The industrial sector is the section of the overall stock market that is concerned with manufacturing, producing, and distributing goods used in construction and manufacturing.

The sector also includes other industries like airlines, farming equipment, industrial machinery, lumber production, and metal fabrication.

A surprising number of Dividend Kings, a group of stocks with at least 50 years of dividend increases, come from the Industrials sector.

These 3 industrials sector stocks are Dividend Kings, and should continue to increase their dividends each year going forward.

Automatic Data Processing (ADP)

Automatic Data Processing is one of the largest business services outsourcing companies in the world. The company provides payroll services, human resources technology, and other business operations to more than 700,000 corporate customers. Automatic Data Processing produces annual revenue of about $20 billion.

ADP posted third quarter earnings on April 30th, 2025, and results were better than expected on both the top and bottom lines. Adjusted earnings-per-share came to $3.06, which was nine cents ahead of estimates. Earnings were up from $2.35 in Q2, and from $2.88 a year ago.

Revenue was up almost 6% year-over-year to $5.6 billion, beating expectations by $110 million. Employer Services revenue was $3.77 billion, up 5% year-over-year. Segment earnings were $1.5 billion, up 6% year-over-year, on pretax margin of 39.8% of revenue. The latter was up 20 basis points year-over-year.

PEO Services revenue was $1.79 billion, up 7% year-over-year, with segment earnings up 7% to $253 million on pretax margin of 14.2% of revenue. That was unchanged from a year ago.

Automatic Data Processing has compounded its adjusted earnings-per-share at a rate of more than 13% per year over the last decade, which we believe it can come close to matching moving forward given that its recent earnings growth had been accelerating meaningfully prior to COVID-19. Looking forward, we believe the company is capable of delivering 8% annualized growth in earnings-per-share over full economic cycles. Much of this growth is likely to be driven by the company’s Professional Employer Organization (PEO) Services segment, which continues to deliver very impressive revenue growth. Importantly, this revenue growth has been accompanied by meaningful margin expansion, which means that the segment’s growth has had an outsized impact on the firm’s bottom line. In addition, the company’s buyback has been a low single-digit tailwind annually for earnings-per-share growth.

ADP has increased its dividend for 50 years.

Tennant Co. (TNC)

Tennant Company is a machinery company that produces cleaning products and that offers cleaning solutions to its customers. In the US, the company holds the market leadership position in its industry, but the company also sells its products in more than 100 additional countries around the globe. Tennant was founded in 1870.

Tennant Company reported its first quarter earnings results in May. The company announced that it generated revenues of $290 million during the quarter, which was 7% less than the top line number from the previous year’s quarter.

This was worse than the recent trend, as revenue had grown during the last couple of quarters. Revenues were lower compared to what the analyst community had forecast.

Tennant Company generated adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.12 during the first quarter, which was less than what the analyst community had forecast, and was down compared to the previous year.

Management is forecasting that adjusted earnings-per-share will fall into a range of $5.70 to $6.20 in 2025, which means that earnings will decline this year. At the midpoint of the guidance range, $5.95, Tennant’s earnings-per-share would be down around 10%.

Tennant Company has plans to grow its sales inorganically, especially in the Asia/Pacific region, where it benefits from above-average market growth rates. The takeover of Chinese cleaning equipment company Gaomei improved Tennant’s sales outlook in the Chinese market, as well as in other Asian markets. Investments in the business in Asia will increasingly pay off and should deliver solid earnings growth for Tennant in the coming years.

TNC has increased its dividend for 54 years.

W.W. Grainger (GWW)

W.W. Grainger, headquartered in Lake Forest, IL, is one of the largest business-to-business distributors of maintenance, repair, and operations (“MRO”) supplies in the world. The company was founded in 1927 and generated sales of $17.2 billion in 2024.

On April 30th, 2025, W.W. Grainger raised its dividend by 10% to a quarterly rate of $2.26.

On May 1st, 2025, W.W. Grainger posted its Q1 results for the period ending March 31st, 2025. For the quarter, revenues were $4.31 billion, up 1.7% on a reported basis and up 4.4% on a daily, constant currency basis compared to last year.

Net income equaled $479 million, up 0.2% compared to Q1-2024. Net income was driven by a 30 basis point expansion in the gross margin to 39.7%, though the operating margin declined by 20 basis points to 15.6%.

Favorable product mix and supplier funding benefit in High-Touch, along with margin improvement at Zoro, contributed to gross margin gains. Earnings-per-share came in at $9.86, 2.5% higher year-over-year, and were aided by a lower share count.

Grainger had grown its earnings-per-share at a CAGR of 14.0% between 2015 and 2024. This result was driven by ~5.7% annual revenue growth, an expanding profit margin, and a share count that has been reduced by an average of -2.6% per year. The services Grainger provides are essential for other businesses. This makes the business resilient to recessions and economic downturns.

Grainger has increased its dividend for 53 years.