The race is on for ways to escape the ravages of rising prices.
One popular way to sidestep the inflation boogieman is with stocks that pay dividends that increase annually — like clockwork. There are just seven stocks, including supplement maker Mead Johnson Nutrition (MJN), money transmitter Western Union (WU) and oil driller Helmerich & Payne (HP), that consistently increased their dividends and took them up by a compound average annual rate of 30% or more a year the past five years, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Capital IQ. To make the list, the stock needed to increase the dividend each and every year out of the past five years and be a member of the Standard & Poor’s 500.
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