brucedoe,

I'd like to second GW - we like your thinking re: rising dividend stocks. An interesting screen I plan to spend more time looking into. It makes a lot of sense intuitively.

Though a company's earnings can grow faster or slower - or even go up and down, dividends - particularly from companies such as those you mention - rarely change to the downside. In fact, most companies paying dividends are EXTREMELY reluctant to reduce (let alone eliminate!) their dividends in soft times.

As an LTBH investor, I would think one would want to put these types of holdings into an IRA so that the dividend is not taxable currently, and keep those growing non-dividend paying stocks in the taxable accounts. Also, don't forget those DRIP's with those dividend-paying stocks!

One strong dividend payer we have held for some time and have been pleased with is FULT. Its a small Pennsylvania bank with a solid track record and in addition to its growing dividends (don't recall how many years straight) they have paid out a 10% stock dividend every year we've had it!

Thanks again for the idea!

Ken