Only A Few Remaining DJIA Dividend Hikes Still To Come In 2012 (T, VZ, CAT, GE, MCD, MSFT, DIS)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has one trait that most other broad market indexes cannot claim: Every single component pays a dividend to its shareholders.  With only a few exceptions, these DJIA components have a history of raising dividends and can keep raising their dividends ahead.  24/7 Wall St. has seen that over half of the DJIA components have already raised their dividends in 2012 and we wanted to see which other of the 30 DJIA components were likely to see higher payouts announced during the rest of 2012.

We used dividend payout ratio analysis on each component based upon forward earnings estimates from Thomson Reuters.  The main DJIA dividend hikes we expect to hear more about during the rest of the year are as follows: AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T); Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ); Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT); General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE); McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD); Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT); and The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS).

With the 10-Year Treasury paying out only 1.6% or so, investors are looking for those high payouts which are safe and which can grow.  This is particularly an issues since dividend taxes are set to rise significantly after 2012 unless another extension is made.  If you counted these DJIA components up, we have only 7 of the 30 DJIA components which we would still expect to raise their dividends in the coming months in 2012.  Here is the logic behind each…