Dividend Aristocrats: The Top 7 Companies by Yield for October 2024

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

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Updated · 2 min read
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Written by Sam Taube
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Reviewed by Michael Randall
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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 much more reliably than other companies. That group is called the dividend aristocrats.

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 66 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.

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

6.30%

O

Realty Income Corp.

5.06%

TROW

T. Rowe Price Group

4.63%

AMCR

Amcor plc

4.61%

CVX

Chevron Corp.

4.36%

FRT

Federal Realty Investment Trust

3.94%

SJM

J.M. Smucker Co.

3.67%

Source: Finviz. Data is current as of Oct. 9, 2024, and intended for informational purposes only.

» 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 66 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 66 dividend aristocrats in the S&P 500 index.

Ticker

Company

Dividend Yield

BEN

Franklin Resources, Inc.

6.12%

O

Realty Income Corp.

5.02%

TROW

T. Rowe Price Group Inc.

4.74%

AMCR

Amcor Plc

4.53%

CVX

Chevron Corp.

4.50%

FRT

Federal Realty Investment Trust.

3.81%

SJM

J.M. Smucker Co.

3.63%

KVUE

Kenvue Inc

3.58%

HRL

Hormel Foods Corp.

3.39%

IBM

International Business Machines Corp.

3.38%

XOM

Exxon Mobil Corp.

3.32%

KMB

Kimberly-Clark Corp.

3.29%

ADM

Archer Daniels Midland Co.

3.28%

SWK

Stanley Black & Decker Inc

3.25%

ED

Consolidated Edison, Inc.

3.22%

ESS

Essex Property Trust, Inc.

3.21%

ABBV

Abbvie Inc

3.13%

CLX

Clorox Co.

3.10%

MDT

Medtronic Plc

3.07%

PEP

PepsiCo Inc

2.97%

GPC

Genuine Parts Co.

2.79%

JNJ

Johnson & Johnson

2.78%

TGT

Target Corp

2.77%

SYY

Sysco Corp.

2.68%

KO

Coca-Cola Co

2.66%

NEE

NextEra Energy Inc

2.57%

APD

Air Products & Chemicals Inc.

2.57%

ATO

Atmos Energy Corp.

2.44%

CINF

Cincinnati Financial Corp.

2.36%

MCD

McDonald's Corp

2.34%

CHRW

C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc.

2.31%

PG

Procter & Gamble Co.

2.30%

FAST

Fastenal Co.

2.27%

ITW

Illinois Tool Works, Inc.

2.25%

PPG

PPG Industries, Inc.

2.07%

EMR

Emerson Electric Co.

2.07%

MKC

McCormick & Co., Inc.

2.07%

ADP

Automatic Data Processing Inc.

2.04%

ALB

Albemarle Corp.

2.01%

BF-B

Brown-Forman Corp.

1.96%

ABT

Abbott Laboratories

1.94%

GD

General Dynamics Corp.

1.90%

CL

Colgate-Palmolive Co.

1.87%

LOW

Lowe's Cos., Inc.

1.85%

AFL

Aflac Inc.

1.84%

CAH

Cardinal Health, Inc.

1.78%

CAT

Caterpillar Inc.

1.59%

AOS

A.O. Smith Corp.

1.58%

BDX

Becton Dickinson & Co.

1.55%

NUE

Nucor Corp.

1.50%

EXPD

Expeditors International Of Washington, Inc.

1.33%

CB

Chubb Limited

1.25%

LIN

Linde Plc.

1.17%

DOV

Dover Corp.

1.16%

NDSN

Nordson Corp.

1.11%

CHD

Church & Dwight Co., Inc.

1.08%

WMT

Walmart Inc

1.06%

PNR

Pentair plc

0.97%

ECL

Ecolab, Inc.

0.92%

GWW

W.W. Grainger Inc.

0.84%

SHW

Sherwin-Williams Co.

0.77%

SPGI

S&P Global Inc

0.71%

CTAS

Cintas Corporation

0.63%

BRO

Brown & Brown, Inc.

0.51%

ROP

Roper Technologies Inc

0.51%

WST

West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.

0.20%

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