The List Of Dividend Aristocrats In 2020

The Dividend Aristocrats 2020 are U.S. stocks that that have grown their dividend for 25+ years in a row. But that alone does not qualify a stock as a Dividend Aristocrat. In order to be included on the list a company must meet four criteria:

• Be a member of the S&P 500
• Have raised the regular dividend per share for 25 consecutive years
• Have a market capitalization of at least $3 billion
• Average at least $5 million in daily share trading value for the three months prior to the rebalancing date
• Minimum number of constituents must be 40 at each rebalancing date. A particular Global Industry Classification Standard or ‘GICS’ should not results in one sector comprising more than 30% of the index weight

The index is updated quarterly in January, April, July, and October.

For this reason, a Dividend Aristocrat can also be a Dividend Champion but not vice-versa. It is also the reason why there are more Dividend Champions than Dividend Aristocrats. These stocks can be found in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index. There are currently 65 constituents of the index, which is nine more than last year as of October 30, 2020.

Performance of Dividend Aristocrats 2020

The Dividend Aristocrats 2020 provided a return of -1.92% in October as measured by the Dividend Aristocrat ETF (NOBL). It outperformed the S&P 500 that provided a return of -2.66% in October.

On a year-to-date basis, the Dividend Aristocrats have returned -4.47% while the S&P 500 has returned 2.77%

As a group, the Dividend Aristocrats 2020 have exhibited similar returns with lower volatility compared with the S&P 500 resulting in higher Sharpe ratios. Over the past ten years, the Dividend Aristocrats have had an annualized return of 12.79% and a standard deviation of 12.24%, while the S&P 500 has had an annualized return of 13.01% and a standard deviation of 13.27%.

Changes in 2020 to the List of Dividend Aristocrats

The list is updated at least annually and was most recently done so on January 24, 2020. There were seven additions and no deletions as seen in the table below, which will be effective on February 3, 2020.

On March 31, 2020 the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that the list will change due United Technologies Corp. (UTX) merging with Raytheon. The new company is called Raytheon Technologies Corp. (RTX). As part of the transaction Otis Worldwide Corporation (OTIS) and Carrier Global Corporation (CARR) were spun off. All three companies will remain in the index. See the announcement below.

On June 23, 2020 the S&P 500 Dow Jones Indices announced that Ross Stores (ROST) will be deleted from the index. The change was effective July 1, 2020.

Other Dividend Stock Lists

Note that it is possible for a company to be a Dividend Aristocrat and also a Dividend King. Dividend Kings have raised the dividend for at least 50 consecutive years. The other lists of U.S. stocks are below.

• List of Dividend Kings in 2020
• List of Dividend Champions in 2020
• List of Dividend Contenders in 2020
• List of Dividend Challengers in 2020
• Dogs of the Dow in 2020

For Canadian stocks I have recently updated my article on

• The List of Canadian Dividend Aristocrats in 2020

For UK stocks I have an article on

• UK High Yield Dividend Aristocrats in 2020

Some Details on the Dividend Aristocrats 2020

The list of Dividend Aristocrats 2020 is a fairly select list since there now are only 65 companies. This is out of the over 4,300 companies listed on stock exchanges at end of 2018. These companies have survived periods of inflation, stock market crashes, global crises and deep recessions. They may not have grown revenue and earnings per share every year, but they annually raised the dividend without fail for 25 years straight. Hence, this list serves as a starting point for small investors seeking to research potential ideas.

Stocks from the industrials sector have the greatest representation on the list of Dividend Aristocrats 2020 at about 25.8%. This class of stocks tend to have somewhat more volatile earnings and cash flows but many have low payout ratios letting them grow the dividends during recessions and economic downturns. The second sector with high representation is consumer staples at approximately 19.9%. This is likely due to relatively stable earnings and cash flow characteristics of these stocks. In addition, these companies tend to slowly grow earnings over time permitting annual dividend increases. The third sector on the list is the Materials sector at 12.6%. Combined these three sectors make up the majority of the Dividend Aristocrats at 58.3%. 

The sector breakdown for the Dividend Aristocrats 2020 is seen in the chart below as of October 30, 2020. The sector composition has changed with time due to changes in the S&P 500 index composition. Additionally, the Great Recession caused many previous Dividend Aristocrats to freeze or even cut their dividend. These mostly financial stocks were dropped from the list of Dividend Aristocrats affecting the sector composition. A few industrial stocks were also dropped from the list. In fact, between 2009 and 2010 nineteen companies were dropped from the list of Dividend Aristocrats.

The sector weight as a function of time is seen in the chart below. One can clearly see the drop off in percentage of financials stocks during the Great Recession. The percentage of utility stocks also dropped off during this time, which may be surprising to some. But one must remember that most utilities have high payout ratios, and many entered the unregulated market. The economic downturn pressured revenue and earnings leading to dividend cuts for some utilities. The other interesting point is that consumers staples and industrials percentages are growing with time since end of 2005. Today, they constitute about 45% of the Dividend Aristocrats 2020.

The largest Dividend Aristocrat by market capitalization is Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) with a market capitalization of roughly $393,183 million. Combined the 65 Dividend Aristocrats have a total market capitalization of roughly $5 trillion. The smallest Dividend Aristocrat is Leggett & Platt (LEG) with a market capitalization of about $4,532 million. The total market capitalization of all the Dividend Aristocrats is approximately $4,532,436 at the moment.

The one with the highest yield is AT&T (T) and the one with the lowest yield is Roper Technologies Inc (ROP). Dover Corp (DOV), Genuine Parts (GPC), and Procter & Gamble (PG) are the Dividend Aristocrats with longest streak of consecutively increasing the dividend at 64 – 65 years.

On average the Dividend Aristocrats 2020 have a yield of about 2.9%, which is greater than the broader market average. The average 10-year dividend growth rate is approximately 8.9% and the average payout ratio is ~74%. The payout is currently elevated due to depressed earnings resulting from COVID-19.

The Dividend Aristocrat 2020 list serves as a screen for further investigating a stock for a dividend growth portfolio. It is a list of companies with stable businesses that have competitive advantages and have returned cash to shareowners consistently through dividends and in some cases buybacks.

List of Dividend Aristocrat Stocks in 2020 – Updated October 30, 2020

Company Name	Ticker	No. Years	Dividend Yield (%)	Payout Ratio (%)	10-Yr Dividend Growth Rate (%)	P/E Ratio	Market Cap ($)
AbbVie	ABBV	8	4.96	100.0%	n/a	19.05	$    163,924
Abbot Laboratories	ABT	7	1.32	74.0%	-1.81	57.61	$    202,793
Archer Daniels Midland	ADM	45	2.92	51.0%	9.26	16.41	$      26,857
Automatic Data Proc.	ADP	45	2.14	63.0%	10.35	24.11	$      71,282
AFLAC Inc.	AFL	38	2.70	17.0%	7.08	5.70	$      25,920
Albemarle Corp.	ALB	26	1.32	42.0%	10.82	24.86	$      11,947
Amcor Plc	AMCR	1	3.90	n/a	n/a	23.55	$      18,069
A.O. Smith Corp.	AOS	27	1.96	49.0%	21.90	27.00	$        7,386
Air Products & Chem.	APD	38	1.71	60.0%	10.43	27.83	$      67,753
Atmos Energy	ATO	36	2.35	47.0%	5.55	20.38	$      11,551
Becton Dickinson & Co.	BDX	48	1.31	115.0%	7.88	84.63	$      68,589
Franklin Resources	BEN	40	5.29	67.0%	11.51	12.53	$        9,610
Brown-Forman Class B	BF-B	36	0.91	35.0%	8.10	34.35	$      36,013
Cardinal Health	CAH	25	3.51	58.0%	10.08	14.10	$      15,444
Carrier Global Group	CARR	0	0.41	n/a	n/a	17.21	$      33,757
Caterpillar Inc.	CAT	27	2.41	68.0%	9.26	24.54	$      87,622
Chubb Limited	CB	27	2.12	60.0%	9.11	22.94	$      62,149
Cincinnati Financial	CINF	60	2.80	48.0%	4.06	15.91	$      11,947
Colgate-Palmolive Co.	CL	57	2.15	56.0%	6.02	24.58	$      71,171
Clorox Company	CLX	43	2.28	47.0%	7.66	23.00	$      27,489
Cintas Corp.	CTAS	37	0.97	29.0%	18.18	37.77	$      35,670
Chevron Corp.	CVX	33	6.50	-82.0%	6.10	n/a	$    136,967
Dover Corp.	DOV	65	1.65	42.0%	6.42	23.35	$      16,776
Ecolab Inc.	ECL	28	0.87	45.0%	11.73	48.11	$      56,915
Consolidated Edison	ED	46	3.86	75.0%	2.48	19.18	$      26,052
Emerson Electric	EMR	63	2.65	62.0%	4.09	20.24	$      41,903
Essex Property Trust	ESS	26	3.27	89.0%	7.08	21.91	$      15,333
Expeditors International	EXPD	26	1.19	27.0%	10.09	24.03	$      14,950
Federal Realty Inv. Trust	FRT	53	4.63	118.0%	4.74	23.83	$        5,266
General Dynamics	GD	29	2.99	38.0%	10.24	12.48	$      39,981
Genuine Parts Co.	GPC	64	3.21	n/a	6.75	303.48	$      13,657
W.W. Grainger Inc.	GWW	49	1.58	50.0%	11.33	30.38	$      20,964
Hormel Foods Corp.	HRL	54	1.88	53.0%	16.04	29.03	$      26,926
Illinois Tool Works	ITW	57	2.13	66.0%	13.10	29.14	$      66,286
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	58	2.77	61.0%	6.65	22.58	$    374,479
Kimberly-Clark Corp.	KMB	48	3.23	61.0%	5.09	21.36	$      46,320
Coca-Cola Company	KO	58	3.12	84.0%	6.54	25.09	$    212,508
Leggett & Platt Inc.	LEG	49	3.83	94.0%	4.30	24.12	$        5,389
Linde Plc	LIN	27	1.50	89.0%	7.96	56.45	$    131,382
Lowe’s Companies	LOW	58	1.56	29.0%	19.20	19.84	$    127,357
McDonald’s Corp.	MCD	45	2.42	79.0%	8.56	28.95	$    161,143
Medtronic plc	MDT	43	2.05	68.0%	10.31	29.32	$    139,227
McCormick & Co.	MKC	21	1.39	43.0%	12.03	36.09	$      25,169
3M Company	MMM	62	3.60	68.0%	10.87	18.62	$      94,034
Nucor Corp.	NUE	47	3.17	115.0%	1.12	32.97	$      14,618
Realty Income Corp.	O	27	4.56	232.0%	4.92	50.59	$      20,354
Otis Worldwide Corp	OTIS	0	1.26	n/a	n/a	30.97	$      27,543
People’s United Financial	PBCT	28	5.64	62.0%	1.52	8.92	$        4,455
PepsiCo Inc.	PEP	48	2.95	78.0%	7.84	27.36	$    191,236
Procter & Gamble Co.	PG	64	2.29	57.0%	5.24	25.66	$    355,155
Pentair Ltd.	PNR	1	1.44	35.0%	0.00	21.23	$        9,008
PPG Industries Inc.	PPG	49	1.52	46.0%	6.67	26.78	$      32,776
Roper Technologies Inc.	ROP	27	0.53	13.0%	18.46	26.36	$      40,734
Raytheon Technologies	RTX	27	2.92	n/a	6.02	n/a	$      88,936
Sherwin-Williams Co.	SHW	42	0.78	25.0%	13.63	33.85	$      66,856
S&P Global Inc.	SPGI	47	0.77	26.0%	10.74	35.95	$      85,259
Stanley Black & Decker	SWK	53	1.58	44.0%	7.61	25.60	$      28,656
Sysco Corp.	SYY	50	2.53	n/a	3.45	n/a	$      31,000
AT&T Inc.	T	36	7.35	136.0%	2.17	18.72	$    195,537
Target Corp.	TGT	53	1.76	38.0%	13.35	18.07	$      80,850
T. Rowe Price Group	TROW	34	2.63	39.0%	12.56	14.25	$      30,283
VF Corp.	VFC	47	2.52	n/a	12.33	n/a	$      27,304
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.	WBA	45	4.70	355.0%	12.09	73.33	$      32,307
Wal-Mart Inc.	WMT	47	1.50	34.0%	6.18	20.50	$    413,076
ExxonMobil Corp.	XOM	38	9.42	448.0%	7.30	44.15	$    138,601
		39.1	2.7	71.2%	8.5	32.1	$      73,546
		43.0	2.4	57.5%	7.9	24.5	$      35,670