This screen prioritizes companies that raise their dividend over those with the highest starting yield. It requires profitability, at least five years of earnings growth, and payouts that are covered by cash rather than funded from the balance sheet.

The result is a list tilted toward businesses whose earnings are growing fast enough to keep funding and raising the dividend in the years ahead.

Dividend growth investing treats the trajectory of the payout as more important than its current size. A 2% yield that grows 10% a year overtakes a static 4% yield within a decade, and the raises themselves are a signal of management confidence in future cash flow.

Because the strategy leans on earnings growth to fund those raises, it tends to surface higher-quality, compounding businesses rather than mature, slow-growth cash cows.

Check each candidate's multi-year dividend and earnings history. You want the raises backed by rising profits, not by an ever-larger share of stagnant earnings.

Once you have a shortlist, value the strongest names to make sure you are not overpaying for the growth you are screening for.