The Dividend Aristocrats are a select group of currently (2022) 66 S&P 500 stocks with 25+ years of consecutive dividend increases. These dividend-paying stocks are large, US companies that have historically provided (slightly) better performance and (slightly) lower volatility than the S&P 500 as a whole.
S&P applies the following criteria to construct the Dividend Aristocrats list:
- must be members of the S&P 500
- must have increased dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years
- Market Cap at least USD 3 billion
- Liquidity at least USD 5 million (average daily value traded)
- Diversification, at least 40 constituents and not sector allocation above 30%
Below an overview of changes to the Dividend Aristocrats list since 2009:
2009 –
Removed
Anheuser Busch (BUD), (reducing dividend)
Bank of America (BAC) , (reducing dividend)
Comerica (CMA), (reducing dividend)
Fifth Third Bank (FITB), (reducing dividend)
Keycorp (KEY), (reducing dividend)
Nucor (NUE), (reducing dividend)
Progressive Corp (PGR), (reducing dividend)
Regions Financial (RF), (reducing dividend)
Synovus Financial (SNV),(reducing dividend)
Wm. Wrigley (WW), (acquisition)
added:
Bemis (BMS)
Leggett & Platt (LEG).
2010 –
Removed:
Avery Dennison (AVY),
BB&T, Gannett (GCI),
General Electric (GE),
Johnson Controls (JCI),
Legg Mason (LM),
M&T Bank (MTB),
Pfizer (PFE),
State Street Bank (STT),
US Bancorp (USB).
Added:
Brown Forman (BF.B)
2011 –
added:
Ecolab (ECL),
Hormel Foods (HRL),
McCormick (MKC).
2012 –
Removed
CenturyLink (CTL) (reducing dividend)
Added:
AT&T (T)
Colgate-Palmolive (CL)
Franklin Resources (BEN)
Genuine Parts (GPC)
HCP (HCP)
Illinois Tool Works (ITW)
Medtronic (MDT)
Nucor (NUE)
Sysco (SYY)
T. Rowe Price (TROW)
2013 –
Removed:
Pitney Bowes (PBI) (reducing dividend)
2014 –
Removed:
Bemis (BMS) (removed from the S&P 500 index)
2015 –
Removed:
Family Dollar Stores (FDO) (aquisition by Dollar Tree).
Sigma-Aldrich Corp (SIAL) (acquisition by Merck)
2016 –
Removed:
Chubb Corp (CB) (acquisition by ACE Limited (ACE))
2017-
Removed:
REIT HCP, Inc.(due to spinning off HCR Manor Care and reducing their dividend.)
CR Bard (BCR) (Aquistion by Becton Dickinson (BDX), december 2017)
Added:
General Dynamics (GD)
REIT Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRT)
was removed from the index
2018-
Added:
Praxair (PX), (acquired by Linde (LIN))
A.O. Smith (AOS)
Roper Technologies (ROP)
2019-
Added:
Chubb Limited (CB)
People’s United Financial Inc. (PBCT)
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT)
United Technologies Corporation (UTX)
2020-
Added:
Otis Worldwide Corp. (OTIS)
Carrier Global Corp. (CARR)
Raytheon Technologies Corp. (RTX)
Removed:
United Technologies Corporation (UTX) merged with Raytheon to RTX
ROSS Stores (ROST) due to dividend cut
2021-
Added:
IBM (IBM)
NextEra Energy (NEE)
West Pharmaceutical (WST)
Removed:
Otis Worldwide Corp. (OTIS)
Carrier Global Corp. (CARR)
Raytheon Technologies Corp. (RTX)
2022-
Added:
Brown & Brown (BRO)
Church & Dwight (CHD)
Removed:
AT&T (T)
2023-
Added:
Nordson Corp (NDSN)
CH Robinson Worldwide Inc (CHRW)
JM Smucker Co (SJM)
2024-
Removed:
VFC?
