One dividend Aristocrats for 2022

In brief:

• The Dividend Aristocrats are companies of the S&P 500 that have paid steadily increasing dividends for at least 25 years have outperformed the broader market over time.
• An annual rebalancing takes place every year, with new additions and deletions.
• One company could join the dividend aristocrats list in 2022.

The Dividend Aristocrats are the ‘best of the best’ dividend growth stocks. They have a long history of outperforming the market and with lower volatility. The lower volatility gives some investors “peace of mind” but comes also with a price. In 2021, the total return of the dividend aristocrats is underperforming the S&P 500-index again.

Let’s have a look at how the Dividend Aristocrats Index has changed in 2021 first.

The requirements to be a Dividend Aristocrat are:

• Must be a member of the S&P 500 index
• Have 25+ consecutive years of dividend increases
• Meet certain minimum size & liquidity requirements
• S&P also applies certain diversification rules.

On January 22nd, 2021, International Business Machines (IBM), NextEra Energy (NEE), and West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) were added to the Dividend Aristocrats Index. Carrier Global (CARR), Otis Worldwide (OTIS), and Raytheon Technologies (RTX) were all removed. As a result, there are now 65 (US) Dividend Aristocrats.

See S&P News and annoucements

(See also an overview of all changes since 2009)

One member of the S&P 500 index had 24 consecutive years of dividend increases at the start of 2021 and did raise its dividend by 5% in 2021. This means that Church & Dwight (CHD) should reach the dividend Aristocrat status during the index rebalance in January 2022

Church & Dwight is a consumer staples company that manufactures and distributes products under a number of well-known names like Arm & Hammer, Trojan, OxiClean, Spinbrush, First Response, Waterpik, Nair, Orajel, and XTRA. The company was founded in 1896, has increased its dividend for 25 consecutive years, and trades with a market capitalization of $20+ billion.

Church & Dwight declared a quarterly dividend of $0.2525 per share, which is a  5.2% increase from the prior dividend of $0.2400.

The annual dividend from Church & Dwight started in 1976and  can be found in the following table and the chart 1996.

The dividend increases started again in 1997. The rolling  5- and 10-year period annualized dividend growth rates are 7.30% and 11.50%. The current dividend yield is 1.03% and the payout ratio is 33.8%