Guru Stocks Raising Dividends: Realty Income Corp., WilliamsSonoma Inc., ConocoPhillips, Raytheon Company, Hingham Institution for Savings

This is the group of companies who raised their dividend during the week: Realty Income Corp. (O, Financial), WilliamsSonoma Inc. (WSM, Financial), ConocoPhillips (COP, Financial), Raytheon Company (RTN, Financial), and Hingham Institution for Savings (HIFS, Financial).

Realty Income Corp. (O)

REALTY INCOME CORP. is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate company with in-house acquisition, leasing, legal, financial underwriting, porfolio management and capital markets expertise. Realty Income Corp. has a market cap of $3.18 billion; its shares were traded at around $30.44 with a P/E ratio of 16.6 and P/S ratio of 9.7. The dividend yield of Realty Income Corp. stocks is 5.6%. Realty Income Corp. had an annual average earning growth of 4% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Realty Income Corp. the business predictability rank of 3.5-star. The company announced a miniscule distribution increase to $0.1433125 per share from $0.143 per share. This was the 50th consecutive quarterly increase and the 57th dividend increase since this dividend achiever went public in 1994. The stock currently yields 5.60%. Check my analysis of the stock.


Realty Income Corporation announced operating results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2009. All per share amounts presented in this press release are on a diluted per common share basis, unless stated otherwise. Revenue was $81.8 million as compared to $82.2 million in the same quarter last year. Net income available to common stockholders per share was $0.28.


Senior Vice President Research Robert Israel, Senior VP, Assistant GC Laura King, and Non Executive Chairman Donald R Cameron bought shares of O stock.

WilliamsSonoma Inc. (WSM)

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is specialty retailer of products for the home. Williamssonoma Inc. has a market cap of $2.87 billion; its shares were traded at around $27.04 with a P/E ratio of 29.1 and P/S ratio of 0.9. The company increased its quarterly dividend to 13 cents/share from 12 cents/share. The company doesn’t have a long enough history of paying rising dividends and yields only 1.90%.


Williams-Sonoma, Inc. announced operating results for the fourth quarter (“Q4 09”) ended January 31, 2010. Net revenues in Q4 09 increased 8.1% to $1.090 billion versus $1.008 billion in Q4 08, including a comparable store sales increase of 7.6%.


George Soros and Kenneth Fisher own shares of WSM stock.


CHAIRMAN & CEO Howard Lester, EVP, COO & CFO Sharon Mccollam, and EVP CMO Pat Connolly bought shares of WSM stock.

ConocoPhillips (COP)

ConocoPhillips is a major international integrated energy company with operations in some 49 countries. Conocophillips has a market cap of $77.35 billion; its shares were traded at around $52.02 with a P/E ratio of 14.4 and P/S ratio of 0.5. Conocophillips had an annual average earning growth of 18.2% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Conocophillips the business predictability rank of 3-star. The company raised dividends by 10% to 55 cents/share. This represents the tenth consecutive annual dividend increase for ConocoPhillips. The stock yields 4.30%.


ConocoPhillips reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.7 billion. For the quarter, cash from operations was $5.1 billion, which was used to fund capital of $3.1 billion and pay dividends of $0.7 billion.


NWQ Managers, George Soros, and Donald Yacktman own shares of COP stock.


Senior Vice President Willie Cw Chiang sold shares of COP stock.

Raytheon Company (RTN)

Raytheon Company is a global technology company. The company providesproducts and services in the areas of defense and commercial electronics,engineering and construction, and business and special mission aircraft. Raytheon Company has a market cap of $21.58 billion; its shares were traded at around $56.92 with a P/E ratio of 11.7 and P/S ratio of 0.9. Raytheon Company had an annual average earning growth of 9.5% over the past 10 years. The company boosted quarterly dividends by 21% to 37.50 cents/share. This is the sixth consecutive annual dividend increase for the company. The stock yields 2.60%.


Raytheon Company reported on January 28, 2010, a fourth quarter 2009 income from continuing operations of $517 million, up 21 percent compared to $428 million in the fourth quarter 2008. The company reported fourth quarter diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations of $1.30, up 29 percent; full-year 2009 EPS from continuing operations of $4.89, up 24 percent.


George Soros, Lee Ainslie, and Mark Hillman own shares of RTN stock.


Chairman & CEO William H Swanson, Senior Vice President & CFO David C Wajsgras, and Vice President Daniel L Smith sold shares of RTN stock.

Hingham Institution for Savings (HIFS)

Hingham Institution for Savings is a Massachusetts-chartered savings bank which operates 3 banking facilities in Hingham and Hull, Massachusetts. Hingham Institution For Savings has a market cap of $72.4 million; its shares were traded at around $34.375 with a P/E ratio of 9.1 and P/S ratio of 1.6. Hingham Institution For Savings had an annual average earning growth of 6.2% over the past 10 years. The company’s board of directors approved a 4.5% increase in its quarterly dividend to 23 cents/share. The company has raised quarterly distributions for 15 consecutive years. The stock is thinly traded, and the market cap is only 70 million dollars. The stock yields 3.30%.


Hingham Institution for Savings announced its earnings for 2009. Net income for the year ended December 31, 2009 was a record $8,045,000 or $3.79 per share (basic and diluted) as compared to $6,285,000 or $2.96 per share (basic and diluted) in 2008. Net income for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2009 was $2,267,000 or $1.07 per share (basic and diluted) as compared to $1,794,000 or $0.85 per share (basic and diluted) for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2008.