CNNMoney.com
Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Taxes Jobs Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Mutual Funds The Help Desk Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Best Places to Retire Fortune Brainstorm Tech Apple 2.0 Blog Big Tech Blog Sectors and Stocks Tech Talk Resource Guide Small Business Makeovers Questions & Answers Small Business Video 100 Best Places to Launch FSB 100 Fortune Small Business Fortune 500 Brainstorm Tech Investing Management C-Suite Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts
6 of 6
BACK NEXT
Wm. Wrigley Jr.
Wm. Wrigley Jr.

For years, Wrigley enjoyed a near-monopoly on the gum market in the U.S. And even now, as it struggles with new competition from candy juggernaut Cadbury in North America, Wrigley is still benefiting from strong demand overseas.

The company may be losing market share domestically, but the Middle East, Europe, and Asia (especially China) is where the growth is. Domestic sales were flat in the last quarter, but sales to Europe and the Middle East grew 26% in 2007, while Asian sales grew 20%. International markets accounted for 68% of Wrigley's total sales.

Analyst Alexia Howard of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said she's worried about the increased competition from Cadbury. But she also said Wrigley consistently produces a steady stream of cash. So it should be able to comfortably pay a dividend -- and increase it -- for the foreseeable future.

As such, Wrigley's dividend yield of 2.3% is as refreshing as a stick of Doublemint. Plus, the dividend has grown by an average of about 13% over the past five years. Now that's some juicy fruit for investors.



More galleries
Last updated June 20 2008: 1:23 PM ET
More Galleries
Holiday gifts for the yoga nut These 7 small brands are helping fuel a booming yoga industry. More
Best of the L.A. Auto Show Fuel economy is the name of the game in Southern California. More
Are things really getting better? Last quarter, the economy grew by the largest amount since the summer of 2007, but there are signs that things are still getting worse. More

Special Offer
© 2009 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2009 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.