A lot of people think of dividend payers as stocks from companies that are stodgy, slow moving, and take forever to make money with. Let me introduce you to The Magnificent Seven. Coca-Cola (KO), 3M (MMM), ExxonMobil (XOM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), McDonald’s (MCD), Procter & Gamble (PG), and Wal-Mart (WMT).
These seven companies have increased their dividend payments to investors every year for the past 30 years. Even when most companies were cutting their dividends in 2007 and 2008 these seven companies kept raising them. If you had invested $1000 in each of them at year end 1982, that investment would have been worth $425,581 at the close of 2012, a 14.7% annualized return.
The Magnificent Seven
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