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10 Best Dividend Aristocrats You’ve Never Heard Of


Published on November 25th, 2024 by Bob Ciura
Spreadsheet data updated daily

We recommend long-term investors focus on high-quality dividend stocks. To that end, we view the Dividend Aristocrats as among the best dividend stocks to buy-and-hold for the long run.

The Dividend Aristocrats have a long history of outperforming the market when it comes to risk-adjusted returns.

There are currently 66 Dividend Aristocrats. You can download an Excel spreadsheet of all 66 Dividend Aristocrats (with metrics that matter such as dividend yields and price-to-earnings ratios) by clicking the link below:

 

Click here to instantly download your free spreadsheet of all 66 Dividend Aristocrats now, along with important investing metrics.

Disclaimer: Sure Dividend is not affiliated with S&P Global in any way. S&P Global owns and maintains The Dividend Aristocrats Index. The information in this article and downloadable spreadsheet is based on Sure Dividend’s own review, summary, and analysis of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL) and other sources, and is meant to help individual investors better understand this ETF and the index upon which it is based. None of the information in this article or spreadsheet is official data from S&P Global. Consult S&P Global for official information.

This article begins with an overview of the Dividend Aristocrats list. Then, we list our top 10 Dividend Aristocrats you’ve never heard of.

The list is comprised of 10 Dividend Aristocrats, all of which have market caps below $25 billion, making them among the smallest Dividend Aristocrats.

In addition, these 10 Dividend Aristocrats tend to get much less coverage in the financial media, and have much smaller followings than the largest Dividend Aristocrats.

Table of Contents

Dividend Aristocrats Overview

The requirements to be a Dividend Aristocrat are:

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 66 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).

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

The top 2 sectors by weight in the Dividend Aristocrats are Industrials and Consumer Staples. The Dividend Aristocrats Index is tilted toward Consumer Staples and Industrials relative to the S&P 500.

These 2 sectors make up over 40% of the Dividend Aristocrats Index, but less than 20% of the S&P 500.

The Dividend Aristocrats Index is also significantly underweight the Information Technology sector, with a ~3% allocation compared with over 20% allocation within the S&P 500.

The Dividend Aristocrat Index is filled with stable industry giants with market caps above $200 billion, such as Coca-Cola (KO), ExxonMobil (XOM), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

However, there are smaller Dividend Aristocrats that are worth paying attention to. The following 10 Dividend Aristocrats have strong business models, durable competitive advantages, and long-term dividend growth potential.

Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRT)

Federal Realty was founded in 1962. As a Real Estate Investment Trust, Federal Realty’s business model is to own and rent out real estate properties.

It uses a significant portion of its rental income, as well as external financing, to acquire new properties.

Source: Investor Presentation

On October 30, 2024, Federal Realty Investment Trust announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024.

The company reported net income available for common shareholders of $0.70 per diluted share, up from $0.67 per diluted share in the same quarter last year. Operating income also saw an increase, reaching $105.8 million compared to $100.1 million in Q3 2023.

Funds from Operations (FFO) available to common shareholders improved to $1.71 per diluted share, up from $1.65 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2023.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on Federal Realty (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: A.O. Smith (AOS)

A.O. Smith is a leading manufacturer of residential and commercial water heaters, boilers and water treatment products.

A.O. Smith generates two-thirds of its sales in North America, and most of the rest in China, whereas the rest of the world is just a small market for A.O. Smith.

The company has raised its dividend for 30 years in a row.

Source: Investor Presentation

A.O. Smith reported its third quarter earnings results on October 22. The company generated revenues of $903 million during the quarter, which represents a decline of 4% compared to the prior year’s quarter.

Revenues were down by 1% in North America, but the international business saw a wider decline, primarily due to lower sales in China, which has a troubled real estate market.

The company generated earnings-per-share of $0.82 during the third quarter, which was down 9% on a year over year basis.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on AOS (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: Franklin Resources (BEN)

Franklin Resources is a global asset manager with a long and successful history. The company offers investment management (which makes up the bulk of fees the company collects) and related services to its customers, including sales, distribution, and shareholder servicing.

On November 4th, 2024, Franklin Resources reported fourth quarter 2024 results for the period ending September 30th, 2024.

Total assets under management equaled $1.679 trillion, up $32 billion sequentially, as a result of $63.5 billion of net market change, distributions, and other, partly offset by 31.3 billion of long-term net outflows and $0.2 billion of cash management net outflows.

For the quarter, operating revenue totaled $2.211 billion, up 11% year-over-year. On an adjusted basis, net income equaled $315 million or $0.59 per share.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on Franklin Resources (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW)

Charles Henry Robinson founded C.H. Robinson Worldwide in the early 1900s. The company is now an American Fortune 500 provider of multimodal transportation services and third-party logistics.

The company’s services are freight transportation, transportation management, brokerage, and warehousing. CHRW also offers truckload, air freight, intermodal, and ocean transportation.

On October 30st, 2024, C.H. Robinson Worldwide reported results for the third quarter for Fiscal Year (FY)2024. The company reported strong financial results for the third quarter of 2024, ending September 30.

The company achieved a significant 15.5% increase in gross profits, totaling $723.8 million, and a 58.7% rise in income from operations to $180.1 million.

Adjusted operating margin grew by 660 basis points to 24.5%, with adjusted earnings per share increasing 45.5% to $1.28. These results were driven by disciplined volume growth, improvements in operating leverage, and enhanced profitability across divisions.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on CHRW (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: Albemarle (ALB)

Albemarle is the largest producer of lithium and second largest producer of bromine in the world. The two products account for nearly two-thirds of annual sales. Albemarle produces lithium from its salt brine deposits in the U.S. and Chile.

The company has two joint ventures in Australia that also produce lithium. Albemarle’s Chile assets offer a very low-cost source of lithium. The company operates in nearly 100 countries.

Source: Investor Presentation

On November 6th, 2024, Albemarle reported third quarter results for the period ending September 30th, 2024. For the quarter, revenue decreased 39.4% to $1.43 billion, but this was $30 million above estimates. Adjusted earnings-per share of -$1.55 compared extremely unfavorably to $2.74 in the prior year and was $1.12 less than expected.

Results were impacted by asset write-offs and weaker average prices for lithium. For the quarter, revenue for Energy Storage was down 54.8% to $767.3 billion. Growth in volume (+16%) was more than offset by lower prices (-71%).

Revenues for Specialties were down 2.9% to $342.4 million as volume (+4%) was offset by a decrease in pricing (-6%). Ketjen sales of $245 million were lower by 6% from the prior year as higher prices (+2%) only partially offset weaker volume (-8%).

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on ALB (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: Nordson Corporation (NDSN)

Nordson was founded in 1954 in Amherst, Ohio by brothers Eric and Evan Nord, but the company can trace its roots back to 1909 with the U.S. Automatic Company.

Today the company has operations in over 35 countries and engineers, manufactures, and markets products used for dispensing adhesives, coatings, sealants, biomaterials, plastics, and other materials, with applications ranging from diapers and straws to cell phones and aerospace.

Source: Investor Presentation

On August 14th, 2024, Nordson increased its dividend by 15% to $0.78 per share quarterly, marking 61 years of increases.

On August 21st, 2024, Nordson reported third quarter results for the period ending July 31st, 2024. (Nordson’s fiscal year ends October 31st.) For the quarter, the company reported sales of $662 million, 2% higher compared to $649 million in Q3 2023, which was driven by a positive acquisition impact, and offset by organic decrease of 1%.

The Industrial Precision saw sales increase by 9.6%, while the Medical and Fluid Solutions and Advanced Technology Solutions segment had sales declines of (2.4%) and (10.9%), respectively.

The company generated adjusted earnings per share of $2.41, a 6% decrease compared to the same prior year period.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on NDSN (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: Expeditors International of Washington (EXPD)

Expeditors is a global logistics company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in 1979 as a single-office ocean forwarder in Seattle.

Its services include the consolidation or forwarding of air and ocean freight, customs brokerage, vendor consolidation, cargo insurance, time definite transportation services, order management, warehousing and distribution, and customized logistics solutions.

Currently, the company has over 250 locations and ~17,500 employees worldwide. In 2023, the company reported $17.1 billion in revenue. The company has increased its dividend for 29 consecutive years.

On November 5th, 2024, EXPD reported third-quarter results for Fiscal Year (FY)2024. The company reported strong third-quarter 2024 results, with earnings per share (EPS) rising 41% to $1.63, and net earnings increasing 34% to $230 million compared to Q3 2023.

Operating income grew 40% to $302 million, supported by a 37% revenue increase to $3 billion. The company achieved significant growth in airfreight tonnage (+19%) and ocean container volumes (+12%), driven by proactive freight handling amid geopolitical disruptions and holiday shipping preparation.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on EXPD (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: West Pharmaceutical Services (WST)

West Pharmaceutical Services manufactures packaging and components involved in the distribution and application of pharmaceuticals. The company’s products include Zenith Crystal, a medical glass alternative, and SmartDose, an automatic medication delivery system.

West Pharmaceutical Services reported its second quarter earnings results on July 25. The company reported that its revenues totaled $702 million, which represents a revenue decline of 7% compared to the prior year’s quarter.

West Pharmaceutical Services’ revenues were lower than what the analyst community had expected, unlike during the previous quarter, when it beat the consensus estimate. Revenues were not positively impacted by currency rate changes during the period, unlike during the previous year.

West Pharmaceutical Services generated adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.52 during the second quarter, which represents a decline of 28% compared to the prior year’s quarter.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on WST (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: Atmos Energy (ATO)

Atmos Energy can trace its beginnings all the way back to 1906 when it was formed in Texas. Since that time, it has grown both organically and through mergers.

The company distributes and stores natural gas in eight states, serves over 3 million customers, and should generate about $5 billion in revenue this year.

Source: Investor Presentation

Atmos has a 41-year history of raising dividends, putting it in rare company among dividend stocks.

Atmos posted fourth quarter and full-year earnings on November 6th, 2024, and results were largely in line with expectations. The company saw just over a billion dollars in net income for the year, and $134 million for the fourth quarter. On a per-share basis, earnings came to $6.83 and 86 cents, respectively.

For the quarter, distribution earnings came to $41 million, which was up from $38 million a year ago. Pipeline and storage earnings were $93 million, up from $81 million in last year’s Q4.

For the year, distribution earnings rose from $580 million to $671 million. Pipeline and storage full-year earnings were up sharply from $306 million to $372 million, helping to drive another year of record earnings for Atmos.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on ATO (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):


Dividend Aristocrat You’ve Never Heard Of: Cincinnati Financial (CINF)

Cincinnati Financial is an insurance company founded in 1950. It offers business, home, auto insurance, and financial products, including life insurance, annuities, property, and casualty insurance.

As an insurance company, Cincinnati Financial makes money in two ways. It earns income from premiums on policies written and by investing its float, or the large sum of money consisting of the time value between the premium income and insurance claims.

On October 24th, 2024, Cincinnati Financial reported the third quarter results for Fiscal Year (FY)2024. The company reported robust third-quarter 2024 financial results, highlighted by a net income of $820 million, or $5.20 per share, compared to a net loss of $99 million in the same period last year.

This improvement was driven by a $645 million increase in the fair value of equity securities and a $956 million rise in net investment gains.

The company’s book value per share rose 15% year-to-date to $88.32, and the value creation ratio reached 17.8%, significantly above the 4.4% recorded for the same period in 2023.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on CINF (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Additional Reading

The Dividend Aristocrats are among the best dividend growth stocks to buy and hold for the long run. But the Dividend Aristocrats list is not the only way to quickly screen for stocks that regularly pay rising dividends.

We have compiled a reading list for additional dividend growth stock investing ideas:

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



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