Each month, I flag two or three stocks that are poised to hike dividends within the new few weeks. It doesn’t take a crystal ball. Some have been faithfully increasing their annual payout like clockwork for decades. So if it has been 12 months since the last increase, then odds are good another may be on the horizon.

That’s the case today.

In April 2023, the company raised its distribution from $0.91 to $0.94 per share. Then in April 2024, the payout was bumped to $1.00 per share. 364 days later, it rose to $1.06 per share.

My money says we’ll see another uptick in the second week of April. If so, that will mark the 70th consecutive year of uninterrupted dividend hikes. That streak dates to the 1950’s. Through wars, recessions, pandemics and everything else, this steady business has had the financial strength to not only maintain distributions – but give shareholders a raise.

Keep in mind, the threshold to qualify for membership in the elite “Dividend Kings” society is 50 consecutive annual increases.

So who is this cash generator? I’ll give you a hint. You probably use at least one of its household staples weekly. Tide laundry detergent. Bounty paper towels. Crest toothpaste. Dawn dish soap. Duracell batteries. Pampers diapers. Gillette razors.

Yes, I’m referring to Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG).

The consumer products juggernaut has built (or acquired) a stable of two dozen billion-dollar brands. Nearly all of these hold a dominant No. 1 or No. 2 market-share position in their respective fields. They are found in 180 countries around the globe and reach 5+ billion consumers, generating $85 billion in annual sales.

As mentioned above, dividend policy is typically set in the middle of the fiscal calendar, shortly after the release of second quarter earnings. We’re there. The top-line has decelerated a bit, but management is expecting stronger demand in the back-half of the year – driving full-year sales growth of 1% to 5%.

Earnings are forecast to approach $7.00 per share, aided just a touch by favorable foreign currency translation. For context, the business earned $16.1 billion last year and pocketed $17.8 billion in operating cash flows. After capital expenditures, it routinely converts every dollar of GAAP profit into $0.90 of pure free cash flow.

… which brings us to the heart of today’s article.

While speaking of value creation, P&G pledged to return $15 billion to investors this year: $10 billion via dividends and $5 billion in stock buybacks.

On the dividend side, that’s not a huge increase from the $9.9 billion paid out last year. But with ongoing buybacks shrinking the share count, that extra $100 million will stretch even further. So we might see the quarterly dividend edge up to $1.07 or $1.08 per share, raising the yield to 2.7% — well north of the S&P norm.

In other words, Procter & Gamble will further solidify its reputation as the “Old Faithful” of dividend payers. Shareholders haven’t missed a dividend since 1890 – a streak of 135 straight years. And given the essential nature of its everyday products (toothpaste and toilet paper aren’t exactly luxuries), that won’t be changing anytime soon.