earnings results for the period ending July 3rd, 2022. Revenue surged 38.4% to a company record $1.91 billion, which was in-line with analysts’ expectations. Adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.76 compared very favorably to $0.84 in the prior year and was $0.11 above estimates.

Consumer Packaging revenues grew 65.6% to a segment record $990.1 million, due once again in large part to the purchase of Ball Metalpack that closed in the fourth quarter of 2021. Higher selling prices also factored into results. Global rigid paper containers had slight volume growth outside of North America, where supply constraints limited business. Flexible packaging volume grew 4%, but was offset by mix.

Industrial Paper Packing sales grew 20% to a segment record $727.4 million as higher selling prices more than offset a small volume decline and currency exchange headwinds. Sonoco Products raised its outlook for 2022 as well, with the company expecting adjusted earnings-per-share of $6.20 to $6.30 for the year, up from $5.25 to $5.45 and $4.60 to $4.80 previously.

A key competitive advantage for Sonoco Products is that the company is usually able to pass along rising raw material and transportation costs to its customers. Ability to pass along costs is an advantage as this shows that the company’s offerings are in demand. Also helping grow the top and bottom lines is Sonoco Products’ history of acquisitions. The Ball Metalpack, Conitex, and Can Packaging acquisitions are prime examples of growing through acquisitions.

Sonoco Products has a very reasonable dividend payout ratio of just over 31% based off of our expectations for 2022. Over the past decade the company has averaged a 52% dividend payout ratio. Sonoco Products’ dividend appears extremely safe. The stock has a 3.3% dividend yield.
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Bob Ciura has worked at Sure Dividend since October 2016. He oversees all content for Sure Dividend and its partner sites. Bob received a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from DePaul University, and an MBA with a concentration in Investments from the University of Notre Dame.