Dividend stocks are of critical importance as uncertainty and volatility remains high and this looks set for sometime to come. Dividend stocks continue to provide income irrespective of the value of the equity and companies that pay dividends have earned a reputation of being well run, dependable companies.

Jonas Elmerraji recently reported on six recent dividend-increasers that we will measure in terms of their historical performacnce to see whether they are worth consideration for inclusion into a long term stock portfolio.

• Albemarle (ALB)manufactures a wide range of niche chemical products, from drilling fluid and petroleum catalysts to pharmaceuticals like ibuprofen. Despite a hike of dividend payouts by 6% last week ALB only yields 1.5% at current levels.
• Ameren(AEE) is a power and natural gas utility and one of the highest-yielding utility stocks. They have s a 5.2% dividend yield at current prices.
• Visa's(V) is a household name who recently announced a 47% dividend hike. While this is still under a 1% yield, the company is included as it has performed well recently
• Enterprise Products Partners(EPD) transports and processes natural gas products through its network of pipelines centered on the Gulf Coast. The company has slightly increased its dividend to a 5.6% yield at current levels -- that's a head-turning payout.
• Cintas(CTAS), the leader in uniform rental (along with other services) announced a 10.2% dividend increase bringing a 1.87% yield.  
• Kinder Morgan(KMI) announced a $38 billion acquisition of El Paso(EP), a deal that makes the former the largest midstream energy company in the country. A recent 3% dividend hike brings the firm's total payout to 4.21%
  

This selection has a heavy bias on energy but is worth tracking to see whether dividends are a sign of a good company or whether the impact of current events is to drive companies to boost dividend yields to prop up stock prices and once the crisis is over, dividends will drop. We won't get an answer to this now, but by tracking this, we will gain some insight as time rolls on.

We will benchmark this selection agains a balanced portfolio of dividend bearing ETFs.

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