Give me a dollar today, and I want two tomorrow.
Since I am a greedy person, I have found three more companies that have continuously increased dividends and managed to regularly buy back shares. Increasing their dividend on a yearly basis, these companies are helping to protect investors against inflation. This increase also allows the yield to remain comparable to the previous year's, if the stock price has risen. By decreasing the number of shares, a company is increasing the ownership stake each share accounts for -- or in other words, your shares now give you a bigger piece of the pie.
My recent greed-satisfiers
Even though Costco's
This tells me that the company has never stretched itself to increase a dividend in the past -- and that the dividend, currently yielding 1.2%, is very strong and is unlikely to get cut in the future. Moreover, in the past six years, Costco has cut its share count by almost 10% through buybacks -- another shareholder-friendly move.
The second company that meets my greed is Diageo
If you don't have a buzz yet, maybe this will help. Since 2001, the company has also decreased share counts by 25%! Over the past three years, the outstanding share count has been level. Staying flat is much better than increasing due to the company handing over millions of options to top executives, which we see too often.
Last on my list is Intel
Intel has also decreased the share count by more than 20% in the past 10 years. By contrast, peers NVIDIA
Foolish take
All three of these companies understand the importance of giving back to their shareholders and continuing to build long-term value. But they aren't the only ones delivering the goods to investors. Discover 11 more superb companies in this special report: "Secure Your Future with 11 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks."