It’s early 1917. Charles S. Moomy, the vice president of his father’s business, Keystone Rubber Manufacturing Company in Erie, Pennsylvania, decides he wants to go out on his own. He has been saving up and he has connections. But he’s going to stick with what he knows – and that’s rubber. And because synthetic rubber is still in its experimental stages, we’re talking natural rubber, the stuff that has to be harvested from mature trees that grow thousands of miles away. He meets with James T. Johnstone, a New York City rubber broker, who secures for him a large batch of crude rubber (most likely from southeast Asia) and invests $30,000 of his own money as well. Charles purchases $4,000 worth of rubber making machinery and gets an agreement from Montgomery Ward & Company to buy the bicycle inner tubes he plans to make.
This new company of perhaps 65 employees begins operations in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on September 12, 1917. A decade later, the company has over 300 employees and is making 10,000 inner tubes per day. But the next decade, the one that includes the era we refer to as The Great Depression, nearly bankrupts the business. It was touch and go. There were loans. There were sacrifices. And it survived.
Fast forward nearly 100 years, we have ourselves a massively successful, publicly traded company, or rather collection of companies, that can proudly say they are one of fewer than 60 companies with 50+ years of consecutive dividend increases. The headquarters are now in Scottsdale, Arizona, but they haven’t forgotten where it all began…
All hail Carlisle Companies Incorporated!
Carlisle Companies Inc [CSL] is extremely proud of their dividend streak. The link above, at least for the time being, is dedicated to the 50-year achievement – even the video. Their corporate history is peppered with mentions of stock splits and different dividend milestones. They understand the importance of paying a dividend and raising that dividend consistently.
According to Schwab:
Carlisle Companies Incorporated operates as a manufacturer and supplier of building envelope products and solutions in the United States, Europe, North America, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Carlisle Construction Materials (CCM) and Carlisle Weatherproofing Technologies (CWT). The CCM segment offers single-ply roofing solutions, including ethylene propylene diene monomer, thermoplastic polyolefin, polyvinyl chloride membrane, polyiso insulation, and engineered metal roofing and wall panel systems for commercial and residential buildings. Its CWT segment provides waterproofing and moisture protection products; protective roofing underlayment; fully integrated liquid and sheet applied air/vapor barriers; sealants/primers and flashing systems; roof coatings and mastics; spray polyurethane foam and coating systems for a range of thermal protection applications and other premium polyurethane products; block-molded expanded polystyrene insulation; engineered products for HVAC applications; and products for a variety of industrial and surfacing applications. The company sells its products under the Carlisle SynTec, Versico, WeatherBond, Hunter Panels, Resitrix, and Hertalan brands. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.
‘Building envelope’? Apparently, the building envelope is what prevents the outside elements from reaching the inside of the building. I’m sure rubber is still in the mix, although by now it is all synthetic.
CSL becomes the 14th Dividend King from the Industrials sector. Below is a list of all the Kings in the sector and the industry in which they conduct their business.
| Company | Ticker | Industry |
| ABM Industries Inc | ABM | Commercial Services & Supplies |
| Automatic Data Processing Inc | ADP | Professional Services |
| Carlisle Cos Inc | CSL | Building Products |
| Dover Corp | DOV | Machinery |
| Emerson Electric Co | EMR | Electrical Equipment |
| Gorman-Rupp Co | GRC | Machinery |
| W.W. Grainger Inc | GWW | Trading Companies & Distributors |
| Illinois Tool Works Inc | ITW | Machinery |
| MSA Safety Inc | MSA | Commercial Services & Supplies |
| Nordson Corp | NDSN | Machinery |
| Parker-Hannifin Corp | PH | Machinery |
| Pentair plc | PNR | Machinery |
| Stanley Black & Decker Inc | SWK | Machinery |
| Tennant Co | TNC | Machinery |
In addition to being the only Industrial in the Building Products sub-industry (amongst the Dividend Kings above), it is interesting to note that Dover Corp [DOV] was birthed from a Carlisle business and subsequently held under the same parent company at one point in this long story of acquisitions and restructurings.
In fact, DOV has maintained an uninterrupted streak of paying an annually increasing dividend since the year 1954.
At the moment CSL pays a 1.4% dividend yield which alone will keep it from the Top 10 weekly ranking. There is also the fact that it is trading close to its estimated fair value. However, there may come a time when the stock market collectively chases other bobby dazzlers and loses track of CSL. When that happens, we could see CSL bubble to the top of the weekly ranking and perhaps even find its way into the Portfolio for the Ages.