Dover Corporation (DOV) is a diversified manufacturer of a broad range of specialized industrial products and manufacturing equipment. The company has evolved largely through acquisitions, with 79 acquisitions costing approximately $4.1 billion completed between January 2000 and December 2008. It has four operating segments: Industrial Products (33% revenue 2008), Engineered Systems (26%), Fluid Management (24%), and Electronic Technologies (17%).

DOV's growth strategy is based on initiatives such as driving organic growth (new products, pricing initiatives, gaining market share, customer service), acquisition strategy (acquire and develop platform businesses, growth, innovation, higher-than-average profit margins), expanding globally, and improving operating efficiency.

DOV is a Dividend Aristocrat and member of Broad Dividend Achiever and has been raising dividends for last 55 years. The most recent dividend increase was in August 2009. My objective here is to analyze if DOV still continues to be a good dividend growth stock and how does it rate on my scale of risk-to-dividends.

Trend Analysis
Here I am looking at trends for past 10 years of corporation's revenue and profitability. These parameters should show consistently growth trends. The trend chart is shown in image below.

• Revenue: In general, a growing trend since 2002. The average revenue growth for last 10 years has been approximately 6.8%. Year 2009 is likely to show the weakness and dip in revenue.
• Cash Flows: Overall, an increasing trend of free cash flow and operating cash flow. It is good indicator that FCF is always greater than income.
• EPS from continuing operation: In general, it had an increasing trend from 2001 to 2008. It is likely to take a dip in 2009.
• Dividends per share: Slow but increasing trend.

DOVER - Trend Analysis

Risk Parameter Calculation
Here I use the corporation's financial health to assign a risk number for measuring risk-to-dividends. The risk number for risk-to-dividends is 1.57. This is a low risk category as per my 3-point risk scale. The ability to keep its margins, consistency and sustainability of FCF, low payout factor, and low leverage makes it a low risk to dividends stocks.

Quality of Dividends
This section measures the dividend growth rate, duration of growth, consistency over a period of past five years.