Dividend growth investing isn’t about maximizing current income, nor should it be confused with traditional growth investing. In fact, the Morningstar US Dividend Growth Index currently falls on the value side of the US stock market.

What is a dividend growth strategy ? You might hear it pitched as a “quality”-focused investment approach, with “defensive” characteristics. Companies growing their payouts to shareholders are, in theory, financially secure. Their competitive positions are generally strong, even strengthening. By reputation, dividend growth stocks are less volatile than the broad market. These attributes have attracted billions in investor capital to funds with “dividend growth” in their names.

Yet, dividend growth stocks have underperformed the broad US equity market ov

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