Dividend Aristocrats List for 2026

2026-01-24T06:20:00.000-08:00

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

Download 2025 list as excel

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

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Dividend Aristocrats List for 2026

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Dividend Champions List for 2026