I came to realize recently that I never shared the US S&P500 Dividend Aristocrats and with the value of the Canadian dollar, investing in solid American blue chip dividend payers should be seriously considered. The Standard & Poors tracks the dividend aristocrats on the S&P 500 and the requirements are not to be taken lightly.
The following criteria must be met to become a Dividend Aristocrat:
- Member of the S&P 500
- Must have increased dividends for 25 consecutive years
- Have at least 3B$ in market capitalization
- Must have an average trading volume of US$ 5 million in the past 6 months
To be amongst this list is no small feat. I have many of them on my watch list and will possibly make a future RRSP investment when I have some fund available. At this point, I prefer to hold them in my RRSP due to the tax advantage for re-investing the dividends. I am sure you will recognize many but some may be a welcome addition to your watch list.
Dividend Aristocrats – S&P 500
Exxon Mobil Corp XOM $81.91 2.30% 383.02 9.89 Wal-Mart Stores WMT $61.68 2.40% 209.99 13.58 Procter & Gamble PG $63.96 3.25% 175.26 19.93 Johnson & Johnson JNJ $63.55 3.59% 174.53 17.47 Coca-Cola Co KO $75.12 2.24% 169.62 19.95 PepsiCo Inc PEP $68.77 2.79% 107.55 17.06 McDonald's Corp MCD $89.62 2.72% 91.08 16.74 Abbott Laboratories ABT $62.23 3.09% 97.91 19.26 3M Co MMM $84.34 2.61% 58.52 13.92 Emerson Electric Co EMR $46.19 2.94% 33.89 14.76 Lowe's Cos Inc LOW $28.37 1.55% 34.01 19.91 Target Corp TGT $54.81 1.82% 36.23 12.64 Walgreen Co WAG $31.87 2.13% 27.50 10.88 Kimberly-Clark KMB $79.01 3.54% 30.98 18.33 Automatic Data Processing ADP $52.52 2.74% 25.69 18.92 CenturyLink Inc CTL $38.38 7.61% 23.84 39.97 AFLAC Inc AFL $39.82 3.01% 18.62 7.92 Chubb Corp CB $71.36 2.19% 19.26 12.12 Archer-Daniels-Midland Co ADM $32.21 1.99% 21.21 16.20 Air Products & Chemicals Inc APD $79.34 2.92% 16.78 14.90 Consolidated Edison Inc ED $58.56 4.10% 17.15 16.99 Becton, Dickinson & Co BDX $74.79 2.19% 15.16 13.67 VF Corp VFC $133.96 1.88% 14.68 16.63 McGraw-Hill Cos Inc MHP $44.61 2.24% 12.48 15.98 Ecolab Inc ECL $62.73 1.08% 18.33 36.94 Grainger, W.W. Inc GWW $188.40 1.40% 13.21 19.90 PPG Industries Inc PPG $98.85 2.31% 15.05 17.73 Stanley Black & Decker SWK $65.37 2.51% 11.17 16.94 Brown-Forman Corp B BF.B $86.72 1.48% 12.32 21.88 Dover Corp DOV $55.08 2.03% 10.11 11.99 Sherwin-Williams Co SHW $115.57 1.28% 11.94 25.93 Clorox Co CLX $67.82 3.24% 8.82 16.78 Hormel Foods Corp HRL $29.44 1.77% 7.76 17.60 Sigma-Aldrich Corp SIAL $68.69 1.05% 8.30 18.53 Bard, C.R. Inc BCR $98.04 0.73% 8.23 25.77 McCormick & Co MKC $56.71 1.97% 7.52 20.49 Family Dollar Stores Inc FDO $64.05 1.12% 7.48 18.84 Cincinnati Financial Corp CINF $34.64 4.62% 5.63 29.68 Cintas Corp CTAS $36.80 1.33% 4.78 17.02 Pitney Bowes Inc PBI $13.31 11.12% 2.66 6.68 Bemis Co Inc BMS $30.08 3.19% 3.10 18.02 Leggett & Platt LEG $20.07 5.38% 2.81 19.23
Readers: Do you have any on your purchase list?
Disclosure: I am long AT&T and KMB





I like LOW from this list. I’m just starting my dividend portfolio and I’m going to start with T and INTC and then keep adding to it. What do you think?
retirebyforty recently posted..What if you’re homeless
LOW’s yield was a mistake. I had made a mistake in the list for all the yields and it’s fixed now.
Passive Income Earner,
Thanks for the post… Nice to see that 7 of my holdings are on the list! (ABT, ADP, JNJ, PEP, PG, LEG, WMT).
DivPartisan
DividendPartisan recently posted..Dividend Portfolio Update- May
Excellent list, I love the Aristocrats! A lot of excellent investments on that list..and a few not-so-great investments.
You have gotta love the strength of the Canadian Dollar right now. If I lived up there I’d be very interested in an immediate gain on my money AND investing in high-quality companies.
Dividend Mantra recently posted..Freedom Fund Update – May 2011
I am going to review the list. There may be a mistake I got to track down.
All fixed! Thanks for pointing it out.
I missed the question at the bottom of the post.
I am long the first 8 stocks…
XOM, WMT, PG, JNJ, KO, PEP, MCD, ABT.
Dividend Mantra recently posted..Freedom Fund Update – May 2011
That’s a really good set of holdings. A good diversification too.
Thank you for putting together this list! It is a great tool. Something I can scan over to look for ideas. I already have quite a few of them in my portfolio (XOM, JNJ, KO, MCD, ABT, EMR, MMM). I’m also long INTC, which i think will one day be on this list.
thanks again for the great list!
I have MCD on my buy list if it pulls back a little more. I expected it to sell of more after it was downgraded by Piper Jaffray today. I like the 5 year div growth of 28% and the payout ratio under 50. Solid earnings growth as well of course.
Dividend Stocks recently posted..Roundup- Life Beyond Dividend Stocks
Great list, however, I may argue that some of these stocks with under a 3% yield may not get you where you want to be. Obviously a case by case basis, but if you cant get more than 3% may be better to invest in a bond fund or something with a little less risk for a similar dividend/coupon payment.
Travis@TradeTechSports recently posted..10 Highest Dividend Stocks that Protect against Inflation
Thanks for your comment!
The list implies a dividend growth for the past 25 years, depending on your investing horizon, a below 3% yield will surpass bonds along with gains in stock appreciation over time. But you are right that one needs to look at what their goals are and in some cases bonds should be preferred.
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