Dividend Aristocrats List for 2024

The S&P Dividend Aristocrats index tracks companies in the S&P 500 that have increased dividends every year for at least 25 years in a row. The index is equally weighted, and rebalanced every quarter.

To qualify for membership in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index, a stock must satisfy the following criteria:

1. Be a member of the S&P 500
2. Have increased dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years
3. Meet minimum float-adjusted market capitalization and liquidity requirements defined in the index inclusion and index exclusion rules below.

The group of companies in the Dividend Aristocrats index tend to generate reliable dividend income, and provide the potential for strong total returns. The list is well diversified across sectors.

There are a record 67 companies in the Dividend Aristocrats index for 2023.

For 2024, there were several changes. The index added:

– Fastenal (FAST)

The index removed:

– Walgreens (WBA).

The index also added KenVue, which was a spin-off from Johnson & Johnson later in 2023. The S&P Index Committee assigned the dividend history record of Johnson & Johnson to Kenvue. This is what they had done previously with Abbvie/Abbott in 2013. However, they didn’t do this for Altria/Phillip Morris International/Kraft in 2007/2008.

The index also removed V.F. Corp (VFC) in early 2023, when the company cut dividends.

Since the inception of the index in 1989, the number of holdings has fluctuated from 26 to 68 holdings. This year marks the highest number of dividend aristocrats ever, on record. It is still not even half the number of Dividend Champions however.

The 2023 Dividend Aristocrats are listed below:

Symbol	Name	Sector	Years of Annual Dividend Increases	10 year Dividend Growth	Dividend Yield
ABBV	AbbVie Inc.	Health Care	51	13.98%	4.00%
ABT	Abbott Laboratories	Health Care	51	13.80%	2.00%
ADM	Archer-Daniels-Midland Co	Consumer Staples	48	9.00%	2.49%
ADP	Automatic Data Processing	Information Technology	48	12.64%	2.40%
AFL	AFLAC Inc	Financials	42	8.99%	2.42%
ALB	Albemarle Corp.	Materials	29	5.21%	1.11%
AMCR	Amcor	Materials	28	#N/A	5.28%
AOS	Smith A.O. Corp	Industrials	30	18.16%	1.55%
APD	Air Products & Chemicals Inc	Materials	41	9.51%	2.56%
ATO	Atmos Energy	Utilities	40	7.86%	2.78%
BDX	Becton Dickinson & Co	Health Care	52	6.13%	1.56%
BEN	Franklin Resources Inc	Financials	44	11.99%	4.16%
BF.B	Brown-Forman Corp B	Consumer Staples	39	6.89%	1.58%
BRO	Brown & Brown	Financials	30	9.89%	0.73%
CAH	Cardinal Health Inc	Health Care	27	5.60%	1.99%
CAT	Caterpillar Inc	Industrials	30	7.89%	1.76%
CB	Chubb Ltd	Financials	30	5.39%	1.52%
CHD	Church & Dwight	Consumer Staples	27	6.89%	1.15%
CHRW	C.H. Robinson Worldwide	Industrials	26	5.71%	2.82%
CINF	Cincinnati Financial Corp	Financials	63	5.99%	2.90%
CL	Colgate-Palmolive Co	Consumer Staples	60	3.69%	2.41%
CLX	Clorox Co	Consumer Staples	46	5.83%	3.37%
CTAS	Cintas Corp	Industrials	41	20.57%	0.90%
CVX	Chevron Corp	Energy	36	4.47%	4.05%
DOV	Dover Corp	Industrials	68	5.30%	1.33%
ECL	Ecolab Inc	Materials	32	8.71%	1.15%
ED	Consolidated Edison Inc	Utilities	49	2.79%	3.56%
EMR	Emerson Electric Co	Industrials	67	2.31%	2.16%
ESS	Essex Property Trust	Real Estate	29	6.80%	3.73%
EXPD	Expeditors International	Industrials	29	8.69%	1.08%
FAST	Fastenal	Industrials	25	13.35%	2.16%
FRT	Federal Realty Invt Trust	Real Estate	56	3.84%	4.23%
GD	General Dynamics	Industrials	32	9.07%	2.03%
GPC	Genuine Parts Co	Consumer Discretionary	67	5.71%	2.74%
GWW	Grainger W.W. Inc	Industrials	52	7.36%	0.90%
HRL	Hormel Foods Corp	Consumer Staples	58	12.46%	3.52%
IBM	Intl Business Machines	Information Technology	28	6.01%	4.06%
ITW	Illinois Tool Works Inc	Industrials	49	13.07%	2.14%
JNJ	Johnson & Johnson	Health Care	61	6.14%	3.04%
KMB	Kimberly-Clark	Consumer Staples	51	4.46%	3.88%
KO	Coca-Cola Co	Consumer Staples	61	5.09%	3.12%
KVUE	Kenvue		61	#N/A	1.91%
LIN	Linde plc	Materials	30	7.83%	1.24%
LOW	Lowe’s Cos Inc	Consumer Discretionary	61	20.25%	1.98%
MCD	McDonald’s Corp	Consumer Discretionary	48	7.16%	2.25%
MDT	Medtronic plc	Health Care	46	9.76%	3.35%
MKC	McCormick & Co	Consumer Staples	37	8.66%	2.46%
MMM	3M Co	Industrials	65	8.98%	5.49%
NEE	NextEra Energy	Utilities	29	10.98%	3.08%
NDSN	Nordson Corp	Industrials	60	15.36%	1.03%
NUE	Nucor Corp	Materials	51	3.33%	1.24%
O	Realty Income Corp.	Real Estate	31	3.57%	5.36%
PEP	PepsiCo Inc	Consumer Staples	51	8.13%	2.98%
PG	Procter & Gamble	Consumer Staples	67	4.67%	2.57%
PNR	Pentair PLC	Industrials	48	3.16%	1.27%
PPG	PPG Industries Inc	Materials	52	7.70%	1.74%
ROP	Roper Technologies, Inc	Industrials	31	15.26%	0.55%
SHW	Sherwin-Williams Co	Materials	45	13.76%	0.78%
SJM	J.M. Smucker	Consumer Staples	26	6.58%	3.35%
SPGI	S&P Global	Financials	50	12.39%	0.82%
SWK	Stanley Black & Decker	Industrials	56	4.98%	3.30%
SYY	Sysco Corp	Consumer Staples	53	5.86%	2.73%
TGT	Target Corp	Consumer Discretionary	56	10.68%	3.09%
TROW	T Rowe Price Group Inc	Financials	37	12.37%	4.53%
WMT	Wal-Mart	Consumer Staples	50	2.30%	1.45%
WST	West Pharmaceutical Services	Health Care	31	7.18%	0.23%
XOM	Exxon Mobil Corp	Energy	41	4.11%	3.80%
Note: Data as of 12/31/2023

Note: Data as of 12/31/2023

The index has generated strong total returns over time past decade.

It tends to shine during bear markets, such as 2000 – 2003, 2007 – 2009 and 2022. I wanted to note that in 2008, the Dividend Aristocrats index declined by 21.88%. The S&P 500 however declined by 37%.

The dividend aristocrats index tends to shine during bear markets and low return environments. However, it also pulls its weight when we are in a bull market too. It is the best of both worlds really.

These are the returns since the launch of the Dividend Aristocrats Index in 1989:

You can see the performance of the Dividend Aristocrats Index versus S&P 500 since 1989. The S&P 500 dominated during the 1990’s. However, the Dividend Aristocrats index did very well during the next decade. During the past decade, the Dividend Aristocrats Index has basically matched S&P 500 until early 2020. Over the past two years, it has trailed S&P 500 slightly.

I first stumbled upon the Dividend Aristocrats index in late 2007, and instantly understood why dividend growth investing is such a powerful wealth generating tool. If someone had invested in the Dividend Aristocrats index after reading my review of the list at the beginning of 2008, they would have more than tripled their money.

As I gained more experience however, I have gravitated more towards the Dividend Champions list, which was created by Dave Fish. The Dividend Champions list is more complete, as it doesn’t exclude companies due to low liquidity, or due to market capitalization below a certain threshold. In addition, I find that historically, the list of Dividend Champions has followed a more consistent approach than the list of Dividend Aristocrats. Sadly, Dave passed away last year. Luckily, another person has agreed to update it for the time being. You can view the 2024 Dividend Champions List here.

When I review the list of historical changes in the Dividend Aristocrats index, I see some inconsistencies in the way portfolio components are added or removed.

For example, the Dividend Aristocrats index removed Altria in 2007, after it spun-off Kraft Foods and as a result its dividend decreased. It could be argued that the dividend income for the investor was not decreased, because they kept getting a dividend from Altria as well as dividends from Kraft Foods.

The S&P committee seems to have rectified this issue, and have kept both Abbott and Abbvie after legacy Abbott Laboratories split in two companies in early 2013.

Ironically, Dave Fish had Altria listed as a Dividend Champion. However, he didn’t have Abbott nor Abbvie listed as a dividend champion ( they are listed as Dividend Aristocrats however).

This is why you need to perform your own checks as an investor.

In addition, I wanted to let you know that I would not purchase all companies from either lists blindly. I run my entry criteria screen to come up with a list of companies for further research. Before investing in any individual stock, I research it enough to gain some understanding of the business and its trends in fundamentals.

Relevant Articles:

– Dividend Champions, Contenders & Challengers: The most complete list of US dividend growth stocks available
– Dividend Aristocrats List for 2017
– Dividend Aristocrats for Dividend Growth and Total Returns
– Where are the original Dividend Aristocrats now?
– Historical changes of the S&P Dividend Aristocrats
– Why do I like the Dividend Aristocrats?
– Dividend Aristocrats List for 2016

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