S&P Global (SPGI), the parent company of S&P Dow Jones Indices (maintaining the S&P500 Dividend Aristocrats Index) will raise its quarterly dividend by 14.9 percent to 77 cents per share in 2021. This comes after a 17.5 percent hike to $0.67 per share in the first quarter of 2020 and marks the 48th consecutive year of annual dividend increases by the Dividend Aristocrat.

The dividend will be payable on March 10, 2021, to shareholders of record on February 24, 2021. The new annualized dividend rate of $3.08 per share yields 1.0% at a stock price of $305.29.

"Increasing the dividend demonstrates our confidence and optimism in the continued strength of our cash flow generation and financial position," said Douglas L. Peterson, President and CEO of S&P Global in today's press release announcing this new dividend hike. "Returning cash to shareholders remains a cornerstone of our shareholder value proposition. In 2020, we returned $1.8 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases."

S&P Global has now boosted its dividend by double digits for five straight years and is a 2021 dividend hike star just like Franklin Electric with more than 25 years of increases and double digit growth this year. S&P Global will now pay an estimated $741 million in dividends to shareholders annually.

S&P Global Inc., formerly McGraw Hill Financial, Inc., is a provider of credit ratings, benchmarks and analytics in the global capital and commodity markets.  The capital markets include asset managers, investment banks, commercial banks, insurance companies, exchanges, trading firms and issuers; and the commodity markets include producers, traders and intermediaries within energy, petrochemicals, metals and agriculture. The company's four reportable segments are: S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Platts. The company has paid a dividend each year since 1937.