3 Dividend Stocks Just Gave Investors a Raise. Two Hiked Payouts More Than 12%
A toolmaker, an LNG exporter and a mall giant all just promised bigger checks, but their cash flow, yield and risks could not look more different. Which raise is built to last, and which one carries a hidden catch?
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A dividend raise is a board putting its cash flow forecast on the record, and three very different businesses did just that within days of each other. Snap-on (NYSE:SNA | SNA Price Prediction) raised its quarterly dividend by 12.7%. Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG) and Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) announced their own increases alongside third-quarter results. Each company is making the same promise: the payout will keep growing because the cash is there to fund it. Coverage, yield and growth outlook differ sharply across the three, and so does what each raise means for your income.
Snap-on Delivers a Double-Digit Raise on a Long Growth Streak
Snap-on lifted its quarterly dividend to $2.75 per share, up from $2.44. The new payout goes out on December 10, with a record date of November 20. Snap-on calls this its 17th consecutive annual dividend increase, and the payment record supports it: the quarterly rate sat at $0.30 from 2009 through 2010 and has stepped up every year since.
The new rate works out to $11 a year. With the shares at $367.22, that comes to a forward yield of about 3.0%.
Dividend safety: The $11 annual payout uses about 57% of the last four quarters of EPS, which leaves room to keep raising. Free cash flow covers it comfortably. Snap-on produced $1.0057 billion of free cash flow in 2025, about 1.77x the roughly $567 million a year the new rate will cost across its share count. Free cash flow over the first nine months of this year came to about $818.9 million. The company maintains a conservative balance sheet, with $1.67 billion in cash and $2.54 billion in total liabilities set against $6.09 billion in shareholders’ equity.
Bull case: Snap-on is selling its tools beyond the repair garage. Organic sales in the Commercial & Industrial Group rose 7.4% during the third quarter, helped by demand for precision torque tools in data centers and other critical industries. The company also spent $278.4 million on buybacks through nine months, so each remaining share’s claim on future dividends keeps growing. CEO Nick Pinchuk said in the quarterly release that the company “remained confident on the path forward.”
Risk: The core van channel hit a rough patch. Third-quarter EPS of $4.64 missed the $4.93 consensus, and Tools Group organic sales fell 7.0% as franchisees drew down inventory after a spike in diesel prices. Watch whether that destocking ends in the next earnings report.
Cheniere Energy Raises Its Payout as Cash Flow Guidance Climbs
Cheniere Energy declared a quarterly dividend of $0.625 per share, up from $0.555 the prior quarter. Energies Media put the increase at more than 12%. The payout has a record date of November 9 and is paid on November 17. Annualized, that is $2.50, or about a 0.9% yield at $277.95. Cheniere is a dividend-growth story first. Shares fell 15.85% over the past week, which pushes the starting yield higher for new money.
Dividend safety: Coverage here is about as strong as it gets. Cheniere raised its full-year distributable cash flow guidance to $6.05 billion to $6.55 billion, up from $5.30 billion to $5.80 billion. CFO Zach Davis said on the earnings call that the new range represents over $30 per share of DCF, so the $2.50 dividend uses only about 8.3%. Cheniere Energy’s payout has climbed every year since it started at $0.33 a quarter, moving through $0.395, $0.435, $0.50 and $0.555. Davis said the dividend has grown “approximately 90% since its initiation five years ago.” S&P also upgraded the issuer rating of the company’s Corpus Christi Holdings subsidiary to A- from BBB+.
Bull case: Management committed to raising the dividend by at least 10% per year through the end of the decade—contracts back that up. About 52 million tons of expected 2027 volume is already sold under long-term contracts, compared with 46 million to 47 million tons this year. New deals with QatarEnergy and Petrobras add roughly $15 billion of fixed fees. Management estimates that a $1 change in market margins would move full-year EBITDA by only about $50 million.
Risk: Part of this year’s guidance boost comes from unusually high global gas prices. Management linked the market’s tightness to continued disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, and European and Asian benchmarks averaged over $21/MMBtu and $22/MMBtu during the quarter. If those supply problems ease, spot-cargo profits would shrink, though the contracted base would still cover the dividend.
Simon Property Group Pushes Its Dividend Past Pre-Pandemic Levels
Simon declared a fourth-quarter dividend of $2.30 per share, up from $2.25, payable December 31. CFO Brian McDade called it “an increase of $0.10, or 4.5%, year-over-year.” This is the REIT’s second raise of the year. The forward rate of $9.20 a year gives a high-yield 4.0% at $228.42.
Dividend safety: REITs pay from funds from operations, and Simon has plenty of room. Third-quarter real estate FFO came in at $3.37 per share, so the new $2.30 quarterly payout uses about 68%. Full-year real estate FFO guidance rose to $13.30 to $13.40 per share, and the forward dividend comes to about 69% of the midpoint. Net debt to EBITDA stands at five times, fixed charge coverage is 4.6 times, and liquidity totals about $9 billion. Simon’s record has one flaw: it cut its quarterly payout from $2.10 to $1.30 in 2020. Since then, it has raised the dividend repeatedly, and the new $2.30 rate is now above the pre-cut level.
Bull case: Occupancy at Simon’s malls and Premium Outlets reached 96.5%, the highest combined level since 2016. Retailer sales climbed 14.8% to $852 per square foot, and the leasing pipeline is up 30% year over year. Chief Executive Eli Simon told analysts, “We really haven’t seen any slowdown.” Simon is also buying back stock, having repurchased $667 million of shares and units so far this year.
Risk: Simon has a lot of debt. It reported $33.86 billion of total liabilities against $4.43 billion of equity at midyear. If interest rates rise, refinancing that debt would cost more and leave less FFO for future increases.
Three Raises Paid for by Cash Flow
Each increase is funded by growing cash flow. Snap-on’s comes from a free cash flow stream that covers the new rate about 1.77 times. Cheniere’s dividend uses a small piece of more than $30 per share in distributable cash flow, and Simon’s represents roughly two-thirds of rising FFO. Simon offers the most current income, Cheniere the fastest committed growth, and Snap-on the longest run in the group.
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
