The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Addendum: ABT raised the annualized dividend from $0.56 to $0.88; at the current share price, the dividend yield is 2.5%. I expect continued aggressive dividend increases in 2014 and beyond.

(Upon the ABBV spinoff on 1/1/13, ABT gave ABBV about 70% of the combined-company dividends in an attempt to boost ABBV’s share price. As things turned out, ABBV’s share price did fine, but ABT didn’t know that at the time.)