July 2019 Dividend Aristocrats List: 25+ Years of Rising Dividends Sure Dividend

Article updated July 1st, 2019 by Ben Reynolds
Spreadsheet data updated weekly on Wednesdays

The Dividend Aristocrats are a select group of 57 S&P 500 stocks with 25+ years of consecutive dividend increases.

They are the ‘best of the best’ dividend growth stocks. The Dividend Aristocrats have a long history of outperforming the market.

The requirements to be a Dividend Aristocrat are:

Be in the S&P 500
Have 25+ consecutive years of dividend increases
Meet certain minimum size & liquidity requirements

There are currently 57 Dividend Aristocrats. You can download an Excel spreadsheet of all 57 (with metrics that matter) by clicking the link below:

Click here to download your Dividend Aristocrats Excel Spreadsheet List now.

Note: On January 24th, 2019, Chubb (CB), Caterpillar (CAT), People’s United Financial (PBCT), and United Technologies (UTX) were added to the Dividend Aristocrats Index.

Dividend Aristocrats 2019 Update

Source: S&P News Release

You can see detailed analysis on all 57 further below in this article, in our Dividend Aristocrats In Focus series. Analysis includes valuation, growth, and competitive advantage(s).

How To Use The Dividend Aristocrats List To Find Dividend Investment Ideas
Performance
Sector Overview
Dividend Aristocrats Analysis (The Dividend Aristocrats In Focus Series)
Historical Dividend Aristocrats List (1989 – 2015)
Final Thoughts

You can also watch the following video for more information on the Dividend Aristocrats and see a table of the Dividend Aristocrats below.

Ticker	Name	Price	Dividend Yield	Market Cap ($M)	P/E Ratio	Payout Ratio	Beta
MMM	3M Co.	174.67	3.160	100,684	18.1	57.3	1.06
AOS	A. O. Smith Corp.	44.26	1.800	6,273	17.2	31.0	0.94
ABT	Abbott Laboratories	86.20	1.446	151,296			1.02
ABBV	AbbVie, Inc.	68.32	5.943	101,002	19.6	116.3	0.93
AFL	Aflac, Inc.	55.65	1.887	41,477	13.6	25.6	0.67
APD	Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.	224.16	1.970	49,844	29.1	57.3	0.81
ADM	Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.	40.02	3.361	22,580	13.7	46.0	0.72
T	AT&T, Inc.	32.90	6.073	242,731	12.2	74.4	0.64
ADP	Automatic Data Processing, Inc.	165.71	1.790	71,982	37.4	66.9	1.07
BDX	Becton, Dickinson & Co.	251.85	1.207	67,932	72.8	87.9	0.88
BF.B	Brown-Forman Corp.	55.97	1.162	26,622	32.1	37.3	0.79
CAH	Cardinal Health, Inc.	44.76	4.227	13,433	392.6	1,659.7	0.93
CAT	Caterpillar, Inc.	134.34	2.476	77,620	12.4	30.6	1.50
CB	Chubb Ltd.	150.45	1.941	68,886	17.7	34.4	0.56
CVX	Chevron Corp.	124.43	3.665	236,475	17.1	62.5	0.83
CINF	Cincinnati Financial Corp.	107.05	2.008	17,462	17.2	34.6	0.62
CTAS	Cintas Corp.	258.77	0.787	27,227	31.3	24.7	1.05
CLX	The Clorox Co.	159.59	2.406	20,325	25.8	62.0	0.38
KO	The Coca-Cola Co.	51.95	3.009	222,605	33.0	99.4	0.36
CL	Colgate-Palmolive Co.	73.62	2.278	63,315	27.5	62.6	0.51
ED	Consolidated Edison, Inc.	87.59	3.294	28,650	20.0	66.0	0.13
DOV	Dover Corp.	94.34	2.001	13,873	25.6	51.2	0.93
ECL	Ecolab, Inc.	195.97	0.888	56,481	38.2	33.9	0.77
EMR	Emerson Electric Co.	64.67	3.015	39,747	17.5	52.6	1.12
XOM	Exxon Mobil Corp.	75.11	4.346	319,362	17.3	75.2	0.83
FRT	Federal Realty Investment Trust	130.51	3.111	9,863	43.0	133.8	0.44
BEN	Franklin Resources, Inc.	34.79	2.814	17,678	11.7	33.0	0.94
GD	General Dynamics Corp.	183.55	2.076	53,022	16.4	34.0	0.97
GPC	Genuine Parts Co.	102.22	2.859	14,930	18.8	53.9	0.56
HRL	Hormel Foods Corp.	41.28	1.930	21,994	22.1	42.6	0.42
ITW	Illinois Tool Works, Inc.	150.32	2.515	48,970	19.9	50.1	1.07
JNJ	Johnson & Johnson	132.09	2.768	350,096			0.59
KMB	Kimberly-Clark Corp.	136.87	2.920	47,454	26.8	78.2	0.35
LEG	Leggett & Platt, Inc.	39.27	3.871	5,154	18.2	70.5	1.01
LIN	Linde Plc	202.60	1.660	109,541	18.9	31.4	0.77
LOW	Lowe's Cos., Inc.	104.05	1.830	82,151	35.6	65.1	1.05
MKC	McCormick & Co., Inc.	160.06	1.362	21,212	30.8	42.0	0.42
MCD	McDonald's Corp.	214.11	2.031	163,179	28.1	57.1	0.35
MDT	Medtronic Plc	100.89	1.982	135,349	29.3	58.1	0.67
NUE	Nucor Corp.	54.61	2.852	16,671	6.8	19.5	1.08
PBCT	People's United Financial, Inc.	16.27	4.302	6,481	12.6	54.3	0.76
PNR	Pentair Plc	37.14	2.336	6,475	21.8	51.0	0.99
PEP	PepsiCo, Inc.	132.23	2.815	185,649	14.6	41.0	0.41
PPG	PPG Industries, Inc.	115.30	1.621	27,531	21.1	34.2	0.82
PG	Procter & Gamble Co.	114.93	2.474	290,815	26.7	66.0	0.43
ROP	Roper Technologies, Inc.	377.36	0.464	39,185	35.4	16.4	0.98
SPGI	S&P Global, Inc.	240.42	0.861	59,162	32.0	27.5	1.03
SHW	The Sherwin-Williams Co.	456.44	0.812	42,174	38.4	31.2	0.87
SWK	Stanley Black & Decker, Inc.	142.50	0.000	21,644	32.9	0.0	1.38
SYY	Sysco Corp.	71.54	2.091	36,877	23.3	48.7	0.48
TROW	T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.	108.66	2.627	25,747	14.1	37.1	1.24
TGT	Target Corp.	87.36	2.914	45,013	15.2	44.2	0.80
UTX	United Technologies Corp.	130.10	2.206	112,264	19.8	43.7	1.04
VFC	VF Corp.	86.44	2.244	34,330	27.2	61.0	1.07
GWW	W.W. Grainger, Inc.	269.00	2.022	14,914	18.9	38.2	0.84
WMT	Walmart, Inc.	114.26	1.824	327,150	39.3	71.7	0.59
WBA	Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.	53.96	3.228	49,239	10.6	34.1	0.91
Ticker	Name	Price	Dividend Yield	Market Cap ($M)	P/E Ratio	Payout Ratio	Beta

How to Use The Dividend Aristocrats List To Find Dividend Investment Ideas

The downloadable Dividend Aristocrats Excel Spreadsheet List above contains the following for each stock in the index:

Price-to-earnings ratio
Dividend yield
Market capitalization

All Dividend Aristocrats are high quality businesses based on their long dividend histories. A company cannot pay rising dividends for 25+ years without having a strong and durable competitive advantage.

But not all Dividend Aristocrats make equally good investments today. That’s where the spreadsheet in this article comes into play. You can use the Dividend Aristocrats spreadsheet to quickly find quality dividend investment ideas.

The list of all 57 Dividend Aristocrats is valuable because it gives you a concise list of all S&P 500 stocks with 25+ consecutive years of dividend increases (that also meet certain minimum size and liquidity requirements).

These are businesses that have both the desire and ability to pay shareholders rising dividends year-after-year. This is a rare combination.

Together, these two criteria are powerful – but they are not enough. Value must be considered as well.

The spreadsheet above allows you to sort by forward price-to-earnings ratio so you can quickly find undervalued, high quality dividend stocks.

Here’s how to use the Dividend Aristocrats list to quickly find high quality dividend growth stocks potentially trading at a discount:

Download the list
Sort by PE ratio, smallest to largest
Research the top stocks further

Here’s how to do this quickly in the spreadsheet

Step 1: Download the list, and open it.

Step 2: Apply a filter function to each column in the spreadsheet.

Step 3: Click on the small gray down arrow next to ‘P/E Ratio”, and then click on ‘Descending’.

Step 4: Review the highest ranked Dividend Aristocrats before investing. You can see detailed analysis on every Dividend Aristocrat further below in this article.

That’s it; you can follow the same procedure to sort by any other metric in the spreadsheet.

This article examines the characteristics and performance of the Dividend Aristocrats in detail A table of contents for easy navigation is below.

Performance Through June 2019

In June of 2019, The Dividend Aristocrats, as measured by the Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL), had a stellar month on an absolute basis. And, it slightly outperformed The S&P 500 ETF (SPY) on a relative basis.

NOBL generated total returns of 7.1% in June of 2019
SPY generated total returns of 7.0% in May of 2019

Performance between these 2 ETFs for the first 6 months of fiscal 2019 is below:

NOBL has generated total returns of 15.6% through May
SPY generated total returns of 18.3% through May

Short-term performance is mostly noise. Performance should be measured over a minimum of 3 years, and preferably longer periods of time.

The Dividend Aristocrats Index has outperformed the market by 1.4 percentage points annually over the last decade – with slightly lower volatility.

June 2019 Dividend Aristocrats Performance

Source: S&P Fact Sheet

The performance of the Dividend Aristocrats by calendar year versus the S&P 500 is shown in the images below:

Dividend Aristocrats Yearly Performance

Source: Ploutos

The Dividend Aristocrats index has produced excellent risk-adjusted returns over the last 28 years, besting The S&P 500’s average returns over this time period.

Higher total returns with lower volatility is the ‘holy grail’ of investing. It is worth exploring the characteristics of the Dividend Aristocrats in detail to determine why they have performed so well.

Note that a good portion of the outperformance relative to the S&P 500 comes during recessions (2000 – 2002, 2008). Dividend Aristocrats have historically seen smaller drawdowns during recessions versus the S&P 500. This makes holding through recessions that much easier.

Case-in-point: In 2008 the Dividend Aristocrats Index declined 22%. The S&P 500 declined 38%. The performance of The Dividend Aristocrats Index in each year The S&P 500 generated negative total returns since 1991 is shown below.

Dividend Aristocrats Bear Years Performance

Great businesses with strong competitive advantages tend to be able to generate stronger cash flows during recessions. This allows them to gain market share while weaker businesses fight to stay alive.

Related: The video below shows the Great Recession performance of every Dividend Aristocrat (excluding the 4 new 2019 Aristocrats).

The Dividend Aristocrats Index has beaten the market over the last decade (and over the last 28 years)…

I believe dividend paying stocks outperform non-dividend paying stocks for three reasons:

A company that pays dividends is likely to be generating earnings or cash flows so that it can pay dividends to shareholders. This excludes ‘pre-earnings’ start-ups and failing businesses. In short, it excludes the riskiest stocks.
A business that pays consistent dividends must be more selective with the growth projects it takes on because a portion of its cash flows are being paid out as dividends. Scrutinizing over capital allocation decisions likely adds to shareholder value.
Stocks that pay dividends are willing to reward shareholders with cash payments. This is a sign that management is shareholder friendly.

In our view, Dividend Aristocrats have historically outperformed the market and other dividend paying stocks because they are, on average, higher quality businesses.

A high quality business should outperform a mediocre business over a long period of time, all other things being equal.

For a business to increase its dividends for 25+ consecutive years, it must have or at least had in the very recent past a strong competitive advantage.

Sector Overview

A sector breakdown of the Dividend Aristocrats index is shown below:

Sector Weights - Dividend Aristocrats 2019

The top 3 sectors by weight in the Dividend Aristocrats are Consumer Staples, Industrials, and Financials. The weight of these sectors in the S&P 500 is shown below for comparison:

Consumer Staples: 7.3%
Industrials: 9.4%
Financials: 13.1%

The Dividend Aristocrats Index is tilted toward Consumer Staples and Industrials relative to the S&P 500. These 2 sectors make up 45.6% of The Dividend Aristocrats Index, but just 16.7% of The S&P 500.

The Dividend Aristocrats Index is also significantly underweight the Information Technology sector; with a 1.8% allocation versus a 21.5% allocation for The S&P 500.

The Dividend Aristocrat Index is filled with stable ‘old economy’ blue chip consumer products businesses and manufacturers; the 3M’s (MMM), Coca-Cola’s (KO), and Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) of the investing world. These ‘boring’ businesses aren’t likely to generate 20%+ earnings-per-share growth, but they also are very unlikely to see large earnings drawdowns as well.

The Dividend Aristocrats In Focus Analysis Series

You can see analysis on every single Dividend Aristocrat below. Each is sorted by GICS sectors and listed in alphabetical order by name:

Consumer Staples

Industrials

Health Care

Consumer Discretionary

Financials

Materials

Energy

Information Technology

Automatic Data Processing (ADP)

Real Estate

Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRT)

Telecommunication Services

AT&T (T)

Utilities

Consolidated Edison (ED)

Looking for no-fee DRIP Dividend Aristocrats? This article examines all 15 no-fee DRIP Dividend Aristocrats in detail.

Historical Dividend Aristocrats List
(1989 – 2019)

The image below shows the history of the Dividend Aristocrats Index from 1989 through 2019:

Note: CL, GPC, and NUE were all removed and re-added to the Dividend Aristocrats Index through the historical period analyzed above. We are unsure as to why. Companies created via a spin-off (like AbbVie) can be Dividend Aristocrats with less than 25 years of rising dividends if the parent company was a Dividend Aristocrat.

Click here to download the 1989 to 2019 Dividend Aristocrats Excel Spreadsheet.

This information was compiled from the following sources:

1989 – 1991: Dividend Growth Investor
1992 – 2015: NOBL Index Historical Constituents
2016: Sure Dividend update
2017 – 2019: Data from S&P press releases

Other Dividend Lists & Final Thoughts

The Dividend Aristocrats list is not the only way to quickly screen for businesses that regularly pay rising dividends.

The Dividend Achievers List is comprised of more than 250 businesses with 10+ years of consecutive dividend increases.
The Dividend Kings List is even more exclusive than the Dividend Aristocrats. It is comprised of less than 20 businesses with 50+ years of consecutive dividend increases.
The Sure Dividend Blue Chip Stocks List
The High Dividend Stocks List
The Monthly Dividend Stocks List

There is nothing magical about the Dividend Aristocrats. They are ‘just’ a collection of high quality shareholder friendly businesses that have strong competitive advantages.

Purchasing this type of business at fair or better prices and holding for the long-run will likely result in favorable long-term performance.

You have a choice in what type of business you buy into. You can buy into the mediocre, or the excellent.

Often, excellent businesses are not more expensive (based on their price-to-earnings ratio) than mediocre businesses.

“When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”

– Warren Buffett

Thanks for reading this article. Please send any feedback, corrections, or questions to support@suredividend.com.

Sure Dividend

High Quality Dividend Stocks, Long-Term Plan

July 2019 Dividend Aristocrats List: 25+ Years of Rising Dividends

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