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The dividend aristocrats is a very important list for me. I shared the Canadian Dividend Aristocrats list and now is the time to share the over due U.S Dividend Aristocrats. It’s amazing the size of some U.S. corporations compared to Royal Bank – the largest company in Canana. When you want to talk about economic moat, many of them sure have it.
What I find most interesting with the list is that by itself, you can get a really good asset diversification with major corporations. In Canada, many of the aristocrats are either in the financial or the resource sector. In the U.S., you can span all the sectors and find an aristocrat to represent that sector. Being Canadian, I have to take into account where I hold my U.S. investments form a tax perspective, but I would be curious what a dividend aristocrat portfolio does over time.
U.S. Dividend Aristocrat Requirements
The following criteria must be met to become a U.S. Dividend Aristocrat:
- Universe: Member of the S&P 500
- Financial Viability: Must have increased dividends for 25 consecutive years
- Size: Have at least 3B$ in market capitalization
- Liquidity: Must have an average trading volume of US$ 5 million in the past 6 months
- Reconstitution: The index is reviewed annually
- Stock Diversification: At each review, there must be at least 40 companies
- Sector Diversification: No more than 30% of a sector weight in the index
S&P Dividend Aristocrats
Now with live updates!
3M Co MMM $110.41 2.14% 76.20 17.43 Abbott Laboratories ABT $37.48 5.44% 58.43 76.64 AFLAC Inc AFL $55.06 2.40% 25.67 8.7 Air Products & Chemicals Inc APD $94.17 2.46% 19.62 18.92 Archer-Daniels-Midland Co ADM $34.16 1.99% 22.50 18.14 AT&T Inc T $36.74 4.79% 199.24 28.68 Automatic Data Processing ADP $69.93 2.29% 33.93 24.44 Bard, C.R. Inc BCR $105.15 0.72% 8.46 18.67 Becton, Dickinson & Co BDX $100.17 1.80% 19.46 17.82 Bemis Co Inc BMS $40.17 2.49% 4.13 23.51 Brown-Forman Corp B BF.B $71.16 1.97% 15.20 26.26 Chubb Corp CB $87.82 1.78% 22.76 13.9 Cincinnati Financial Corp CINF $47.75 3.35% 7.80 16.04 Cintas Corp CTAS $44.84 4.82% 5.49 18.44 Clorox Co CLX $85.98 2.79% 11.25 20.15 Coca-Cola Co KO $41.93 4.87% 186.75 21.99 Colgate-Palmolive Co CL $60.97 3.81% 56.87 24.9 Consolidated Edison Inc ED $59.01 4.13% 17.28 16.5 Dover Corp DOV $79.54 1.58% 13.61 16.82 Ecolab Inc ECL $87.19 0.92% 25.81 32.11 Emerson Electric Co EMR $57.14 2.80% 41.08 20.17 Exxon Mobil Corp XOM $91.79 2.05% 408.13 9.36 Family Dollar Stores Inc FDO $64.33 1.31% 7.39 17.63 Franklin Resources Inc BEN $162.04 0.67% 34.45 17.01 Genuine Parts Co GPC $81.97 2.44% 12.70 19.81 Grainger, W.W. Inc GWW $258.55 1.02% 17.98 26.15 HCP Inc HCP $51.88 3.86% 23.58 26.63 Hormel Foods Corp HRL $41.26 1.45% 10.93 22.12 Illinois Tool Works Inc ITW $70.27 2.05% 31.65 13.17 Johnson & Johnson JNJ $87.21 2.61% 244.96 23.72 Kimberly-Clark KMB $102.54 2.73% 39.44 22.31 Leggett & Platt LEG $33.34 3.36% 4.76 19.48 Lowe's Cos Inc LOW $42.69 1.31% 46.47 25.42 McCormick & Co MKC $73.71 1.68% 9.72 24.16 McDonald's Corp MCD $101.03 2.77% 101.29 18.76 McGraw-Hill Cos Inc MHP #N/A #N/A #N/A #N/A Medtronic Inc MDT $51.46 1.87% 52.28 15.24 Nucor Corp NUE $45.70 3.24% 14.52 32.88 PepsiCo Inc PEP $82.12 2.48% 126.99 21.05 Pitney Bowes Inc PBI $15.06 5.31% 3.03 8.36 PPG Industries Inc PPG $156.86 1.45% 22.38 21.03 Procter & Gamble PG $78.70 2.64% 215.70 19.83 Sherwin-Williams Co SHW $186.08 0.84% 19.21 30.1 Sigma-Aldrich Corp SIAL $84.42 0.95% 10.13 22.09 Stanley Black & Decker SWK $79.66 2.06% 12.77 31.01 Sysco Corp SYY $34.56 3.13% 20.51 20.02 T Rowe Price Group Inc TROW $76.85 1.77% 19.93 21.85 Target Corp TGT $68.67 1.75% 44.03 16.13 VF Corp VFC $185.12 1.56% 20.41 18.13 Wal-Mart Stores WMT $76.33 1.94% 252.96 15.06 Walgreen Co WAG $50.40 1.75% 47.75 22.48
Addition to the S&P Dividend Aristocrats List
This is quite a list. I hope you weren’t waiting for them to be dividend aristocrats before paying attention 
- T - AT&T
- CL – Colgate-Palmolive Co
- MDT – Medtronic Inc
- ITW – Illinois Tool Works Inc
- BEN – Franklin Resources Inc
- SYY – Sysco Corp
- TROW – T Row Price Group Inc
- HCP – HCP Inc
- NUE – Nucor Corp
- GPC – Genuine Parts Co
Removal from the S&P Dividend Aristocrats List
- CTL – CenturyLink
Thoughts
The list is outstanding and I welcome the addition. As you can see, no crazy yields here and it highlights the fact that those companies continue to grow and provide return on equity for investors. With AT&T in the list, all my U.S. holdings are now dividend aristocrats.
Disclaimer: I am long T, JNJ, KO and KMB.
Readers: Would you see yourself with a portfolio of those companies only?
Image: digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I wouldn’t see myself with a portfolio of only those companies because it’s too limiting. Some of my favorite dividend growth stocks such as PM and CVX don’t make the list.
Off topic question: If you could only invest in 1 Canadian bank, which one would you choose? why?
@CI
Thanks for your comments. You brought up a couple of good picks that indeed aren’t in the list. It goes to show the picking is not slim
As for the banks, it’s a difficult question to pick one amongst my beloved banks
I own the top 6. BNS has exposure to latin america, TD is mostly in the US and so is BMO. NA is much smaller and still mostly focused in Canada. RY is the largest and dealing abroad on many front. CM is not one of my favorite … Do you have a horizon?
hi, very interesting stats you have their, referring to European banks or better said British banks. I recently purchased shears in Northern Rock which you probably all ready know it collapsed 4 years ago, but as I am a mortgage broker I know that their mortgage books seem to be extremely healthy this is the reason why I have purchased some shares, not a lot of shares just a few, but I will update you at the end of the year of my profit.
mortgage broker recently posted..Recent Changes to Stamp Duty
Great information…I like to follow these stocks because they are the “cream of the crop”. However, they are very popular now and most of them are now overvalued. You now have to work harder than ever to find great companies with good valuations.
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