Dividend Check-up: Walgreen

What Walgreen may have lacked in terms of dividend yield -- it's rarely been above 2% since 2005 -- it's more than made up for in dividend growth. In January, it boosted its payout by 27.3%, marking 35 consecutive years of increased payouts. Nevertheless, past returns don't guarantee future results, so dividend history is only 10% of the final grade. Walgreen does, however, score a 5 of 5 in this category.

The company's stated dividend policy is to pay out between 30% and 35% of its profit. That's meaningfully above the roughly 20% average payout over the past four years, so Walgreen may fuel future dividend growth by paying out a larger percentage of profit.With its current yield at 1.7%, Walgreen's dividend is above this peer group, but is in-line with the S&P 500 average yield of 1.7%.

Source: Motley Fool

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