Wednesday, December 5, 2018

5 High-Yielding Dividend Aristocrats Not Afraid to Raise Their Dividends

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats is the most recognized list of dividend stocks. The Dividend Aristocrats index is designed to measure the performance of S&P 500 constituents that have followed a policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years.

Dividend Aristocrats exhibit the following characteristics:

- They are a member of the S&P 500
- The index is equally weighted with constituents re-weighted quarterly
- List is reviewed and updated annually in December

Make no mistake, Dividend Aristocrats are the blue-blood of dividend growth stocks. When building your core portfolio, this list is where you want to start your evaluation. If you want dividend growth, these stocks have been there, and done that - for decades.

This week week, I screened my dividend growth stocks database for Dividend Aristocrats with a yield greater than 3.5% and have increased their dividends for at least 35 consecutive years. The results are presented below:

Target Corp. (TGT) operates nearly 1,800 Target, SuperTarget and CityTarget general merchandise stores across the U.S. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1965 and has increased its dividend payments for 51 consecutive years. Yield: 3.6%

Consolidated Edison, Inc. (ED) is an electric and gas utility holding company serves parts of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1885 and has increased its dividend payments for 45 consecutive years. Yield: 3.6%

Leggett & Platt Inc. (LEG) makes a broad line of bedding and furniture components and other home, office and commercial furnishings, as well as products for non-furnishings markets. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1939 and has increased its dividend payments for 46 consecutive years. Yield: 3.8%

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), formed through the merger of Exxon and Mobil in late 1999, is the world's largest publicly owned integrated oil company. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1882 and has increased its dividend payments for 36 consecutive years. Yield: 4.1%

AT&T Inc. (T) provides telephone and broadband service and holds full ownership of AT&T Mobility. The company has paid a cash dividend to shareholders every year since 1984 and has increased its dividend payments for 35 consecutive years. Yield: 6.3%

As with past screens, the data presented above is in its raw form. Some of the the companies would be disqualified for poor dividend fundamentals. However some of the others may be worth additional due diligence.

My database, D4L-Data, is an Open Office spreadsheet containing more than 20 columns of information on the 200+ companies that I track. The data is sortable and has built-in buttons and macros to make it easy to use. Companies included in the list are those that have had a history of dividend growth. The D4L-Data spreadsheet is a part of D4L-Premium Services and is updated each Saturday for subscribers.

Full Disclosure: Long TGT, ED, LEG, XOM, T.

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(Photo Credit)


Tags: TGT, ED, LEG, XOM, T,
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