Dividend Aristocrats: The Top 7 Companies by Yield for May 2025

Dividend aristocrats are stocks that raise their dividends every year. Here’s an overview of how to invest in them.

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If you're looking for ways to increase your income, dividend-paying stocks can be good contenders.

That said, there is a group of stocks within the S&P 500 that pays dividends even more reliably than other companies. That group is called the dividend aristocrats.

The top 7 dividend aristocrats list

Below is a list of the top seven dividend aristocrats ordered by current dividend yield. This table is updated weekly.

Ticker

Company

Dividend Yield

BEN

Franklin Resources

6.76%

TROW

T. Rowe Price Group Inc

5.71%

AMCR

Amcor Plc

5.68%

O

Realty Income Corp

5.60%

SWK

Stanley Black & Decker Inc

5.15%

CVX

Chevron Corp

5.06%

FRT

Federal Realty Investment Trust

4.68%

Source: Finviz. Data is current as of 2025-05-01 and is intended for informational purposes only.

What is a dividend aristocrat?

A dividend aristocrat is an S&P 500 stock that has increased its dividend every year for at least 25 years. (You can jump to the full list of dividend aristocrats here.)

Increasing its dividend means the company increased the dollar value of dividends per share. The dividend aristocrats don't necessarily need to increase their dividend yields over time. (Dividend yield is a percentage calculated by dividing the last 12 months of dividends per share by the current share price. It fluctuates with the market.)

» Check out our roundup of the best online brokers for dividend investing

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There are 69 dividend aristocrats today, and they’re a diverse bunch. They’re distributed across many different parts of the economy, including the health care, consumer staples, financial and industrial sectors.

However, they do have a couple of things in common. The first is that they’re established — to meet the 25-year-dividend-raiser criteria, they must have been a publicly traded company for at least 25 years. You won't find any stock market newcomers such as Tesla among the dividend aristocrats.

Second, they are all large-cap stocks. To be dividend aristocrats, they must be S&P 500 companies, and in order to be S&P 500 companies, they must have a market capitalization of at least $13.1 billion.

» Check out our roundup of the best online brokerages for stock trading

Dividend kings vs. aristocrats

Stocks that have increased their dividends for at least 50 years are sometimes called "dividend kings."

Unlike dividend aristocrats, dividend kings don't need to be S&P 500 companies. Most are — and are therefore aristocrats as well as kings — but a few aren't.

Still, the dividend kings are a smaller and more exclusive group than the dividend aristocrats — hence the name. While there are more than 60 dividend aristocrats at the time of writing, there are less than 50 dividend kings.

» Estimate your dividend stock returns with our dividend calculator.

How to invest in dividend aristocrats

If you're new to investing and want to buy the dividend aristocrats, the first step is to open a brokerage account if you don't already have one.

Then you'll need to choose between investing in individual dividend aristocrat stocks, or investing in a dividend aristocrats fund.

Theoretically, individual stocks can beat funds and market indexes — but they can also be risky. It's important to research stocks you're intending to buy, and that can be time-consuming if you're considering a lot of individual stocks. It can also be expensive to buy shares of a large number of individual stocks.

» Interested in monthly payments? Check out monthly dividend stocks.

Dividend aristocrats ETFs

If you’re looking to gain exposure to the dividend aristocrats, but don’t want to spend the time and money to buy the individual stocks, you could consider buying exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, that contain dividend-raising stocks instead.

The shares shown above have a combined market price of thousands of dollars — a steep purchase for most investors.

On top of that, it’s wise to research an individual stock before you buy it, and the time cost of researching 25 individual stocks — or even a smaller group — could be substantial.

The ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF is the only one that strictly tracks the 69 official S&P 500 dividend aristocrats. There are a variety of other high-dividend ETFs that contain similar groups of stocks that consistently raise their dividends over time.

Ex-dividend dates

If you own a dividend-paying stock or ETF there is a date on which you have to be registered as a shareholder in order to actually receive your next dividend payment. This is called an ex-dividend date. If you bought a stock on or after its ex-dividend date, you wouldn't get the next dividend.

» Don't forget about taxes: Learn more about dividend tax rates.

Research any company or ETF you're looking into to make sure you know when the ex-dividend date is before you buy or sell.

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» Learn more about investing in index funds

The complete list of dividend aristocrats

Below is a list of all 69 dividend aristocrats in the S&P 500 index.

Ticker

Company name

ABBV

AbbVie Inc.

CAH

Cardinal Health

NUE

Nucor Corp.

PPG

PPG Industries

SHW

Sherwin-Williams Co.

ALB

Albemarle Corp.

CAT

Caterpillar Inc.

GWW

W. W. Grainger

ECL

Ecolab Inc.

SPGI

S&P Global

AOS

A. O. Smith Corp.

EMR

Emerson Electric

KVUE

Kenvue Inc.

CINF

Cincinnati Financial Corp.

TGT

Target Corp.

PNR

Pentair plc

NDSN

Nordson Corp.

APD

Air Products & Chemicals

ESS

Essex Property Trust

WMT

Walmart Inc.

EXPD

Expeditors International of Washington

GD

General Dynamics

LOW

Lowe's Companies

DOV

Dover Corp.

ES

Eversource Energy

BEN

Franklin Resources Inc.

ADP

Automatic Data Processing

TROW

T. Rowe Price Group

ROP

Roper Technologies

ITW

Illinois Tool Works

FDS

Factset Research Systems

CTAS

Cintas Corp.

ABT

Abbott Laboratories

GPC

Genuine Parts Co.

FAST

Fastenal Co.

FRT

Federal Realty Investment Trust

ATO

Atmos Energy Corp.

ED

Consolidated Edison

LIN

Linde plc

MDT

Medtronic plc

CVX

Chevron Corp.

SWK

Stanley Black & Decker

CHRW

C. H. Robinson Worldwide

CLX

Clorox Company

CB

Chubb Ltd.

JNJ

Johnson & Johnson

ADM

Archer-Daniels-Midland

BF/B

Brown-Forman Corp.

XOM

Exxon Mobil Corp.

O

Realty Income Corp.

MCD

McDonald's Corp.

NEE

NextEra Energy

MKC

McCormick & Co.

IBM

International Business Machines

KMB

Kimberly-Clark Corp.

KO

Coca-Cola Co.

SJM

J. M. Smucker

CL

Colgate-Palmolive Corp.

PG

Procter & Gamble

WST

West Pharmaceutical Services

SYY

Sysco Corp.

AFL

AFLAC Inc.

HRL

Hormel Foods Corp.

AMCR

Amcor plc

PEP

Pepsico Inc.

BRO

Brown & Brown

CHD

Church & Dwight

ERIE

Erie Indemnity Co.

BDX

Becton Dickinson & Co.

Neither the author nor editor held positions in the aforementioned investments at the time of publication.
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