The List Of Dividend Aristocrats In 2021

The Dividend Aristocrats 2021 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, as of September 30, 2021.

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.

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Performance Update of the Dividend Aristocrats 2021

The Dividend Aristocrats 2021 currently (as of September 30, 2021) has a yield of about 2.44% and the average forward price-to-earnings ratio is approximately 17.35X. The mean market capitalization is roughly $84,434 million and the median market capitalization is roughly $44,601 million. The market cap ranges between approximately $5,977 million to $425,146 million. The total market capitalization is approximately $5,488,190 million.

In 2020, the Dividend Aristocrats provided a total return of 8.68%. This was the lowest return since 2019 and the fourth lowest return in the past decade. The price return was 5.68%. This performance was relatively poor considering the strong positive market returns of most U.S indices. There was only one Dividend Aristocrat whose dividend was cut or suspended. Much of the poor return was likely caused by high sector weighting of stocks in cyclical sectors that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Historical Performance

As a group, the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats have exhibited solid returns with low volatility. Over the past 10 years, the Dividend Aristocrats have had an annualized total returns of 14.49% and a standard deviation of 12.84% while the benchmark (the S&P500 Index) has had an annualized total returns of 14.84% and a standard deviation of 13.59%. Over the past 5-years, the Dividend Aristocrats have had an annualized total return of 13.64% with a standard deviation of 14.8%, while the benchmark has had annualized total returns of 16.16% and a standard deviation of 17.65%.

The table below the calendar year performance from 2011 to 2020.

Changes to the Dividend Aristocrats in 2021

On January 22, 2021, the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that the list would be changes with an effective date of February 1, 2021. Three stocks will be added to the list and three will be deleted from the list. The three stocks that were added are International Business Machines (IBM), NextEra Energy (NEE), and West Pharmaceutical Services (WST). The three companies that were deleted were Carrier Global (CARR), Otis Worldwide (OTIS), and Raytheon Technologies (RTX). This will have the effect of adding zero net names to the list for a total of 65 stocks.

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 2021
• List of Dividend Champions in 2021
• List of Dividend Contenders in 2021
• List of Dividend Challengers in 2021
• Dogs of the Dow in 2021

For Canadian stocks I have recently updated my article on

• List of Canadian Dividend Aristocrats in 2021

For UK stocks I have an article on

• UK High Yield Dividend Aristocrats in 2021

Other dividend stock lists

• American Stocks Paying 100+ Years of Dividends

Some Details on the Dividend Aristocrats 2020

The list of Dividend Aristocrats 2021 is a fairly select list since there now are only 65 companies. This is out of about 6,000 companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges (NASDAQ and NYSE) at end of 2020. So, this is about 1.1% of stocks in these two exchanges.

Dividend Aristocrats Sector Breakdown

Stocks from the Industrials sector have the greatest representation on the list of Dividend Aristocrats 2021 at about 20.4%. 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 19.7%. 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 12.4%. Combined these three sectors make up the majority of the Dividend Aristocrats at 52.5%. 

There are only three Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in the Dividend Aristocrats 2021. These are Essex Property Trust (ESS), Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRT), and Realty Income (O). The list does not include any Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). 

The sector breakdown for the Dividend Aristocrats 2021 is seen in the chart below as of September 30, 2021. 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 at the time. In fact, between 2009 and 2010 nineteen companies were dropped from the list of Dividend Aristocrats.

The sector ranking for the Dividend Aristocrats 2021 is unlike the Canadian Dividend Aristocrats, which have Financial, Utilities, and Industrials as the top three sectors. It is also unlike the UK High Yield Dividend Aristocrats that has Financial, Consumer Staples, and Real Estate as the top three sectors.

Dividend Aristocrat Sector Weighting as Function of Time

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 before the Great Recession. 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 29% of the Dividend Aristocrats 2021.

Market Size of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats 2021

The largest Dividend Aristocrat by market capitalization is Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) with a market capitalization of roughly $452.6 billion. The smallest Dividend Aristocrat is Leggett & Platt (LEG) with a market capitalization of about $6.42 billion. Combined the 65 Dividend Aristocrats have a total market capitalization of over $5 trillion.

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

Who’s On Deck?

There are two companies S&P 500 index that have raised the dividend for 24 years at the moment. This includes Cardinal Health (CAH) and Church & Dwight (CHD).

List of Dividend Aristocrat Stocks in 2021 – Updated September 30, 2021

The Dividend Aristocrat 2021 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.

This table was created using Stock Rover* and Portfolio Insight*.

Ticker	Company Name	No. Years	Dividend Yield (%)	Payout Ratio (%)	10-yr Dividend Growth Rate (%)	P/E Ratio	Market Cap
ABBV	AbbVie	9	4.7%	133.7%	n/a	29.8	$    194,989
ABT	Abbott Laboratories	8	1.5%	45.4%	-0.7%	32.9	$    207,206
ADM	Archer-Daniels Midland	46	2.3%	35.4%	8.8%	15.6	$      35,782
ADP	Automatic Data Processing	46	1.8%	60.7%	10.0%	33.6	$      86,129
AFL	Aflac	39	2.4%	14.7%	7.8%	6.6	$      36,541
ALB	Albemarle	27	0.7%	24.8%	9.4%	34.5	$      25,045
AMCR	Amcor	2	4.0%	77.4%	n/a	19.3	$      17,836
AOS	A.O. Smith	28	1.6%	37.4%	21.8%	23.7	$      10,212
APD	Air Products & Chemicals	39	2.2%	63.7%	10.1%	30.5	$      59,486
ATO	Atmos Energy	37	2.8%	46.4%	6.3%	16.9	$      11,653
BDX	Becton, Dickinson	49	1.4%	51.3%	7.3%	37.3	$      67,727
BEN	Franklin Resources	41	3.7%	57.0%	12.9%	12.4	$      15,054
BF.B	Brown-Forman	37	1.1%	44.3%	7.7%	42.4	$      31,919
CAH	Cardinal Health	26	4.0%	93.2%	9.1%	23.4	$      13,823
CAT	Caterpillar	28	2.3%	51.2%	9.0%	24.2	$    105,601
CB	Chubb	28	1.8%	17.3%	8.8%	10.1	$      78,873
CINF	Cincinnati Financial	61	2.1%	13.9%	4.5%	6.8	$      19,141
CL	Colgate-Palmolive	58	2.4%	55.3%	4.8%	23.7	$      63,938
CLX	Clorox	44	2.9%	78.5%	7.2%	29.1	$      19,918
CTAS	Cintas	38	0.9%	47.6%	28.4%	38.1	$      41,607
CVX	Chevron	34	5.0%	277.1%	5.8%	57.3	$    207,179
DOV	Dover	66	1.3%	n/a	5.7%	25.9	$      22,553
ECL	Ecolab	29	0.9%	52.6%	10.6%	58	$      60,698
ED	Consolidated Edison	47	4.2%	n/a	2.6%	22.5	$      26,121
EMR	Emerson Electric	64	2.1%	51.1%	3.9%	24.1	$      56,300
ESS	Essex Property Trust	27	2.6%	134.4%	7.2%	52.6	$      21,219
EXPD	Expeditors International	27	1.0%	18.7%	9.4%	19.9	$      19,607
FRT	Federal Realty Investment	54	3.5%	215.2%	4.6%	62	$        9,481
GD	General Dynamics	30	2.4%	39.7%	9.9%	17.7	$      56,712
GPC	Genuine Parts	65	2.6%	57.0%	6.3%	22.4	$      18,070
GWW	W.W. Grainger	50	1.6%	37.9%	10.1%	25.4	$      21,552
HRL	Hormel Foods	55	2.3%	60.5%	14.8%	26.5	$      22,743
IBM	IBM	26	4.6%	109.2%	8.9%	24.5	$    104,200
ITW	Illinois Tool Works	58	2.3%	54.0%	12.9%	25.4	$      67,362
JNJ	Johnson & Johnson	59	2.7%	60.6%	6.4%	24.1	$    421,854
KMB	Kimberly-Clark	49	3.4%	75.0%	5.0%	22.6	$      44,637
KO	Coca-Cola	59	3.1%	88.8%	6.1%	29	$    234,089
LEG	Leggett & Platt	50	3.7%	53.8%	4.2%	15.1	$        6,033
LIN	Linde	28	1.4%	64.3%	7.8%	47.4	$    152,257
LOW	Lowe’s Companies	59	1.5%	26.7%	18.7%	21.5	$    144,613
MCD	McDonald’s	46	2.2%	55.4%	7.8%	26.8	$    184,145
MDT	Medtronic	44	2.0%	82.0%	10.2%	43.3	$    166,260
MKC	McCormick & Co	22	1.7%	46.8%	9.2%	27.8	$      20,985
MMM	3M	63	3.4%	57.8%	10.5%	17.5	$    102,002
NEE	NextEra Energy	27	2.0%	91.9%	10.8%	48.8	$    152,683
NUE	Nucor	48	1.6%	16.0%	1.1%	9.8	$      28,963
O	Realty Income	27	4.2%	284.1%	5.0%	69.1	$      26,384
PBCT	People’s United Finl	29	4.1%	100.4%	1.5%	24.7	$        7,591
PEP	PepsiCo	49	2.8%	71.1%	7.7%	26.6	$    215,941
PG	Procter & Gamble	65	2.4%	57.0%	5.1%	25.9	$    345,597
PNR	Pentair	2	1.1%	27.4%	0.0%	24.7	$      11,613
PPG	PPG Industries	50	1.6%	33.7%	7.0%	23.8	$      36,044
ROP	Roper Technologies	28	0.5%	21.7%	17.9%	45.1	$      47,736
SHW	Sherwin-Williams	43	0.8%	n/a	15.8%	36.2	$      75,907
SPGI	S&P Global	48	0.7%	28.1%	11.7%	42.1	$    103,265
SWK	Stanley Black & Decker	54	1.8%	24.7%	6.3%	15.6	$      28,483
SYY	Sysco	51	2.3%	176.7%	11.4%	81.5	$      42,431
T	AT&T	36	8.0%	n/a	2.0%	–	$    185,853
TGT	Target	54	1.6%	n/a	10.8%	18.2	$    111,624
TROW	T. Rowe Price Gr	35	2.2%	31.0%	13.2%	15.4	$      44,222
VFC	VF	1	2.8%	74.7%	12.0%	34.5	$      27,236
WBA	Walgreens Boots Alliance	46	4.0%	70.8%	9.6%	18.3	$      41,017
WMT	Walmart	48	1.6%	61.1%	4.6%	39.2	$    389,078
WST	West Pharmaceutical Servs	28	0.2%	9.5%	7.2%	59	$      29,854
XOM	Exxon Mobil	38	5.7%	n/a	6.7%	–	$    260,617
Mean		40.1	2.5%	66.9%	8.6%	30.0	$      85,312
Median		43.0	2.3%	55.3%	7.8%	25.4	$      44,222

Dividend Calendar

Stock Rover* was used for creating this table.

Ticker	Company	Ex-Dividend Date	Div. Record Date	Dividend Payment Date	Next Div. Payment Per Share	Annual Dividend Per Share
ABBV	AbbVie	10/14/21	10/15/21	11/15/21	$1.30	$5.20
ABT	Abbott Laboratories	10/14/21	10/15/21	11/15/21	$0.45	$1.80
ADM	Archer-Daniels Midland	8/17/21	8/18/21	9/8/21	$0.37	$1.48
ADP	Automatic Data Processing	9/9/21	9/10/21	10/1/21	$0.93	$3.72
AFL	Aflac	8/17/21	8/18/21	9/1/21	$0.33	$1.32
ALB	Albemarle	9/16/21	9/17/21	10/1/21	$0.39	$1.56
AMCR	Amcor	9/7/21	9/8/21	9/28/21	$0.12	$0.47
AOS	A.O. Smith	7/29/21	7/30/21	8/16/21	$0.26	$1.04
APD	Air Products & Chemicals	9/30/21	10/1/21	11/8/21	$1.50	$6.00
ATO	Atmos Energy	8/20/21	8/23/21	9/7/21	$0.62	$2.50
BDX	Becton, Dickinson	9/8/21	9/9/21	9/30/21	$0.83	$3.32
BEN	Franklin Resources	9/29/21	9/30/21	10/15/21	$0.28	$1.12
BF.B	Brown-Forman	9/2/21	9/3/21	10/1/21	$0.18	$0.72
CAH	Cardinal Health	9/30/21	10/1/21	10/15/21	$0.49	$1.96
CAT	Caterpillar	7/19/21	7/20/21	8/20/21	$1.11	$4.44
CB	Chubb	9/16/21	9/17/21	10/8/21	$0.80	$3.20
CINF	Cincinnati Financial	9/15/21	9/16/21	10/15/21	$0.63	$2.52
CL	Colgate-Palmolive	10/20/21	10/21/21	11/15/21	$0.45	$1.80
CLX	Clorox	10/26/21	10/27/21	11/10/21	$1.16	$4.64
CTAS	Cintas	8/12/21	8/13/21	9/15/21	$0.95	$3.80
CVX	Chevron	8/18/21	8/19/21	9/10/21	$1.34	$5.36
DOV	Dover	8/30/21	8/31/21	9/15/21	$0.50	$2.00
ECL	Ecolab	9/13/21	9/14/21	10/15/21	$0.48	$1.92
ED	Consolidated Edison	8/17/21	8/18/21	9/15/21	$0.77	$3.10
EMR	Emerson Electric	8/12/21	8/13/21	9/10/21	$0.50	$2.02
ESS	Essex Property Trust	9/29/21	9/30/21	10/15/21	$2.09	$8.36
EXPD	Expeditors International	5/28/21	6/1/21	6/15/21	$0.58	$1.16
FRT	Federal Realty Investment	9/21/21	9/22/21	10/15/21	$1.07	$4.28
GD	General Dynamics	10/7/21	10/8/21	11/12/21	$1.19	$4.76
GPC	Genuine Parts	9/2/21	9/3/21	10/1/21	$0.81	$3.26
GWW	W.W. Grainger	8/6/21	8/9/21	9/1/21	$1.62	$6.48
HRL	Hormel Foods	10/15/21	10/18/21	11/15/21	$0.25	$0.98
IBM	IBM	8/9/21	8/10/21	9/10/21	$1.64	$6.56
ITW	Illinois Tool Works	9/29/21	9/30/21	10/14/21	$1.22	$4.88
JNJ	Johnson & Johnson	8/23/21	8/24/21	9/7/21	$1.06	$4.24
KMB	Kimberly-Clark	9/9/21	9/10/21	10/4/21	$1.14	$4.56
KO	Coca-Cola	9/14/21	9/15/21	10/1/21	$0.42	$1.68
LEG	Leggett & Platt	9/14/21	9/15/21	10/15/21	$0.42	$1.68
LIN	Linde	9/2/21	9/3/21	9/17/21	$1.06	$4.24
LOW	Lowe’s Companies	10/19/21	10/20/21	11/3/21	$0.80	$3.20
MCD	McDonald’s	11/30/21	12/1/21	12/15/21	$1.38	$5.52
MDT	Medtronic	9/23/21	9/24/21	10/15/21	$0.63	$2.52
MKC	McCormick & Co	10/8/21	10/12/21	10/26/21	$0.34	$1.36
MMM	3M	8/20/21	8/23/21	9/12/21	$1.48	$5.92
NEE	NextEra Energy	8/26/21	8/27/21	9/15/21	$0.38	$1.54
NUE	Nucor	9/29/21	9/30/21	11/10/21	$0.41	$1.62
O	Realty Income	9/30/21	10/1/21	10/15/21	$0.24	$2.83
PBCT	People’s United Finl	7/29/21	8/1/21	8/15/21	$0.18	$0.73
PEP	PepsiCo	9/2/21	9/3/21	9/30/21	$1.08	$4.30
PG	Procter & Gamble	7/22/21	7/23/21	8/16/21	$0.87	$3.48
PNR	Pentair	10/21/21	10/22/21	11/5/21	$0.20	$0.80
PPG	PPG Industries	8/9/21	8/10/21	9/10/21	$0.59	$2.36
ROP	Roper Technologies	10/5/21	10/6/21	10/20/21	$0.56	$2.25
SHW	Sherwin-Williams	8/19/21	8/20/21	9/10/21	$0.55	$2.20
SPGI	S&P Global	11/24/21	11/26/21	12/10/21	$0.77	$3.08
SWK	Stanley Black & Decker	9/3/21	9/7/21	9/21/21	$0.79	$3.16
SYY	Sysco	9/30/21	10/1/21	10/22/21	$0.47	$1.88
T	AT&T	10/7/21	10/11/21	11/1/21	$0.52	$2.08
TGT	Target	11/16/21	11/17/21	12/10/21	$0.90	$3.60
TROW	T. Rowe Price Gr	9/14/21	9/15/21	9/29/21	$1.08	$4.32
VFC	VF	9/9/21	9/10/21	9/20/21	$0.49	$1.96
WBA	Walgreens Boots Alliance	8/19/21	8/20/21	9/10/21	$0.48	$1.91
WMT	Walmart	12/9/21	12/10/21	1/3/22	$0.55	$2.20
WST	West Pharmaceutical Servs	7/20/21	7/21/21	8/4/21	$0.17	$0.68
XOM	Exxon Mobil	8/12/21	8/13/21	9/10/21	$0.87	$3.48

Prior Year Lists and Articles

The List of Dividend Aristocrats in 2020

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