Saturday, January 24, 2026

Dividend Aristocrats List for 2026

The S&P Dividend Aristocrats index tracks companies in the S&P 500 that have increased dividends every year for at least 25 years in a row. The index is equally weighted, and rebalanced every quarter.


To qualify for membership in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index, a stock must satisfy the following criteria:

1. Be a member of the S&P 500
2. Have increased dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years
3. Meet minimum float-adjusted market capitalization and liquidity requirements defined in the index inclusion and index exclusion rules below.

The group of companies in the Dividend Aristocrats index tend to generate reliable dividend income, and provide the potential for strong total returns. The list is well diversified across sectors.

There are a record 69 companies in the Dividend Aristocrats index for 2026.


For 2025, there were no changes. This was the first time I have seen that in the history of this list.


Since the inception of the index in 1989, the number of holdings has fluctuated from 26 to 69 holdings. This year marks the highest number of dividend aristocrats ever, on record. It is still not even half the number of Dividend Champions however.


The 2026 Dividend Aristocrats are listed below:

Symbol

Name

Sector

Years of Annual Dividend Increases

10 year Dividend   Growth

Dividend Yield

ABBV

AbbVie Inc.

Health Care

53

12.50%

3.03%

ABT

Abbott Laboratories

Health Care

53

9.41%

2.01%

ADM

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co

Consumer Staples

50

6.18%

3.55%

ADP

Automatic Data Processing

Information Technology

50

12.13%

2.64%

AFL

AFLAC Inc

Financials

44

11.37%

2.21%

ALB

Albemarle Corp.

Materials

31

3.53%

1.15%

AMCR

Amcor

Materials

30

#N/A

6.24%

AOS

Smith A.O. Corp

Industrials

32

13.77%

2.15%

APD

Air Products & Chemicals Inc

Materials

43

8.36%

2.90%

ATO

Atmos Energy

Utilities

42

8.55%

2.39%

BDX

Becton Dickinson & Co

Health Care

54

5.42%

2.16%

BEN

Franklin Resources Inc

Financials

46

7.87%

5.53%

BF.B

Brown-Forman Corp B

Consumer Staples

41

5.80%

3.50%

BRO

Brown & Brown

Financials

32

10.52%

0.83%

CAH

Cardinal Health Inc

Health Care

29

3.37%

0.99%

CAT

Caterpillar Inc

Industrials

32

7.10%

1.05%

CB

Chubb Ltd

Financials

32

3.60%

1.24%

CHD

Church & Dwight

Consumer Staples

29

5.82%

1.41%

CHRW

C.H. Robinson Worldwide

Industrials

28

4.68%

1.57%

CINF

Cincinnati Financial Corp

Financials

65

6.51%

2.13%

CL

Colgate-Palmolive Co

Consumer Staples

62

3.22%

2.63%

CLX

Clorox Co

Consumer Staples

48

5.00%

4.92%

CTAS

Cintas Corp

Industrials

43

20.40%

0.96%

CVX

Chevron Corp

Energy

38

4.80%

4.49%

DOV

Dover Corp

Industrials

70

2.36%

1.07%

ECL

Ecolab Inc

Materials

34

7.01%

1.11%

ED

Consolidated Edison Inc

Utilities

51

2.72%

3.42%

EMR

Emerson Electric Co

Industrials

69

1.27%

1.67%

ERIE

Erie Indemnity

Financials

36

7.20%

2.04%

ES

Eversource Energy

Utilities

27

6.07%

4.47%

ESS

Essex Property Trust

Real Estate

31

6.10%

3.93%

EXPD

Expeditors International

Industrials

31

7.90%

1.03%

FDS

FactSet Research

Financials

27

9.76%

1.52%

FAST

Fastenal

Industrials

27

12.07%

2.19%

FRT

Federal Realty Invt Trust

Real Estate

58

2.24%

4.48%

GD

General Dynamics

Industrials

34

8.21%

1.78%

GPC

Genuine Parts Co

Consumer Discretionary

69

5.39%

3.35%

GWW

Grainger W.W. Inc

Industrials

54

6.76%

0.90%

HRL

Hormel Foods Corp

Consumer Staples

60

8.78%

4.94%

IBM

Intl Business Machines

Information Technology

30

2.99%

2.27%

ITW

Illinois Tool Works Inc

Industrials

51

11.79%

2.61%

JNJ

Johnson & Johnson

Health Care

63

5.71%

2.51%

KMB

Kimberly-Clark

Consumer Staples

53

3.69%

5.00%

KO

Coca-Cola Co

Consumer Staples

63

4.45%

2.92%

KVUE

Kenvue

Consumer Staples

63

#N/A

4.66%

LIN

Linde plc

Materials

32

7.69%

1.41%

LOW

Lowe's Cos Inc

Consumer Discretionary

63

16.51%

1.99%

MCD

McDonald's Corp

Consumer Discretionary

50

7.62%

2.43%

MDT

Medtronic plc

Health Care

48

7.49%

2.96%

MKC

McCormick & Co

Consumer Staples

39

8.45%

2.82%

NEE

NextEra Energy

Utilities

31

11.40%

2.82%

NDSN

Nordson Corp

Industrials

62

13.38%

1.36%

NUE

Nucor Corp

Materials

53

3.97%

1.37%

O

Realty Income Corp.

Real Estate

33

3.54%

5.75%

PEP

PepsiCo Inc

Consumer Staples

53

7.42%

3.96%

PG

Procter & Gamble

Consumer Staples

69

4.73%

2.95%

PNR

Pentair PLC

Industrials

50

1.52%

1.04%

PPG

PPG Industries Inc

Materials

54

6.99%

2.77%

ROP

Roper Technologies, Inc

Industrials

33

12.68%

0.82%

SHW

Sherwin-Williams Co

Materials

47

13.47%

0.98%

SJM

J.M. Smucker

Consumer Staples

28

5.22%

4.50%

SPGI

S&P Global

Financials

52

11.27%

0.73%

SWK

Stanley Black & Decker

Industrials

58

4.43%

4.47%

SYY

Sysco Corp

Consumer Staples

55

5.76%

2.93%

TGT

Target Corp

Consumer Discretionary

58

7.66%

4.66%

TROW

T Rowe Price Group Inc

Financials

39

9.34%

4.96%

WMT

Wal-Mart

Consumer Staples

52

3.45%

0.84%

WST

West Pharmaceutical Services

Health Care

33

6.57%

0.32%

XOM

Exxon Mobil Corp

Energy

43

3.34%

3.42%

Note: Data as of 12/31/2025

Note: Data as of 12/31/2025


The Dividend Aristocrats Index tends to shine during bear markets, such as 2000 - 2003, 2007 - 2009 and 2022. I wanted to note that in 2008, the Dividend Aristocrats index declined by 21.88%. The S&P 500 however declined by 37%.

The dividend aristocrats index tends to shine during bear markets and low return environments. However, it also pulls its weight when we are in a bull market too. It is the best of both worlds really.

These are the returns since the launch of the Dividend Aristocrats Index in 1989:

Performance of Dividend Aristocrats since 1989


You can see the performance of the Dividend Aristocrats Index versus S&P 500 since 1989. The S&P 500 dominated during the 1990's. However, the Dividend Aristocrats index did very well during the next decade. During the past decade, the Dividend Aristocrats Index has basically matched S&P 500 until early 2020. Over the past three years, it has trailed S&P 500 significantly. The last time this happened was around the time of the dot-com bubble imploding. Of course, history seldom repeats exactly like the past, though it could rhyme.





I first stumbled upon the Dividend Aristocrats index in late 2007, and instantly understood why dividend growth investing is such a powerful wealth generating tool. If someone had invested in the Dividend Aristocrats index after reading my review of the list at the beginning of 2008, they would have more than sextupled their money (increased six times)


As I gained more experience however, I have gravitated more towards the Dividend Champions list, which was created by Dave Fish. The Dividend Champions list is more complete, as it doesn’t exclude companies due to low liquidity, or due to market capitalization below a certain threshold. In addition, I find that historically, the list of Dividend Champions has followed a more consistent approach than the list of Dividend Aristocrats. Sadly, Dave passed awy last year. Luckily, another person has agreed to update it for the time being. You can view the 2026 Dividend Champions List here.

When I review the list of historical changes in the Dividend Aristocrats index, I see some inconsistencies in the way portfolio components are added or removed.

For example, the Dividend Aristocrats index removed Altria in 2007, after it spun-off Kraft Foods and as a result its dividend decreased. It could be argued that the dividend income for the investor was not decreased, because they kept getting a dividend from Altria as well as dividends from Kraft Foods.

The S&P committee seems to have rectified this issue, and have kept both Abbott and Abbvie after legacy Abbott Laboratories split in two companies in early 2013.

Ironically, Dave Fish had Altria listed as a Dividend Champion. However, he didn’t have Abbott nor Abbvie listed as a dividend champion ( they are listed as Dividend Aristocrats however).

Other inconsitencies include keeping KenVue as a dividend aristocrat, after it was spun-off from Johnson & Johnson. I would not have viewed it as a dividend aristocrat, as the firm does not have a sufficient track record for annual dividend increases. Johnson & Johnson does, but not Kenvue.

I am also uncertain as to why Amcor is part of the index, as it was the acquirer for the old Bemis Corp. Amcor itself did not have a 25 year track record of consistent annual dividend increases under its belt pre the acquisition. However, somehow the S&P Index Committee decided to grant it the track record for Bemis, a company Amcor acquired.


This is why you need to perform your own checks as an investor. I view this list as a starting population for further research, not an automatic buy.

In addition, I wanted to let you know that I would not purchase all companies from either lists blindly. I run my entry criteria screen to come up with a list of companies for further research. Before investing in any individual stock, I research it enough to gain some understanding of the business and its trends in fundamentals.

Relevant Articles:

- Dividend Champions, Contenders & Challengers: The most complete list of US dividend growth stocks available
- Dividend Aristocrats List for 2017
- Dividend Aristocrats for Dividend Growth and Total Returns
- Where are the original Dividend Aristocrats now?
- Historical changes of the S&P Dividend Aristocrats
- Why do I like the Dividend Aristocrats?
- Dividend Aristocrats List for 2016
at

Popular Posts