Don't Get Tricked by These Dividend Growth Giants

Investors love dividend stocks, especially when they increase their payouts consistently over time. But when you're looking at top dividend growth stocks, it's essential to look beyond simple percentage increases in quarterly payments to put a dividend increase into context. All too often, big dividend growth results from undesirably low starting quarterly payouts, and even a big increase won't necessarily boost the stock's yield to levels that would make it interesting to most dividend investors. With that in mind, let's take a look at stocks that will show up on this year's lists of top dividend growth stocks -- but arguably shouldn't be there.

Megabank Bank of America (BAC) enjoyed one of the biggest dividend increases of any stock this year, with its quarterly payout jumping a whopping 400 percent. Yet before you focus too much on the 400 percent increase, it's important to realize that Bank of America only raised its quarterly dividend from a penny per share to a nickel per share. Danaher (DHR) isn't a well-known name to many investors, but the conglomerate has a number of different businesses, including environmental testing equipment, dental health care diagnostic products, industrial automation equipment and enterprise security solutions.

Source: Daily Finance

Related Articles:
- 5 Dividend Stocks That Gave Me A 20%+ Annualized Return
- 6 Rainy Day Dividend Stocks
- When A Stock Fails To Raise Its Dividend: Is It Time To Sell Intel?
- 4 Dividend Stocks For A Confident And Secure Future
- High-Yield, High-Return Investments To Increase Income While Waiting On Dividend Growth