When reading articles on Seeking Alpha and blog post from many great personal finance blogs out there, I saw numerous lists with companies which are paying dividend for a long time. One of the most famous and widely used list comes from David Fish. He publish every month the U.S. Dividend Champion list. At this moment there are 106 companies, which have raised their dividend at least 25 consecutive years.
Question 1:
After reading this list, I was wondering if there were also companies that have raised their dividend while also lowering their payout ratio. Wouldn’t that be great!
After some research I found a list drafted by Oliver Pursche. He is a journalist/writer for Forbes. He has a list that he called the Uber Aristocrats. On this list there are just 18 companies.
| ACE Ltd | ACE | Caterpillar Inc | CAT |
| Chevron | CVX | Pall Corp | PLL |
| JPMorgan chase & Co | JPM | Exxon Mobile Corp | XOM |
| Helmerich & Payne | HP | AON Plc | AON |
| Travelers | TRV | CR Bard Inc | BCR |
| Cummins Inc | CMI | Walt Disney | DIS |
| Parker Hannifin Corp | PH | Dover Corp | DOV |
| Monsato Co | MON | Marathon Oil Corp | MRO |
| Deere & Co | DE | US Bancorp | USB |
This is a list from 2013. I did not check if the last year has changed this list.
Question 2:
We now have a list of companies that have been paying and raising dividend for 25 years. But are there companies that have paid and raised dividend for more than 50 years.
This was a little bit easier to find. These stocks with the longest history of consecutive dividend growth, also named as Dividend Kings. Those are stocks with more than 50 years of consecutive hikes. Only a small group of 16 companies joined this exclusive class. See Dividend Kings.
| Vectron Corp | VVC | American States Water Company | AWR |
| Northwest Natural Gas Comp | NWM | 3M co | MMM |
| Cincinnati Financial Corp | CINF | Lancaster Colony Corp | LANC |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | Dover Corp | DOV |
| Proctor & Gamble | PG | Parker Hannifin Corp | PH |
| Emerson Electric Co | EMR | Nordson | NDSN |
| Genuine Parts Company | GPC | Colgate Palmolive | CL |
| Coca Cola | KO | Lowe’s companies Inc | LOW |
On this list I see a lot of companies that are owned by fellow DGI’s. A company that regularly raises dividends for fifty years in a row is the type of company that every serious dividend growth investor should be interested in.
Question 3:
Okay this is a great list with great companies. But are there companies that have paid dividend for more than 50 years?
I found a list form Richard Berger. He drafted a list called the Dividend Zombies. This is a list of 8 companies that has a history of sustaining dividend payouts at uninterrupted and undiminished rates for over 100 years. These stalwarts have the right to make the claim that you can rely on them and their dividends throughout your entire lifetime.
| Consolidated Edison | ED | 1885 |
| General Mills | GIS | 1898 |
| Proctor & Gamble | PG | 1891 |
| Exxon Mobile | XOM | 1882 |
| Coca Cola | KO | 1893 |
| Stanley | SWK | 1877 |
| Colgate Palmolive | CL | 1895 |
| PPG Industries | PPG | 1899 |
Wow, what an extraordinary list of dividend-paying companies! All these companies are well known.
Conclusion:
It was a nice search. And I found all kind of lists. Be the above mentioned list are in my humble opinion worth knowing. Therefore I will share these lists with you, my fellow DGI’s. During the search I learned a lot, and found some stocks I never heard of.
If I look at different portfolios of DGI’s I see that each of these lists are popular with income investors. So if you’re looking for some new stocks, these lists can be the start of an analysis for a new possible buy.
A couple of these great stocks are in my Vrijheid Fonds. An some are on my watch list 😉
What do you think about these list? Are they complete? Do you miss some great stocks? Please let me know.
Cheers,
Pollie
Great list, Pollie. I have heard of the Dividend Kings and Zombies…but had never thought about #1 on your list – companies who not only raise dividends but whose payout ratios went down. Thats a great way to look for companies whos balance sheet is improving while providing more income via dividends.
Thanks for sharing.
R2R
Hello R2R,
I’m glad I could learn you something. Normally it is the other way around 😀
All great companies that are good stocks for a DGI
Cheers,
Pollie
I’ve never heard of the dividend zombies list before. Looks like I own 5 out of 8 in that category !
Thanks for the lists
You’re welcome. I did not hear from them either. Just stumbled upon them. It is a nice list. And a great search that i had 😄
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Great list Pollie. I love the list of companies that have raised a dividend and lowered their payout ratio. It does a company is finding ways to return value to it’s shareholders outside of just a dividend. Plus, it sets them up for many years of dividend growth.
Thanks for taking the time to our these great lists together.
Bert
Hello Bert,
You have to love these companies! They have taken action with their sharholders in mind!
Cheers,
Pollie
I prefer looking at my own criteria before buying a stock. They’re still good indicators, but I also look for high dividend yield dividends and dividend growth stocks. No wonder why I made my own lists! 😉
You always have to make your decision based on your own analysis. This blog post is for inspiration
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Interesting lists. #3 is awesome, and I hope to buy some of them, but at the same time, I would worry that dividend growth rate suffers. An example not on that list is NUE, who’s been increasing the dividend by fractions of a penny so they don’t lose their Dividend Aristocrat status. Wonder which one of those listed are in the same boat. Interesting that I’m long quite a few companies in list #1, even though I didn’t know that was the trend. Good sign for me!
Hello DD,
Thanks for stopping by!
I agree that there is a risk that companies only use pennies to stay on the list od dividend aristocrats.
However if the chowder rule is above 12%, the risk is a little bit smaller.
Cheers,
Pollie
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Very nice lists. I have several of these companies on the various lists. Thanks for sharing!
D4s
You’re welcome!