This data-facility operator has raised its dividend at a 13% compound annual rate over the past three years, a pace that ranks in the top 20% of every dividend-paying stock we track.
Its business is renting out server space and, more importantly, the direct connections that let one company’s network plug straight into a cloud provider’s without passing through the open internet. That connection business has become the main growth engine, as demand for artificial intelligence workloads pushes more companies toward facilities built for dense, fast, ready-made networking.
The most recent quarter showed double-digit revenue growth and a record number of new customer connections, and management raised its full-year outlook for the second straight quarter. There’s a tradeoff behind that growth too. Building new capacity fast enough to meet demand means more borrowing, and management flagged power availability as a real constraint in some overseas markets.
A rising dividend backed by real revenue growth is exactly the combination our Dividend Growth Stocks Portfolio looks for, and this holding has delivered both at once. We’ve decided to increase our position rather than simply hold steady, because the latest results show the growth driving those dividend raises is accelerating rather than leveling off. That’s the kind of signal that supports adding to a position, not just keeping it.
