I’ve done investment banking and currently co-manage a small mutual fund. We generally look at past dividend trends over 10 years and estimate growth rates. If we see differing trends, we’ll take 50% of the past 3 year trend, 30% of the past 5 year trend, and 20% of the past 10 year trend.
Also, it is very important to keep up on company news and check out their latest quarterly and annual reports (10-K’s and 10-Q’s), as well as the latest few investor conference calls. You can glean a lot of information from these sources and companies will often tell investors plans for future increases in dividends.
On a final note, many stable companies will begin to issue and/or increase their dividends as the company becomes larger and enters maturity stages.
I’ve done investment banking and currently co-manage a small mutual fund. We generally look at past dividend trends over 10 years and estimate growth rates. If we see differing trends, we’ll take 50% of the past 3 year trend, 30% of the past 5 year trend, and 20% of the past 10 year trend.
Also, it is very important to keep up on company news and check out their latest quarterly and annual reports (10-K’s and 10-Q’s), as well as the latest few investor conference calls. You can glean a lot of information from these sources and companies will often tell investors plans for future increases in dividends.
On a final note, many stable companies will begin to issue and/or increase their dividends as the company becomes larger and enters maturity stages.
Good luck to you!