Companies added to Broad Dividend Achievers, Dividend Achievers50, High Growth Rate Dividend Achievers, International Dividend Achievers and Canadian Dividend Achievers
New York, NY, January 26, 2006 – Mergent, Inc., a leading provider of business and financial information on publicly listed companies, today announced the addition of new members to the elite groups of stocks in its Dividend Achievers Indices. The additions come as part of Mergent’s annual reconstitution of the indices, in which companies are added or removed based on a stringent set of criteria. These changes will be effective after the close of trading on January 31, 2006.
Mergent’s Dividend Achievers are companies that have increased their annual regular dividends for at least the past 10 consecutive years and have met specific liquidity screening criteria. The Dividend Achievers are typically companies with strong cash reserves, solid balance sheets and a proven record of consistent earnings growth. Mergent has been identifying these strong dividend-paying companies for more than 25 years.
“The Dividend Achievers represent the very best of the stock market,” said Jonathan Worrall, Mergent CEOand co-Author of Beating the S&P with Dividends published by John Wiley. “Typically well-known companies, each group of Index constituents shows an historically strong performance pattern, and with an 11.4% group average annual compound dividend growth rate in the last 10 years, they offer investors excellent long-term investment opportunities.”
The indices are a powerful tool for investors seeking a long-term portfolio of higher risk-adjusted returns. In recognition of the growing appetite for dividend focused-investing, nine products based on the Dividend Achievers methodology have been introduced into the marketplace. These include: the BlackRock Enhanced Dividend Achievers Trust (BDJ), the BlackRock Dividend Achievers Trust (BDV), the BlackRock Strategic Dividend Achievers Trust (BDT) and the BlackRock Dividend Achievers Portfolio, an open end mutual fund. The First Asset/BlackRock North American Dividend Achievers Trust (BDAUN) launched in late 2005 and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
In addition, four Dividend Achievers-based exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been introduced by PowerShares Capital Management. The first of these, the PowerShares High Yield Equity Dividend Achievers (PEY) began trading in December 2004. Three new ETFs were introduced in September 2005: PowerShares Broad Dividend Achievers Portfolio (PFM), PowerShares High Growth Rate Dividend Achievers Portfolio (PHJ) and PowerShares International Dividend Achievers Portfolio (PID). These funds trade on the American Stock Exchange.
The complete list of 2006 Dividend Achievers is available at www.dividendachievers.com. Mergent's Dividend Achievers Handbook, published quarterly by John Wiley & Sons, provides corporate information and financial data on all of the US and Canadian Dividend Achievers companies, as well as a wide range of supplementary rankings.
Broad Dividend Achievers Index (DAA)
Comprised of all US companies listed on a major US stock exchange, that have increased their regular dividends for a minimum of 10 consecutive years. The Index is calculated using a modified market cap weighting methodology.
INDEX DELETIONS FOR 2006 (16 Companies) |
|
Ticker |
Official Name |
RRD |
Donnelley (R.R.) & Sons Co |
FNM |
Fannie Mae |
FBNC |
First Bancorp |
FCBC |
First Community Bancshares, Inc. |
| FRME | First Merchants Corp. |
FOBB |
First Oak Brook Bancshares, Inc. |
GVA |
Granite Construction Inc. |
HU |
Hudson United Bancorp |
MMC |
Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc. |
MBTF |
MBT Financial Corp. |
GAS |
NICOR Inc |
PEBO |
Peoples Bancorp, Inc |
RF |
Regions Financial Corp. |
TDS |
Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. |
STA |
The St Paul Travelers Companies Inc. |
WASH |
Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc. |
|
INDEX ADDITIONS FOR 2006 (25 Companies) |
|
Ticker |
Official Name |
SRCE |
1st Source Corp |
AF |
Astoria Financial Corp. |
BMI |
Badger Meter, Inc. |
BPL |
Buckeye Partners, L.P. |
CNB |
Colonial BancGroup Inc. |
CBMD |
Columbia Bancorp |
CTBI |
Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. |
DCI |
Donaldson Co. Inc. |
ERIE |
Erie Indemnity Co. |
FBP |
First Bancorp (PR) |
BUSE |
First Busey Corp. (United States) |
FPL |
FPL Group, Inc. |
GBBK |
Greater Bay Bancorp |
HHS |
Harte-Hanks, Inc. |
IBKC |
IBERIABANK Corp. |
IBM |
International Business Machines Corp. |
NJR |
New Jersey Resources Corp. |
NYT |
New York Times Co. |
OSBC |
Old Second Bancorp., Inc. (Aurora, Ill.) |
PII |
Polaris Industries Inc. |
QUIX |
Quixote Corp. |
SASR |
Sandy Spring Bancorp |
SWWC |
Southwest Water Co. |
SSS |
Sovran Self Storage, Inc |
SUBK |
Suffolk Bancorp |
Dividend Achievers50 Index (DAY)
A subset of the Broad Dividend Achievers Index, the Index is comprised of the 50 highest dividend yielding US Dividend Achievers. The Index is calculated using a dividend yield weighting methodology.
INDEX DELETIONS FOR 2006 (11 Companies) |
|
Ticker |
Official Name |
AWR |
American States Water Co. |
FINB |
First Indiana Corp |
FRME |
First Merchants Corp |
MMC |
Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc |
GAS |
NICOR Inc |
HU |
Hudson United Bancorp |
RF |
Regions Financial Corp. |
SKYF |
Sky Financial Group |
UGI |
UGI Corp. |
WFC |
Wells Fargo & Co. |
WL |
Wilmington Trust Corp. |
|
INDEX ADDITIONS FOR 2006 (11 Companies) |
|
Ticker |
Official Name |
CTBI |
Community Trust Bancorp, Inc. |
FITB |
Fifth Third Bancorp (Cincinnati, OH) |
FPL |
FPL Group, Inc. |
HNBC |
Harleysville National Corp. |
NPBC |
National Penn Bancshares, Inc. (Boyertown, Penn.) |
NJR |
New Jersey Resources Corp. |
PRK |
Park National Corp. (Newark, OH) |
PIR |
Pier 1 Imports Inc |
RBNC |
Republic Bancorp, Inc. (MI) |
RPM |
RPM International Inc. (DE) |
STL |
Sterling Bancorp (N.Y.) |
Additions to and deletions from a Mergent index do not in any way reflect an opinion on the investment merits of the company.
About Mergent
Mergent, Inc., a Xinhua Finance company (TSE Mothers: 9399), is the preferred leading provider of business and financial data on global publicly listed companies. The company is headquartered in New York, NY, and Charlotte, NC, with sales offices in key American cities as well as London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Toronto, and Sydney. Mergent’s databases include information on more than 15,000 U.S. public companies and 20,000 non-U.S. public companies in more than 100 countries. Mergent is the publisher of the Dividend Achievers™ family of indices including Broad, Dividend Achiever50, International, High Growth and Canadian. Mergent products and services include Ford Equity Research, independent equity research with buy, sell and hold recommendations; Mergent Online; Mergent Manuals, Handbooks and Investment Guides; EventsData, web-based reporting of corporate actions and events; BondSource, access to municipal and corporate fixed income data and end-of-day evaluation pricing. For more information, visit our websites, www.dividendachievers.com and www.mergent.com.
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About Xinhua Finance Limited
Xinhua Finance Limited is China’s unchallenged leader in financial information and media, and is listed on the Mothers Board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (symbol: 9399) (OTC ADRs: XHFNY). Bridging China’s financial markets and the world, Xinhua Finance serves financial institutions, corporations and re-distributors through four focused and complementary service lines: Indices, Ratings, Financial News and Investor Relations. Founded in 1999, the Company is headquartered in Shanghai with 17 offices and 22 news bureaus across Asia, Australia, North America and Europe. For more information, please visit www.xinhuafinance.com.
