Procter & Gamble Has Raised Its Dividend for 70 Straight Years. Only 5 Other Companies Can Say the Same.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) raised its quarterly dividend 3% in April to $1.0885 per share, marking its 70th consecutive year of dividend increases. Only five other publicly traded companies have raised their payouts for that many years in a row.

The streak is even more remarkable when you zoom out. P&G has paid a dividend every year since its incorporation in 1890 -- 136 straight years. And the payments are enormous in absolute terms, too. The company behind Tide, Pampers, and Gillette expects to pay around $10 billion in dividends in fiscal 2026, plus roughly $5 billion in share repurchases on top of it.

A streak like this is only possible because of what P&G sells. Detergent, diapers, razors, and paper towels get bought in good economies and bad ones, and the company's latest results show that durability at work. In its fiscal 2026 third quarter (the period ended March 31), P&G's organic sales, which exclude currency moves, acquisitions, and divestitures, grew 3% year over year, and core earnings per share rose 3% to $1.59. Management also maintained its full-year outlook even while absorbing tariff-related costs.

Image source: Procter & Gamble

Is the stock a buy for income?

With shares trading near $148, P&G stock yields about 2.9% as of this writing. The payout consumes about 63% of the company's earnings over the past 12 months, a level that leaves room for the increases to continue. And the valuation looks arguably reasonable, too. Shares trade at about 21 times earnings -- not a bargain, but hardly a demanding price for a business this durable.

Income investors should like that trade-off. This is a slow-growth business, with organic sales rising at a low single-digit rate, so nobody should expect the stock to keep up with the market's fastest growers. But the dividend is well covered by earnings, the raises keep coming, and 70 years of history suggest the payout can survive whatever the economy does next.

For investors looking for dependable income, P&G remains one of the simplest options in the market: a nearly 3% yield, backed by one of the longest dividend-growth streaks any company has ever put together.

Daniel Sparks and his clients do not have positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.