The S&P 500 list of dividend aristocrats declined from 52 companies in 2009 to 42 in 2010 as many companies cut their dividend payouts. It then held steady in 2011, with three companies being dropped and three added. For 2012, one company has been removed from the index while ten companies have being added. So in total 51 companies.
2012 changes
Stocks Removed:
- CenturyLink Inc. – (CTL)
Stocks Added:
- AT&T Inc. – (T)
- Colgate Palmolive Co. – (CL)
- Franklin Resources Inc. – (BEN)
- Genuine Parts Co. – (GPC)
- HCP Inc. – (HCP)
- Illinois Tool Works Inc. – (ITW)
- Medtronic Inc. – (MDT)
- Nucor Corp. – (NUE)
- Sysco Corp. – (SYY)
- T Rowe Price Group Inc. – (TROW)
Here’s the Dividend Aristocrats 2012 list:
| 3M Co (MMM) |
| Abbott Laboratories (ABT) |
| AFLAC Inc (AFL) |
| Air Products & Chemicals Inc (APD) |
| Archer-Daniels-Midland Co (ADM) |
| AT&T (T) |
| Automatic Data Processing (ADP) |
| Bard, C.R. Inc (BCR) |
| Becton, Dickinson & Co (BDX) |
| Bemis Co Inc (BMS) |
| Brown-Forman Corp B (BF/B) |
| Chubb Corp (CB) |
| Cincinnati Financial Corp (CINF) |
| Cintas Corp (CTAS) |
| Clorox Co (CLX) |
| Coca-Cola Co (KO) |
| Colgate-Palmolive (CL) |
| Consolidated Edison Inc (ED) |
| Dover Corp (DOV) |
| Ecolab Inc (ECL) |
| Emerson Electric Co (EMR) |
| Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM) |
| Family Dollar Stores Inc (FDO) |
| Franklin Resources (BEN) |
| Genuine Parts (GPC) |
| Grainger, W.W. Inc (GWW) |
| HCP (HCP) |
| Hormel Foods Corp (HRL) |
| Illinois Tool Works (ITW) |
| Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) |
| Kimberly-Clark (KMB) |
| Leggett & Platt (LEG) |
| Lowe’s Cos Inc (LOW) |
| McCormick & Co (MKC) |
| McDonald’s Corp (MCD) |
| McGraw-Hill Cos Inc (MHP) |
| Medtronic (MDT) |
| Nucor (NUE) |
| PepsiCo Inc (PEP) |
| Pitney Bowes Inc (PBI) |
| PPG Industries Inc (PPG) |
| Procter & Gamble (PG) |
| Sherwin-Williams Co (SHW) |
| Sigma-Aldrich Corp (SIAL) |
| Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) |
| Sysco (SYY) |
| T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) |
| Target Corp (TGT) |
| VF Corp (VFC) |
| Walgreen Co (WAG) |
| Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) |
