Several changes to the Euro (high yield) Dividend Aristocrats at the start of 2021

In brief:

• The S&P Euro Dividend Aristocrats Index is based on the 40 highest dividend-yielding Eurozone companies within the S&P Europe Broad Market Index (BMI)
• The Euro Dividend Aristocrats achieved a dividend policy of increasing or stable dividends for at least 10 consecutive years.
• At the start of 2021, there are 21 new companies added to this index.

There are three main indexes relates to European Dividend Aristocrats which could be a good starting for dividend growth investors:

• The Euro Dividend Aristocrats list entails European stocks with 10+ consecutive years of dividend increases or stable dividends. The selection is based on high yield dividends.
• The UK Dividend Aristocrats list entails UK-only stocks with 7+ consecutive years of dividend increases or stable dividends.
• The European Dividend Aristocrats list entails European stocks with 10+ consecutive years of dividend increases. The stock should be a member of the S&P Europe 350 Index, which is a kind of S&P 500 version for the European stock market with 350 constituents.

See also the article on the best European dividend ETF’s.

In this article, we focus on the S&P Euro Dividend Aristocrats. This index is based on the 40 highest dividend-yielding Eurozone companies within the S&P Europe Broad Market Index (BMI) and a managed dividends policy of increasing or stable dividends for at least 10 consecutive years.

If we compare this index with the US Dividend Aristocrats, there are three main differences, which are:

• Increasing or stable dividends for at least 10 consecutive years vs 25 consecutive years (US)
• 40 highest dividend-yielding (EU), in the US the height of the yield is not a selection factor, all aristocrats are included.
• Currency EUR versus USD, so a currency risk for US-investors.

Selecting on high-yield dividend and reducing the dividend growth criteria by including stable dividends are reducing the quality/robustness of the companies included. Something to keep in mind in your quest for quality dividend growth stocks. However, we still believe this index could still be a way to quickly screen for businesses that regularly pay rising dividends in the European stock market.

2020 has not been a good year for the Euro Dividend Aristocrats index with a total return of -11.53%, while the benchmark total return ended up 7.42%. If we look at the long-term, e.g. the annualized return over the last 10 years, the total returns are close with 6.12% and 6.56% for the index. Below the historical performance over the last 10 years.

The S&P Euro Dividend Aristocrats Index is based on the 40 highest dividend-yielding. in 2021, there are indeed 40 European companies that meet at all the set by S&P. In some cases, the index accounted for less than 40 members, e.g. 38 or 39.

At the start of 2021, there were several changes including the 21 new members below:

• Aalberts N.V.
• Air Liquide SA
• CRH Plc
• Etablissementen Franz Colruyt N.V.
• EXOR N.V.
• Fortum Oyj
• GRENKE AG
• Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA
• Henkel AG & Co. KGaA
• Koninklijke DSM N.V.
• Legrand SA
• Merck KGaA
• Pernod Ricard SA
• Recordati Industria Chimica e Farmaceutica S.p.A.
• SAP SE
• Schneider Electric SE
• Siemens Energy AG
• Sofina SA
• Software AG
• UCB S.A.
• Wolters Kluwer NV

The table below lists the top-10 euro Dividend Aristocrats with their price, market-cap, annual dividend, PE-ratio, earnings per share, and annual dividend yield in descending order.

In the charts below, you will find the breakdown by sector and countries.