Earlier this year I was doing my daily morning routine of monitoring my stocks with Google Finance when a news title caught my eye. “S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats 2013….” is what made me click on the article. S&P500 is familiar to me but I had never heard of Dividend Aristocrats, so I thought I’d check it out. The S&P500 has made massive gains in the last few years so maybe this Aristocrat thing is impressive too.
Now maybe I’m the last to catch on, and many of you already know about Dividend Aristocrats…but for those of you that it also just sounds like a foreign word, you’ll be interested too know that this is not some type of royalty or bloodline.
But it is prestigious and has a long running line…25 consecutive years of increasing dividends to be exact.
Every company on this running list is in the S&P500. And if even for one year you stop paying dividends then you’re taken off the list. What does that tell investors? Consistency and reliability. Investors love that. Some only invest in the S&P500. Why not go further and pick the best of this list in paying out dividends?
There are 54 companies that make up the list of S&P 500’s Dividend Aristocrats 2013.
Click on the ticker symbol for current share price.
| Stock | Stock Ticker Symbol | Annual Dividend & Yield | First Year of Dividend Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3M | MMM | 2.54 (2.20%) | 1959 |
| Abbott Laboratories | ABT | 0.56 (1.60%) | 1973 |
| AbbVie | ABBV | 1.60 (3.70%) | 2013 |
| Aflac | AFL | 1.40 (2.30%) | 1983 |
| Air Products | APD | 2.84 (2.70%) | 1983 |
| Archer-Daniels-Midland | ADM | 0.76 (2.10%) | 1976 |
| AT&T | T | 1.80 (5.20%) | 1985 |
| Automatic Data Processing | ADP | 1.74 (2.40%) | 1975 |
| BD (Becton Dickinson and Company) | BDX | 1.98 (2.00%) | 1972 |
| Bemis | BMS | 1.04 (2.50%) | 1984 |
| Brown-Forman | BF.B | 1.40 (1.60%) | 1985 |
| C. R. Bard | BCR | 0.84 (0.70%) | 1972 |
| Cardinal Health | CAH | 1.21 (2.40%) | 1989 |
| Chevron | CVX | 4.00 (3.30%) | 1988 |
| Chubb Corporation | CB | 1.76 (2.00%) | 1966 |
| Cincinnati Financial Corporation | CINF | 1.68 (3.50%) | 1961 |
| Cintas | CTAS | 0.64 (1.30%) | 1984 |
| Clorox | CLX | 2.84 (3.40%) | 1978 |
| Coca-Cola | KO | 1.12 (2.90%) | 1963 |
| Colgate-Palmolive | CL | 1.36 (2.30%) | 1964 |
| Consolidated Edison | ED | 2.46 (4.30%) | 1975 |
| Dover Corp | DOV | 1.50 (1.70%) | 1956 |
| Ecolab | ECL | 0.92 (1.00%) | 1986 |
| Emerson | EMR | 1.64 (2.60%) | 1957 |
| ExxonMobil | XOM | 2.52 (2.90%) | 1983 |
| Family Dollar | FDO | 1.04 (1.40%) | 1977 |
| Franklin Resources | BEN | 0.39 (0.80%) | 1982 |
| Genuine Parts | GPC | 2.15 (2.70%) | 1957 |
| HCP | HCP | 2.10 (5.10%) | 1986 |
| Hormel | HRL | 0.68 (1.60%) | 1967 |
| Illinois Tool Works | ITW | 1.68 (2.30%) | 1964 |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 2.64 (3.00%) | 1963 |
| Kimberly-Clark | KMB | 3.24 (3.40%) | 1973 |
| Leggett & Platt | LEG | 1.20 (4.00%) | 1972 |
| Lowe's | LOW | 0.72 (1.50%) | 1963 |
| McCormick | MKC | 1.36 (1.90%) | 1987 |
| McDonald's | MCD | 3.08 (3.20%) | 1977 |
| McGraw-Hill | MHFI | 1.12 (1.90%) | 1974 |
| Medtronic | MDT | 1.12 (2.10%) | 1978 |
| Nucor | NUE | 1.47 (3.20%) | 1974 |
| Pentair Ltd. | PNR | 1.00 (1.60%) | 1977 |
| PepsiCo | PEP | 2.27 (2.80%) | 1973 |
| PPG Industries | PPG | 2.44 (1.50%) | 1973 |
| Procter & Gamble | PG | 2.41 (3.00%) | 1957 |
| Sherwin-Williams | SHW | 2.00 (1.20%) | 1981 |
| Sigma-Aldrich | SIAL | 0.86 (1.00%) | 1976 |
| Stanley Works | SWK | 2.00 (2.30%) | 1968 |
| Sysco | SYY | 1.12 (3.50%) | 1971 |
| T Rowe Price | TROW | 1.52 (2.10%) | 1987 |
| Target | TGT | 1.72 (2.70%) | 1968 |
| VF Corp | VFC | 3.48 (1.80%) | 1973 |
| W.W. Grainger | GWW | 3.72 (1.50%) | 1972 |
| Walgreen Company | WAG | 1.26 (2.60%) | 1976 |
| Wal-Mart Stores | WMT | 1.88 (2.60%) | 1975 |
NOTE: AbbVie (ABBV) is a spinoff from Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and its dividend and price data begin in 2013.
If you’d like more history and information on Dividend Aristocrats 2013 click here for the official site.
Personally, I looked exclusively at the dividend aristocrats list when I first started my dividend growth portfolio back in 2007. I think it is an amazing list for anyone looking to start a dividend growth portfolio for the long term. These days there are way too many articles, opinions and talking heads that can make investment decision unclear. You want to construct a high quality portfolio… first stop the div aristocrats list.