The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats is a stock market index composed of the companies in the S&P 500 index that have increased their dividends in each of the past 25 consecutive years. It was launched in May 2005. [1]
There are other indexes of dividend aristocrats that vary with respect to market cap and minimum duration of consecutive yearly dividend increases.
Components are added when they reach the 25-year threshold and are removed when they fail to increase their dividend during a calendar year or are removed from the S&P 500. However, a study found that the stock performance of companies improves after they are removed from the index. [2]
The index has been recommended as an alternative to bonds for investors looking to generate income. [3]
To invest in the index, there are several exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which seek to replicate the performance of the index. One example would be NOBL by ProShares, which is traded in BATS. [4]
There are 69 companies in the index, with communications being the only sector unrepresented. [5]
| Ticker symbol | Company | Sector |
|---|---|---|
| AOS | A.O. Smith | Industrials |
| ABT | Abbott Laboratories | Health Care |
| ABBV | AbbVie | Health Care |
| AFL | AFLAC | Financials |
| APD | Air Products & Chemicals | Materials |
| ALB | Albemarle Corporation | Materials |
| AMCR | Amcor | Materials |
| ADM | Archer-Daniels-Midland Co | Consumer Staples |
| ATO | Atmos Energy Corp | Utilities |
| ADP | Automatic Data Processing | Information Technology |
| BDX | Becton Dickinson & Co | Health Care |
| BRO | Brown & Brown Inc. | Financials |
| BF.B | Brown–Forman (class B) | Consumer Staples |
| CAH | Cardinal Health Inc | Health Care |
| CAT | Caterpillar Inc | Industrials |
| CHRW | C.H. Robinson | Industrials |
| CVX | Chevron Corp | Energy |
| CB | Chubb Limited | Financials |
| CHD | Church & Dwight | Consumer Staples |
| CINF | Cincinnati Financial Corp | Financials |
| CTAS | Cintas Corp | Industrials |
| CLX | Clorox | Consumer Staples |
| KO | Coca-Cola Co | Consumer Staples |
| CL | Colgate-Palmolive | Consumer Staples |
| ED | Consolidated Edison Inc | Utilities |
| DOV | Dover Corp | Industrials |
| ECL | Ecolab Inc | Materials |
| EMR | Emerson Electric | Industrials |
| ERIE | Erie Indemnity | Financials |
| ES | Eversource Energy | Utilities |
| ESS | Essex Property Trust | Real Estate |
| EXPD | Expeditors International of Washington | Industrials |
| XOM | Exxon Mobil Corp | Energy |
| FDS | FactSet Research Systems | Financials |
| FAST | Fastenal | Industrials |
| FRT | Federal Realty Investment Trust | Real Estate |
| BEN | Franklin Resources Inc | Financials |
| GD | General Dynamics | Industrials |
| GPC | Genuine Parts Company | Consumer Discretionary |
| HRL | Hormel Foods Corp | Consumer Staples |
| ITW | Illinois Tool Works | Industrials |
| IBM | IBM | Information Technology |
| SJM | The J. M. Smucker Company | Consumer Staples |
| JNJ | Johnson & Johnson | Health Care |
| KVUE | Kenvue, Inc. | Consumer Staples |
| KMB | Kimberly-Clark | Consumer Staples |
| LIN | Linde plc | Materials |
| LOW | Lowe's | Consumer Discretionary |
| MKC | McCormick & Company | Consumer Staples |
| MCD | McDonald's Corp | Consumer Discretionary |
| MDT | Medtronic plc | Health Care |
| NEE | NextEra Energy | Utilities |
| NDSN | Nordson Corp | Industrials |
| NUE | Nucor Corp | Materials |
| PNR | Pentair | Industrials |
| PEP | PepsiCo | Consumer Staples |
| PPG | PPG Industries | Materials |
| PG | Procter & Gamble | Consumer Staples |
| O | Realty Income | Real Estate |
| ROP | Roper Technologies | Industrials |
| SPGI | S&P Global Inc | Financials |
| SHW | Sherwin-Williams | Materials |
| SWK | Stanley Black & Decker | Industrials |
| SYY | Sysco Corp | Consumer Staples |
| TROW | T Rowe Price Group Inc | Financials |
| TGT | Target Corp | Consumer Discretionary |
| GWW | W. W. Grainger | Industrials |
| WMT | Walmart Inc. | Consumer Staples |
| WST | West Pharmaceutical Services | Health Care |
In 2008, the index contained 52 companies. [6]
The following are the changes to the components of the index since 2008:
| Year | Added | Removed | Reference(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Erie Indemnity (ERIE), Eversource Energy (ES), and FactSet Research Systems (FDS) | none | [7] |
| 2024 | Fastenal Co. (FAST) | Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) and the 3M Company (MMM) - after spinning off Solventum | [8] [9] |
| 2023 | CH Robinson Worldwide (CHRW), Nordson (NDSN), J.M. Smucker (SJM) and Kenvue (KVUE). | VF Corporation (VFC) | [10] [11] [12] |
| 2022 | Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) and Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (CHD). | AT&T Inc. (T); People's United Financial, Inc. (PBCT) (after its merger with M&T Bank Corporation was finalized.) | [13] [14] [15] |
| 2021 | IBM (IBM), NextEra Energy (NEE) and West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) | Raytheon (RTX), Carrier Global (CARR), Otis Worldwide (OTIS), Stryker Corporation (SYK) and Leggett & Platt (LEG) (removed when it moved from the S&P 500 to the S&P MidCap 400) | [16] |
| 2020 | Amcor (AMCR), Atmos Energy (ATO), Realty Income Corporation (O), Essex Property Trust (ESS), Ross Stores (ROST), Albemarle Corporation (ALB), and Expeditors International (EXPD) (prior to market open on February 3); Carrier Global (CARR) and Otis Worldwide (OTIS) (prior to the market open on April 3) | Ross Stores (ROST) and Helmerich & Payne (HP). | [17] |
| 2019 | Chubb Limited (CB), People's United Financial (PBCT), Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), United Technologies (UTX) | none | [18] |
| 2018 | none | none | |
| 2017 | none | none | |
| 2016 | none | Chubb Corp (CB) (upon acquisition by ACE Limited (ACE)) | |
| 2015 | none | Family Dollar Stores (FDO) (after purchase by Dollar Tree), Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL) (after acquisition by Merck Group) | |
| 2014 | none | Bemis (BMS) (after removal from the S&P 500 index) | |
| 2013 | none | Pitney Bowes (PBI) | |
| 2012 | AT&T (T), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Franklin Templeton Investments (BEN), Genuine Parts Company (GPC), Health Care Property Investors (HCP), Illinois Tool Works (ITW), Medtronic (MDT), Sysco (SYY), and T. Rowe Price (TROW). | CenturyLink (CTL) | |
| 2011 | Ecolab (ECL), Hormel Foods (HRL), and McCormick & Company (MKC) | none | |
| 2010 | Brown Forman (BF.B) | Avery Dennison (AVY), BB&T (BBT), Gannett (GCI), General Electric (GE), Johnson Controls (JCI), Legg Mason (LM), M&T Bank (MTB), Pfizer (PFE), State Street Bank (STT), and U.S. Bancorp (USB) | |
| 2009 | Bemis Company (BMS) and Leggett & Platt (LEG). | Anheuser Busch (BUD) (acquired by InBev), Bank of America (BAC), Comerica (CMA), Fifth Third Bank (FITB), Keycorp (KEY), Progressive Corp (PGR), Regions Financial (RF), Synovus Financial (SNV), and Wrigley Company (WW) (which was acquired by Mars, Incorporated) |