The Swiss pharmaceutical and global health-care company Roche Holding AG (RHHBY.PK, ISIN: CH0012032113) reported Wednesday its fiscal 2014 results and although the profit declined, Roche proposes to increase the dividend.
Roche is the only European Dividend Aristocrat for the moment, if we define European Dividend Aristocrats like the S&P 500 dividend aristocrats which are S&P 500 constituents that have followed a policy of increasing dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years. Only for Europe we take the major indexes such as DAX, SMI, FTSE,..
The company said its Board proposed dividend increase of 3 percent to 8.00 Swiss francs, representing 28th consecutive year of dividend growth. Roche added that it expects to further increase its dividend in Swiss francs.
At this moment the Dividend Indicated Gross Yield is around 3.18% and the 5 Year Dividend Growth is close to 9.30% for Roche Holding AG.
European Dividend Aristocrats
Since European companies are not used to the US dividend paying policies, Europe is lacking dividend aristocrats. In Europe it is more common to pay dividend once per year and not quarterly. Furthermore yearly dividend increases is certainly not standard, keeping the dividend stable and not lowering pay-outs is the default.
Second best but still not an aristocrat is dividend payer PEARSON (NYSE:PSO, ISIN:GB0006776081) a London-based publisher and educational materials company. Pearson has a track-record of 22 straight years of higher dividends, so 3 more years to become the second European dividend aristocrat.
See also the S&P 500 dividend aristocrats list
