Dividend Aristocrats

Increase your income with the Dividend Aristocrats index.

Dividend Investing

If you are currently investing for dividends, passive income, or have any plans to begin dividend investment then you should sit down and familiarize yourself with the Dividend Aristocrats.  No, these are not cats that pay dividends nor are they snobby men that hand out money, it is an index of stocks that have something in common: they pay dividends, they do it consistently, and they consistently increase the payout.

To be more specific, the companies on this list have paid dividends for the last 25 years, they have raised their dividends for the past 25 years and at no point have they suspended or decreased payout.  If you are wondering why this list is so important then you first need to understand the concept of yield on cost.

Yield On Cost

In short, your yield will continue to grow on your original cost of investment.  If you buy a stock for $10.00 today with a dividend of 30 cents a year, then you fast forward 10 years and the dividend is now at 90 cents!  A measly 3% dividend yield is now at a more beefy 9% yield on cost!  Who wouldn’t love to have a savings account yielding 9%?  Good luck finding it, but investing this way is pretty close risk-wise.

Dividend Aristocrats Index List 2010

So what stocks are in this magical little index?  This Dividend Aristocrats Index 2010 list is current as of August 2010.  Please view below:

 

Company Name Ticker
3M Co MMM
AFLAC Inc AFL
Abbott Laboratories ABT
Air Products & Chemicals Inc APD
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co ADM
Automatic Data Processing ADP
Bard, C.R. Inc BCR
Becton, Dickinson & Co BDX
Bemis Co Inc BMS
Brown-Forman Corp B BF/B
CenturyLink Inc CTL
Chubb Corp CB
Cincinnati Financial Corp CINF
Cintas Corp CTAS
Clorox Co CLX
Coca-Cola Co KO
Consolidated Edison Inc ED
Dover Corp DOV
Emerson Electric Co EMR
Exxon Mobil Corp XOM
Family Dollar Stores Inc FDO
Grainger, W.W. Inc GWW
Integrys Energy Group Inc TEG
Johnson & Johnson JNJ
Kimberly-Clark KMB
Leggett & Platt LEG
Lilly, Eli & Co LLY
Lowe’s Cos Inc LOW
McDonald’s Corp MCD
McGraw-Hill Cos Inc MHP
PPG Industries Inc PPG
PepsiCo Inc PEP
Pitney Bowes Inc PBI
Procter & Gamble PG
Sherwin-Williams Co SHW
Sigma-Aldrich Corp SIAL
Stanley Black & Decker SWK
Supervalu Inc SVU
Target Corp TGT
VF Corp VFC
Wal-Mart Stores WMT
Walgreen Co WAG

There are quite a few household names on that list.  That is because, generally, companies that can afford to consistently payout and raise dividends are well-managed, well-established businesses.  Many of them have pioneered their industry or become the dominant force.  Throughout the next couple of months we are going to slowly be building up a series about this particular index.  You will be able to look forward to a more in-depth analysis on some of the companies that are listed as we continue forward.

Honorable Mentions:

Photo Credit: Lady Orlando