Agilent Technologies (A) will raise its quarterly dividend by 7.8 percent to 19.4 cents per share in 2020. This follows a 9.8 percent increase to 18 cents per share announced in 2019 by the the life sciences company. Agilent has now raised its dividend for six consecutive years.

The increased dividend of $0.194 per share will be paid on January 27, 2021 to shareholders of record on January 5, 2021. A new annualized dividend of 78 cents per share yields 0.7% at a stock price of $112.

Agilent will now pay an estimated $239 million to shareholders annually if this new dividend increase is included by dividendhike.com. The dividend growth has been slowing every year now since 2015, when the dividend was boosted by 15 percent.

Agilent Technologies Inc. is a is a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics and applied chemical markets, providing application focused solutions that include instruments, software, services and consumables for the entire laboratory workflow. Agilent's operating segments are: Life Sciences and Applied Markets Business, Diagnostics and Genomics Business and Agilent CrossLab Business. Agilent Technologies Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in May 1999 and has paid a dividend every year since 2012.