Hormel Foods confirmed with its fiscal 2025 fourth quarter release that it has delivered 60 consecutive years of uninterrupted dividend increases, cementing its place among the market's Dividend Kings, but the most recent raise was only a 1% bump that lifted the annualized rate to $1.17 per share. The company paid $0.29 per quarter through all of 2025 before stepping up to $0.2925 with the January 12, 2026 ex-dividend date, a smaller increase than the move from $0.26 to $0.275 in early 2023 and from $0.275 to $0.2825 in early 2024. Interim CEO Jeff Ettinger called the milestone a legacy the company is extremely proud of. The payout remains well covered: Hormel returned $161 million to stockholders in dividends in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, its 391st consecutive quarterly payout, and finished the quarter with $827 million in cash, while third quarter operating cash flow reached $240.6 million, up 53.5% year over year, and management raised fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $1.45 to $1.51. Shares closed at $20.83 on September 18, 2026, down 12.19% over one year and 41.22% over five years, pushing the trailing yield to roughly 5.62%, and Hormel's slow-raise pattern echoes fellow Dividend King McCormick & Company, while Kraft Heinz sits on the other side with a payout rebased years ago rather than grown steadily.
Hormel Foods CorporationHormel confirmed its 60th consecutive annual dividend increase, though the raise was only 1% to $1.17 annualized, and raised fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance.
The Kraft Heinz Company
McCormick & Company Incorporated