The New Dividend Aristocrats

S&P follows an index it calls the Dividend Aristocrats which is a group of S&P 500 stocks that have increased their dividends every year for the last 25 years in a row.

S&P just announced that it’s adding 10 new stocks to the Dividend Aristocrats and deleting one. This brings the new list of Aristocrats up to 52.

The new additions are:

Franklin Resources ($BEN)
HCP Incorporated ($HCP)
T. Rowe Price ($TROW)
AT&T ($T)
Colgate-Palmolive ($CL)
Genuine Parts ($GPC)
Illinois Tool Works ($ITW)
Medtronic ($MDT)
Nucor ($NUE)
Sysco ($SYY)

The only deletion was CenturyLink ($CTL).

Howard Silverblatt of S&P passes on some dividend facts (via Michael Aneiro):

* Year-to-date (YTD) dividend payers in the S&P 500 have returned 1.72%, compared to the non-payers loss of 4.63%

* The actual dividend payment YTD is up 16.2%

* The indicated dividend rate (based on the current rate) is up 16.8% YTD, but still off 4.9% from the June 2008 high

* From 1995 the S&P 500 indicated dividend yield has averaged 43% of the U.S. 10-year Treasury note, the current rate is 105%

* 215 issues have a current yield higher than the 10-year Treasury

Now that Medtronic and Sysco are Dividend Aristocrats, this makes six of our Buy List stocks that are Aristocrats. The other four are AFLAC ($AFL), Abbott Laboratories ($ABT), Becton, Dickinson ($BDX) and Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ).

The Dividend Aristocrats have had a decent year. Here’s a look at the Dividend Aristocrats ETF ($SDY) divided by the $SPY:

Posted by on December 8th, 2011 at 11:31 am


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