List Of Dividend Aristocrats In 2015 by Sure Dividend
The Dividend Aristocrats Index is comprised of 52 stocks that have paid dividends for 25+ consecutive years.
In addition to the exclusive dividend history requirement, Dividend Aristocrats must also be members of the S&P 500 Index and meet certain size and liquidity requirements.
What’s the big deal about being a Dividend Aristocrat?
The Dividend Aristocrats Index has outperformed the market by a wide margin over the last decade, as the image below shows.
Source: S&P Dividend Aristocrats Fact Sheet
List of All 52 Dividend Aristocrats
The spreadsheet below lists all 52 Dividend Aristocrats as of July 2015.
The list can be sorted by:
- Dividend Yield
- Standard Deviation
- Growth Rate
- Payout Ratio
- And more…
Click Here To Download The Dividend Aristocrats Spreadsheet
Explanation of Financial Metrics
The four financial metrics included in the spreadsheets are the same metrics used for the buy rules in The 8 Rules of Dividend Investing.
A brief explanation of each metric is below.
Dividend Yield
Dividend yield is calculated as 4 x most recent dividend / current price. This is the standard calculation for dividend yield and shows what percentage of dividend income you can expect on your investment in the first year (assuming no dividend increases or reductions).
Standard Deviation
Standard deviation in the spreadsheet above is calculated over a stock’s 10 year price history (when available). Long-term price histories are used to reduce the effects of unusually high or low volatility in the recent past.
Stocks with low price standard deviations have historically outperformed the market. Better price returns have come with lower ‘risk’ as defined by academics due to lower stock price standard deviation.
I don’t believe standard deviation to be a true measure of risk, but it is a good proxy for measuring real risk. It has worked to improve returns historically. The historical record should not be ignored.
Growth Rate
The growth rate used in the spreadsheet above uses 10 years of data (when available). Using long-term growth paints a clearer picture of a company’s real underlying business growth as it removes the random noise that comes with year-over-year growth rates.
Growth rate is calculated as the lower of 10 year earnings-per-share growth or 10 year dividend-per-share growth. Taking the lower of earnings or dividend growth prevents companies that have boosted their dividend simply by increasing their payout ratios to show high growth.
Payout Ratio
The payout ratio is calculated as last dividend payment x 4 / trailing-twelve-month earnings per share. Adjusted earnings per share are used when applicable instead of GAAP earnings per share to minimize the effects of short-term or one-time events on the payout ratio.
Final Thoughts
The Dividend Aristocrats list Excel spreadsheet download in this article is a quick-and-easy way to generate investment ideas for dividend growth investors.
The Dividend Aristocrats Index is comprised of high quality businesses with long histories of rewarding shareholders with rising dividends.
Many of the stocks in the Dividend Aristocrats Index are ‘household names’; companies or stocks that are known by many people. See the articles below for recent coverage of several Dividend Aristocrats on Sure Dividend:
- DRIP Stocks: 15 No-Fee Dividend Aristocrats
- The 10 Most Recession Proof Dividend Aristocrats
- Always Coca-Cola: 3.4% Yield & 53 Years of Dividend Increases
