You Can't Control Dividend Increases, But You Can Control What You Do About Them

Benjamin Graham is often called the father of securities analysis. He helped to train Warren Buffett, who is known as the Oracle of Omaha and runs Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B). In Graham's seminal book The Intelligent Investor, which was written for the average investor and not industry specialists, he suggests looking for companies that have paid dividends consistently for at least 20 years. It's a good plan, even though you can't control a company's dividend.

Just because a company has a long history of supporting, or even growing, its dividend year in and year out does not mean the dividend won't get cut in the future. A great example of this is VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC). It had decades of annual dividend increases under its belt, but ended up cutting the dividend at the start of 2023.