It’s great to invest in well performing companies, but it’s even better when you can get a dividend from them. As a long-term investment strategy, dividend growth stocks can be some of the most profitable ways to put your money to work.

But don’t just invest in any dividend growth stock. You have to find good rated companies that reinvest back in themselves.

We did just that using our stocks screener. We narrowed down the top five BUY rated dividend growth stocks. These stocks offer a trailing twelve-month dividend of 2.5 percent or more (well above the 2.11 percent industry average) and retain at least 40 percent of their earnings, allowing for reinvesting and growth of the company.

The full list based on the above criteria resulted in seven companies. Two of them did not have five consecutive 10 percent or more increases in dividends per share, therefore, we excluded them from the list.

The top five stocks below grew their dividends per share at least 10 percent annually for the last five years.

The list above offers a mix of stocks in the financials, IT, industrials, and utilities sectors.