The Chowder Rule | How To Calculate The Chowder Number

Up to date on July twenty third, 2025 by Bob Ciura

The Chowder Rule is an heuristic technique to search out excessive complete return shares on your dividend development portfolio.

A quick definition of The Chowder Rule is under:

The Chowder Rule is a rule-based system used to establish dividend development shares with robust complete return potential by combining dividend yield and dividend development.

The Chowder Rule was invented and popularized by Looking for Alpha contributor Chowder. The rule will get its title from the Looking for Alpha contributor (not from soup).

The Chowder Quantity is derived from making use of The Chowder Rule. The Chowder Quantity is calculated as a inventory’s present dividend yield plus its 5-year dividend development price.

The Chowder Rule is utilized in a different way to totally different shares. The factors and guidelines are under:

Rule 1: If inventory has a dividend yield larger than 3%, its Chowder Quantity should be larger than 12%.

Rule 2: If a inventory has a dividend yield lower than 3%, its Chowder Quantity should be larger than 15%.

Rule 3: If a inventory is a utility, its 5-year dividend development price plus its dividend yield should be larger than 8%.

Which means what passes as a ‘good’ Chowder Quantity rating is dependent upon a inventory’s present dividend yield (if it’s over or underneath 3%) and the sector it’s in (if it’s a utility or not).

This text examines the methodology of the Chowder Rule. The article additionally lists all shares with 25+ years of rising dividends that cross the Chowder Rule.

Desk Of Contents

Guidelines Based mostly On Clever Investing Ideas

The Chowder Rule combines 2 clever investing ideas:

Anticipated complete return investing is a method the place traders search for companies with the best anticipated compound annual development price. The anticipated compound annual development price is approximated as dividend yield plus anticipated development on a per share foundation plus annualized valuation a number of adjustments.

In different phrases, complete return investing takes into consideration the one 3 sources of inventory market returns:

Dividends
Development on a per share foundation
Valuation a number of will increase

The ‘Margin of Security’ idea was popularized by Warren Buffett’s mentor (and worth investing pioneer) Benjamin Graham.

Benjamin Graham required a margin of security in his investments. If he thought the honest worth of a inventory was $100, he was not prepared to pay $100 for it. Graham sometimes required a 33% margin of security. Within the $100 instance, Graham would solely pay ~$67 for the inventory.

Combining the margin of security precept with the shares of companies buying and selling under liquidation worth allowed Graham to compound his wealth at round 20% a 12 months for many years.

The Aim of The Chowder Rule

The objective of the Chowder Rule is to create a long-term compound annual development price of over 8%.

The Chowder Rule applies each ‘Margin of Security’ and ‘Complete Return’ pondering to perform this objective.

For shares with a dividend yield over 3%, a 33% ‘margin of security’ is used. As a substitute of hoping the whole lot goes easily with a inventory with a projected CAGR of 8%, spend money on shares with a projected CAGR of 12% and provides your self a 33% margin of security.

The margin of security is expanded for fast-growing low-yield dividend shares. If a inventory has a dividend yield under 3%, the required projected CAGR is expanded from 12% to fifteen%. This offers you a 47% margin of security. The instinct behind that is that fast-growing shares will possible have their development gradual at some future level, so a better margin of security is required.

Utility shares sometimes have excessive yields and gradual development charges. They’re extremely regulated and sometimes get pleasure from regional aggressive benefits from robust limitations to entry. In consequence, the margin of security on utility shares is eliminated utilizing the Chowder Rule. Utility shares want solely have an anticipated complete return of 8% to cross the Chowder Rule

Word that Looking for Alpha creator Chowder recommends utilizing the Chowder Rule final.

Earlier than making use of the Chowder Rule it’s best to discover top quality companies with glorious managements worthy of long-term holding.

The Chowder Rule comes into play solely after you might have recognized a enterprise you’d like to purchase and maintain. The Chowder Rule is the ultimate step in figuring out whether or not or not the enterprise is priced to purchase.

Bettering The Chowder Rule

The Chowder Rule makes intuitive sense.

The one problem that now we have with the Chowder Rule is how unreliable utilizing the 5 12 months dividend development price is for projecting development.

The dividend development price is topic to adjustments within the payout ratio. Take the next instance:

A inventory’s earnings-per-share fall from $10.00 to $5.00 in 5 years
The inventory raises its dividend from $1.00 per share to $3.00 per share in 5 years

Does the inventory actually have a improbable 20%+ development price? No; the underlying enterprise is probably going in decline. The dividend development price reveals large development, however this development is just not sustainable. It is because the payout ratio has elevated from 10% to 60% in 5 years. That’s the place the illusory development comes from.

Earnings-per-share development is often preferable to dividend development as an indicator of underlying enterprise development on a per share foundation.

Earnings-per-share numbers are removed from foolproof. They’re reliant on revenue margins. Revenue margins are sometimes imply reverting over lengthy durations of time and might unfairly skew (both up or down) an organization’s actual underlying enterprise development.

We choose to make use of an affordable estimate of future development that’s primarily based on historic earnings-per-share development, administration’s expectations of development going ahead, and our personal evaluation of future development potential.

Estimating future development does put human bias into the funding determination. It additionally eliminates errors from accounting irregularities or one time earnings (or dividend) spikes or declines.

The objective in estimating future development is to be affordable and cautious, to not be inflexible.

Shares With 25+ Years Of Dividend Development & The Chowder Rule

There are at the moment greater than 150 securities in The Certain Evaluation Analysis Database with 25+ years of consecutive dividend will increase.

You possibly can obtain a spreadsheet of ‘Dividend Champions‘ – securities with 25+ years of rising dividends – on the hyperlink under:

Having been in a position to enhance dividends for 25+ years is an effective rule-of-thumb to establish top quality companies with shareholder pleasant managements.

From there, we calculate The Chowder Quantity for all of those securities to search out which of them cross The Chowder Rule.

We use our 5-year ahead development on a per share foundation estimate as a proxy for The Chowder Rule’s 5-year dividend development price in our calculations. The securities that cross The Chowder Rule are damaged down by class under.

Apparently, solely 19 securities with 25+ years of rising dividends cross The Chowder Rule checks. This reveals how unique these guidelines are in at the moment’s market surroundings.

Every safety that passes The Chowder Rule has a hyperlink to the latest Certain Evaluation Analysis Database report on the corporate.

3%+ Yielding SecuritiesChowder Rule #1: Chowder Rating of 12%+

Matthews Worldwide (MATW)Dividend Yield: 4.0percentGrowth Estimate: 10.0percentChowder Quantity: 14.0%

Stanley Black & Decker (SWK)Dividend Yield: 4.5percentGrowth Estimate: 8.0percentChowder Quantity: 12.5%

Group Financial institution System (CBU)Dividend Yield: 3.4percentGrowth Estimate: 9.0percentChowder Quantity: 12.4%

Arrow Monetary (AROW)Dividend Yield: 4.2percentGrowth Estimate: 8.0percentChowder Quantity: 12.2%

Securities With Yields Underneath 3percentChowder Rule #2: Chowder Rating of 15%+

Nucor Corp. (NUE)Dividend Yield: 1.5percentGrowth Estimate: 20.6percentChowder Quantity: 22.1%

Stepan Co. (SCL)Dividend Yield: 2.7percentGrowth Estimate: 15.0percentChowder Quantity: 17.7%

Badger Meter (BMI)Dividend Yield: 0.7percentGrowth Estimate: 15.0percentChowder Quantity: 15.7%

UtilitiesChowder Rule #3: Chowder Rating of 8%+

H2O America (HTO)Dividend Yield: 3.3percentGrowth Estimate: 8.0percentChowder Quantity: 11.3%

Fortis (FTS)Dividend Yield: 3.5percentGrowth Estimate: 5.5percentChowder Quantity: 9.0%

NextEra Power (NEE)Dividend Yield: 2.9percentGrowth Estimate: 7.0percentChowder Quantity: 9.9%

New Jersey Sources (NJR)Dividend Yield: 3.8percentGrowth Estimate: 6.0percentChowder Quantity: 9.8%

Canadian Utilities (CDUAF)Dividend Yield: 4.6percentGrowth Estimate: 4.0percentChowder Quantity: 8.6%

Atmos Power (ATO)Dividend Yield: 2.2percentGrowth Estimate: 7.0percentChowder Quantity: 9.2%

Artesian Sources (ARTNA)Dividend Yield: 3.6percentGrowth Estimate: 4.9percentChowder Quantity: 8.5%

Eversource Power (ES)Dividend Yield: 4.5percentGrowth Estimate: 6.0percentChowder Quantity: 10.5%

Important Utilities Inc. (WTRG)Dividend Yield: 3.4percentGrowth Estimate: 6.0percentChowder Quantity: 9.4%

Northwest Pure Holding Firm (NWN)Dividend Yield: 4.6percentGrowth Estimate: 4.3percentChowder Quantity: 8.9%

Consolidated Edison (ED)Dividend Yield: 3.3percentGrowth Estimate: 6.0percentChowder Quantity: 9.3%

Black Hills Company (BKH)Dividend Yield: 4.7percentGrowth Estimate: 4.0percentChowder Quantity: 8.7%

Closing Ideas & Additional Studying

4 shares cross the primary model of the Chowder Rule, which calls for a 3% yield or higher. Three shares cross the second model, which is for these under a 3% yield.

Then again, now we have 12 utilities that meet the rule, which provides traders loads of alternative in the case of choosing a dividend inventory to purchase primarily based on the Chowder Rule.

The Chowder Rule is a great tool to search out compelling dividend development inventory concepts. Its guidelines are a comparatively excessive bar to cross, as evidenced by how few securities made the reduce in our evaluation on this article.

With that stated, the next lists comprise different probably top quality dividend development shares to contemplate: