S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats

The Dividend Aristocrats are S&P 500 constituents that have increased their dividend payouts for 25 consecutive years.

The companies that make up the Dividend Aristocrats span ten different business sectors with both growth and value holdings. This composition contrasts with most other dividend-yield based portfolios, which tend to be heavily weighted toward financials and utilities, and often have a strong value tilt.^[1]

The list declined from 52 companies in 2009 to 42 companies in 2010, as many companies cut their dividend payouts.

It then held steady in 2011, with three companies being dropped, and three companies (ECL, HRL, MKC) being added.

For 2012, one company (CenturyLink; CTL) was removed from the index while ten companies (T, CL, BEN, GPC, HCP, ITW, MDT, NUE, SYY, TROW) were added. CenturyLink was removed after reducing its dividend from 72.5 to 54 cents per share per quarter. The ten companies added were:

1. AT&T (T)
2. Colgate-Palmolive (CL)
3. Franklin Resources (BEN)
4. Genuine Parts (GPC)
5. HCP (HCP)
6. Illinois Tool Works (ITW)
7. Medtronic (MDT)
8. Nucor (NUE)
9. Sysco (SYY)
10. T. Rowe Price (TROW)

In 2013 Pitney Bowes (PBI) was removed after slashing the dividend from 37.5c to 18.75c per quarter per share.

In 2013 the list grew to 54 companies and didn't change in 2014.

In 2015, Family Dollar Stores (FDO) was removed from the list due to its purchase by Dollar Tree.

In 2015, Sigma-Aldrich Corp (SIAL) was removed from the list due to its acquisition by Merck.^[2]

In 2016 Chubb Corp (CB) was removed upon acquisition by ACE Limited (ACE).^[3]

The full list of 51 companies follows:

1. 3M Company (MMM)
2. AFLAC Inc. (AFL)
3. AbbVie Inc. – (ABBV)
4. Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
5. Air Products & Chemicals Inc (APD)
6. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co (ADM)
7. AT&T (T)
8. Automatic Data Processing (ADP)
9. C. R. Bard (BCR)
10. Becton Dickinson (BDX)
11. Bemis Company (BMS)
12. Brown-Forman (Class B shares BF/B)
13. Cardinal Health Inc. – (CAH)
14. Chevron Corp. – (CVX)
15. Cincinnati Financial Corp (CINF)
16. Cintas Corp (CTAS)
17. The Clorox Company (CLX)
18. Coca-Cola Co (KO)
19. Colgate-Palmolive (CL)
20. Consolidated Edison Inc (ED)
21. Dover Corp (DOV)
22. Ecolab Inc (ECL)
23. Emerson Electric (EMR)
24. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM)
25. Franklin Resources (BEN)
26. Genuine Parts Company (GPC)
27. W. W. Grainger (GWW)
28. HCP (HCP)
29. Hormel Foods Corp (HRL)
30. Illinois Tool Works (ITW)
31. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
32. Kimberly-Clark (KMB)
33. Leggett & Platt (LEG)
34. Lowe's Companies, Inc. (LOW)
35. McCormick & Company (MKC)
36. McDonald's (MCD)
37. Medtronic (MDT)
38. Nucor (NUE)
39. PPG Industries (PPG)
40. PepsiCo (PEP)
41. Pentair – (PNR)
42. Procter & Gamble (PG)
43. S&P Global (formerly McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. SPGI)
44. Sherwin-Williams (SHW)
45. Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (SWK)
46. Sysco (SYY)
47. T. Rowe Price (TROW)
48. Target Corporation (TGT)
49. VF Corporation (VFC)
50. Walmart (WMT)
51. Walgreen Boots Alliance (WBA)

See also ^[4][5]

Investing

The exchange-traded fund SPDR S&P Dividend (SDY) tracks the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index. The fund is a competitor to the popular iShares Select Dividend (DVY) which tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index. The ProShares S&P 500® Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL) is tracking the S&P 500 dividend aristocrats since 10/9/13. Historical performance for the NOBL ETF has mildly outperformed the S&P 500 since its inception.^[6]

References

1. ↑ http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2009/01/07/the-sp-500-dividend-aristocrats/?WT.qs_osrc=FBS-FCN-19
2. ↑ https://www.spice-indices.com/idpfiles/spice-assets/resources/public/documents/261345_index-announcement-spdaudp-20151112.pdf
3. ↑ https://www.spice-indices.com/idpfiles/spice-assets/resources/public/documents/289751_index-announcement-sphyda-20160113.pdf
4. ↑ http://moneyinvestexpert.com/dividend-aristocrats/dividend-aristocrats-2014
5. ↑ http://www.proshares.com/funds/nobl_daily_holdings.html
6. ↑ http://smartdividendstocks.com/dividend-aristocrats-etf/

External links

• US Dividend Champions List An excel spreadsheet prepared by David Fish. The list provides an abundance of stock information for companies that have increased their dividend for consecutive years in a row. The list is broken into three categories separated by the dividend streak length: Dividend Champions (>24 years), Contenders (10 to 24 years) and Challengers (5 to 9 years).
• Canadian Dividend All-Star List The Canadian Dividend All-Star List is a list of Canadian companies that have increased their dividend for five or more calendar years in a row. The excel spreadsheet which can be downloaded for free provides a variety of stock and dividend information. Beyond regular stock information like the price, dividend yield, or P/E the list provides more than 10 years worth of dividend payments for each company and the lowest price each year for the past decade.
• Dividend Aristocrats List
• Dividend Aristocrats 2015