The J. M. Smucker Company (SJM) will raise its quarterly dividend by 2.3 percent in 2020. This follows a 3.5 percent dividend hike to $0.88 per common share in 2019 and will mark the 19th consecutive year of dividend increases by the food and beverage products company.

The increased dividend will be paid on Tuesday, September 1, 2020, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Friday, August 14, 2020. A new annual rate of $3.60 per share yields 3.2% at a stock price of $111.72.

In the press release dated July 21, 2020 J.M. Smucker announces this dividend hike and states that the company remains committed to returning value to shareholders, as this represents the nineteenth consecutive year of dividend growth.

This year J.M. Smucker's stock price has gained 7 percent, resulting in a market cap of approximately $13 billion. When we include this latest dividend hike the company pays an estimated $411 million in dividends to shareholders annually.

The 2.3 percent dividend hike is the smallest by J.M. Smucker in many years and follows a small dividend hike of 3.5 percent last year. This brings the average dividend growth in the last five years down to 6.1 percent. Since 2009 the company has raised its dividend by double digits five times. The last double digit dividend hike was announced in 2016, when J.M. Smucker did a 11.9 percent hike.

The J.M. Smucker Company is a leading marketer and manufacturer of consumer food and beverage products and pet food and pet snacks in North America. The company owns a portfolio of 40+ brands which are found in 90 percent of U.S. homes and countless restaurants. In consumer foods and beverages, its brands include Smucker's, Folgers, Jif, Dunkin' Donuts, Crisco, Pillsbury, R.W. Knudsen Family, Hungry Jack, Café Bustelo, Martha White, truRoots, Sahale Snacks, Robin Hood, and Bick's. In pet food and pet snacks, its brands include Meow Mix, Milk-Bone, Kibbles 'n Bits, Natural Balance, and 9Lives. J.M. Smucker has been paying a dividend to shareholders every year since at least 1959.