12 Dividend Aristocrats to Consider Now
Monday, March 8th, 2010Scott’s Investments submits:
In a continued effort to expand the focus of my site’s screens and hypothetical portfolios this article focuses on the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats. The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index measures the performance of large cap, blue chip companies within the S&P 500 that have followed a policy of increasing dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years. The current list has 43 constituents. If an investor’s portfolio was large enough he or she could consider purchasing the entire list. Or, an investor could invest in the SDY, the SPDR Dividend ETF, which is a variation of the Aristocrats – it seeks to replicate the “High Yield” Dividend Aristocrats Index. A third alternative is to start with the Aristocrat list and then reduce the list of candidates through screens and/or fundamental analysis. I screened for Aristocrats which had a sustainable payout ratio, a reasonable dividend yield, relatively low debt/equity ratio, and positive projected earnings.
Using Finviz, which has some of the better screeners and charts available, I screened the Aristocrat list for:
