As United Technologies (UTX ) struck one of the largest deals in the aerospace industry after it announced its plans to buy Rockwell Collins (COL) for $23 billion, dividend investors rushed to add this stock to their watchlists, helping the firm move up in rank by 3 places on Dividend.com’s Most Watched Stocks List.
As North Korea tests more missiles, the aerospace & defense industry stands at the perfect crossroads of geopolitical tensions and governments of developed nations trying to strengthen their defense arsenal. United Technologies gets 10% of its revenues from the U.S. government, while the rest is from Asia Pacific and Europe.
United recently raised its dividend from 66 cents per share to 70 cents per share, which is a 6% dividend increase. The market viewed United’s recent acquisition with a pinch of salt, with major brokerages downgrading the stock. UTX was also placed under review by credit ratings agency Moody’s as the firm is likely to add $50 billion (up from $17 billion) of net debt after the deal is completed.
Some of the other major stocks that moved up in ranking were Home Depot (HD ), mostly on account of the hurricanes that hit the U.S. recently, UPS (UPS ), due to its continued strength as the only major dividend-paying company in a duopoly industry, and major drug manufacturer Merck (MRK ), which went ex-dividend last week with a payout of 47 cents.
Check out the changes seen in the Most Watched Stocks List last week here.
Our Most Watched Stocks List is a user-generated, interest-based ranking of dividend-paying stocks, giving you a real-time snapshot of buying interest in the market. Generated by our Premium members’ watchlists, it’s aggregated and ranked by the most watched criteria.
The list has been designed to help income investors navigate the top dividend stocks being tracked by one of the world’s most advanced investing communities.
