ExxonMobil has continued its streak of hiking its dividend, announcing another increase in its payout to shareholders on Wednesday. The oil major has boosted its dividend every year for more than three decades, but the collapse of oil prices since 2014 has resulted in more scrutiny over the company’s payments to shareholders. Exxon has defied the oil market downturn, stepping up shareholder payments even though the company has seen its debt pile balloon over the past three years. Exxon is viewed as one of the most rock-solid stocks for investors, and the confidence that shareholders have in the ever-increasing dividend is one of the reasons why. The dividend is treated as sacred – Exxon, and other oil majors, refused to touch their dividend policies over the past few years even as they made savage cuts elsewhere, slashing new exploration, deferring projects, gutting their payrolls, and selling off assets. They […]