Decades of Dividend Hikes Fail to Deliver Income for Investors

Three dividend-paying stocks have impressive streaks of raising their dividends each year for nearly three decades, but they don't provide much income to investors. Roper Technologies (NASDAQ:ROP), Nordson (NASDAQ:NDSN), and Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) all started paying dividends in 1999 and have consistently increased them since then.

Roper Technologies trades at $424.96 with a market cap of roughly $42.15 billion, while Nordson sits at $323.08 with a market cap of $18.09 billion. Sherwin-Williams changes hands at $339.01, with a market cap near $83.72 billion.

The dividend yields for these stocks are extremely low: Roper pays 0.84%, Nordson pays 0.99%, and Sherwin-Williams pays 0.92%. This means that an investor who puts $10,000 into each of these stocks would only receive around $84 to $99 in annual dividend income.

While the stocks have impressive safety features, including high free cash flow conversion rates and low payout ratios, they are not ideal for investors seeking current income. Roper has traded down 18.35% over the past year and 8.05% over five years, while Nordson is up 46.34% in the last year.