Hormel Foods and HP Inc. Declare Dividend Increases

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Hormel Foods

and HP declared dividend increases in a light week for such announcements before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Hormel Foods (ticker: HRL) said it would increase its annual dividend by 6%. The company’s annual payout will get bumped up to $1.10 a share from $1.04. The quarterly dividend will increase to 27.5 cents a share from 26 cents.

This marks the 57^th consecutive year in which the company’s annual dividend has increased. Hormel is a member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index, whose members have paid out a higher dividend for at least 25 straight years.

The stock, which yields 2.2%, has returned about 3% this year through Friday, dividends included, compared with minus 14% for the S&P 500.

HP (HPQ) declared a quarterly disbursement of 26.25 cents a share, an increase of about 5%. That will boost the annualized dividend to $1.05.

Shares of the tech company have returned about minus 18% this year. They yield 3.5%.

Elsewhere, a handful of S&P 500 companies said recently they would maintain their dividends at current levels, including Analog Devices (ADI) at 76 cents a share,

Air Products and Chemicals

(APD) at $1.62, and FedEx (FDX) at $1.15.

Others included

Allstate

(ALL) at 85 cents a share,

Halliburton

(HAL) at 12 cents,

LyondellBasell Industries

(LYB) at $1.19, PPL (PPL) at 22.5 cents, and

Extra Space Storage

(EXR) at $1.50.

Rounding out that list are

Best Buy

(BBY) at 88 cents a share and

Cincinnati Financial

(CINF) at 69 cents.

Write to Lawrence C. Strauss at lawrence.strauss@barrons.com