J.P. Morgan Claverhouse investment trust has increased its annual dividend for the 37th consecutive year.
The company recently declared a fourth quarterly interim dividend of 6.4p per share for the year ended 31 December 2009, to be paid on 1 March 2010.
This payment will bring the total dividend for the year to 16.9p, an increase of 3% over 2008.
Sarah Emly, co-manager of the £237m trust, says the consistent dividend increase has been boosted by the company’s revenue reserves.
“We generated a good income last year, but one of the benefits of having built up a revenue reserve is we have been able to maintain the dividend by at least the rate of inflation every year,” she says.
Emly say the outlook for stock market dividends is more positive in 2010.
“Last year, it was hard to find companies you could be totally confident would not cut dividends,” she says.
“We are now seeing the final results from companies and it is a lot better than we were predicting six months ago.
“I think dividends will be a lot more stable with modest growth.
“The banks will see a strong rise in dividends, but it is from a low base, whereas pharmaceuticals will be yielding in line with expectations, but at 6%-7% the dividends are high.”
