The Dividend Aristocrats Ranked By Quality Scores: March 2025

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index contains 69 dividend growth stocks, which are called the Dividend Aristocrats. With a few exceptions, the Dividend Aristocrats are S&P 500 companies that have paid higher dividends every year for 25 or more years. 

In this article, I rank the Dividend Aristocrats by quality scores, categorizing them into undervalued and overvalued stocks.

I consider stocks undervalued if they pass two valuation screens.

The Dividend Aristocrats Ranked By Quality Scores: November 2024

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index contains 66 dividend growth stocks called the Dividend Aristocrats. With a few exceptions, the Dividend Aristocrats are S&P 500 companies with higher dividend payouts every year for 25 or more years. 

In this article, I rank the 66  Dividend Aristocrats by quality scores, categorizing them into undervalued and overvalued stocks.

I consider stocks undervalued if they pass three valuation screens.

Updating my Quality Scoring System

I use a quality scoring system modeled after David Van Knapp's Quality Snapshots, an elegant system for assessing the quality of dividend growth stocks.

This article describes my (updated) quality scoring system and how I rank dividend growth stocks by quality scores. It also explains how my system differs from Quality Snapshots.

The main purpose of using a quality scoring system is not to make final buy or sell decisions but to identify candidates for further research. The scoring system is stringent, but that doesn't mean the highest-quality stocks are always suitable for investment. Valuation must be considered after vetting a candidate's suitability through further research.

Undervalued Dividend Kings: October 2024

Dividend Kings are exceptional dividend companies that have increased their annual dividend payouts for 50 or more consecutive years. This achievement is remarkable because these companies have delivered ever-increasing dividends to investors through economic recessions, market crashes, technological revolutions, and changes in consumer tastes!

In this article, I rank the Dividend Kings by quality score and present undervalued stocks for further research and possible investment. 

To determine if stocks are undervalued, I use these valuation screens:

The Highest Quality Dividend Growth Stocks In 2024

In this June 2020 article, David Van Knapp screened the so-called CCC list of Dividend Champions, Contenders, and Challengers for stocks that placed in the top two scoring categories of each quality indicator in his Quality Snapshots system. He called stocks that passed these stringent screens the highest-quality dividend growth stocks.

In this article, I revisit the idea of finding the highest-quality dividend growth stocks. My universe of dividend growth stocks is Dividend Radar, and I use a variation of Quality Snapshots for screening. 

The article updates one I wrote in August 2022. While the scoring system and universe of DG stocks are different, comparing the 2022 and 2024 results is quite informative. 

Why Invest in Low Dividend Yield Stocks?

As a Dividend Growth Investor, I almost exclusively invest in dividend growth stocks with dividend increase streaks of five years or more. Dividend Radar is a free, weekly auto-generated spreadsheet of such stocks.

I believe in a healthy mix of higher-yielding (HiY) stocks and stocks with higher dividend growth rates (HiG stocks) as measured by the 5-year dividend compound annual growth rate, or 5-year DGR for short.

In the past few years, my DivGro portfolio's balance of HiY and HiG positions has shifted towards HiY stocks. To restore a healthier mix of HiY and HiG stocks, I recently closed several HiY positions and increased my investments in HiG stocks with lower yields. As a result, my annual dividend income decreased significantly, but I believe my total return prospects have vastly improved.

29 Undervalued Dividend Aristocrats: December 2023

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index contains 67 dividend growth stocks called the Dividend Aristocrats. With a few exceptions, the Dividend Aristocrats are S&P 500 companies with higher dividend payouts every year for 25 or more years. 

In this article, I rank the Dividend Aristocrats by quality score and present undervalued stocks for further research and possible investment. 

I consider stocks undervalued if they pass three valuation screens.

The Dividend Kings Ranked By Quality Score

Dividend Kings are great companies that have increased their annual dividend payouts for 50 or more consecutive years! This achievement is remarkable because these companies have delivered ever-increasing dividends to investors through economic recessions, market crashes, technological revolutions, and changes in consumer tastes!

In this article, I rank the Dividend Kings using quality scores obtained from a variation of DVK Quality Snapshots in which I replaced one quality indicator and added another. With a total of six quality indicators, each scored out of 5 points, the version of Quality Snapshots I'm using in this article has a maximum quality score of 30 points. 

Based on their quality scores, I rate stocks as Exceptional (29-30), Excellent (26-28), Fine (21-25), Decent (16-20), Poor (11-15), and Inferior (0-10). Investment Grade ratings have quality scores in the range of 16-30, while Speculative Grade ratings have quality scores below 16 points. 

This article updates one I wrote in April 2022. 

The Highest Quality Dividend Growth Stocks In 2022

I adopted the DVK Quality Snapshots in 2019 after reading this article by David Van Knapp on high-quality, high-yield DG stocks. This simple yet elegant system provides a quick way to assess the quality of dividend growth [DG] stocks. It employs five widely used quality indicators from independent sources and assigns 0-5 points to each quality indicator, for a maximum of 25 points.

In this article, I deploy DVK Quality Snapshots to find the highest quality DG stocks in Dividend Radar, an automatically-generated spreadsheet of DG stocks (trading on US exchanges) with dividend increase streaks of at least five years. I'm using the same stringent screens that DVK used in this June 2020 article and that I used in my update in August 2021. 

The Dividend Aristocrats Ranked By Quality Scores

This article ranks the Dividend Aristocrats using DVK Quality Snapshots and provides updated key metrics, quality indicators, and valuations. Additionally, I provide a downloadable spreadsheet with fundamental and added value data for all Dividend Aristocrats.

The last time I covered the Dividend Aristocrats, there were 65 constituents. 

In December 2021, Leggett & Platt (LEG) was dropped from the S&P 500 and automatically removed from the list of Dividend Aristocrats. Then, on January 24, 2022, the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the annual rebalancing results for the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index, adding Brown & Brown (BRO) and Church & Dwight (CHD) and deleting AT&T (T). The number of Dividend Aristocrats briefly increased to 65. However, on March 29, 2022, People's United Financial (PBCT) got deleted because M&T Bank Corp. (MTB) acquired PBCT. 

So now there are 64 Dividend Aristocrats. 

The Dividend Kings Ranked By Quality Score

Dividend Kings are great companies that have increased their annual dividend payouts for 50 or more consecutive years! This achievement is exceptional because these companies have navigated market economic recessions, market crashes, technological revolutions, and changes in consumer tastes to deliver ever-increasing dividends to investors. 

This article ranks Dividend Kings by quality scores obtained from DVK Quality Snapshots, an elegant and practical system for assessing the quality of dividend growth [DG] stocks. 

Membership of the Dividend Kings is not defined by any organization or authority but is based on the stock’s dividend increase streak. Of course, not everybody agrees on how to determine a stock's dividend increase streak. 

My Top 16 Dividend Growth Stock Picks for 2022

This article presents my top 16 dividend growth [DG] stock picks for 2022. Nine of the eleven GICS sectors are represented, so my picks are quite diverse! I don't have any picks in the Consumer Staples and Real Estate sectors, unfortunately.

To find candidates, I applied several screens. The first set of screens is based on selection criteria I identified earlier this year. The criteria consider Stock Quality, Dividend Safety, Growth Outlook, Income Outlook, and Stock Valuation metrics.  Additionally, I'm interested in stocks with established dividend histories and stocks that have performed well over the past five years. 

DivGro Target Weights

I updated my system for determining target weights for DivGro positions. 

The system is both dynamic and flexible. It adjusts to prevailing market conditions and allows me to calibrate factors when my goals change. 

In this article, I present the updated system for determining DivGro target weights. I replaced one of the factors and added three new factors, for a total of seven factors that contribute to the target weight calculation. 

I'll summarize each contributing factor and explain how I calculate and use target weights. 

Top Holdings Of Dividend ETFs (Part 2c: The Top Sensitive Sector Stocks)

Because the top holdings of Dividend ETFs are not distributed evenly among the eleven GICS sectors, I decided to delve a little deeper and reveal the seven top-ranked stocks in each of the 11 GICS sectors. 

Rather than presenting all 77 stocks in a single article, I decided to organize the results by supersector. Part 2a covered the top Defensive Sector stocks and Part 2b the top Cyclical Sector stocks.

This article covering the top Sensitive Sector stocks: Communication Services, Energy, Industrials, and Information Technology. 

Top Holdings Of Dividend ETFs (Part 2b: The Top Cyclical Sector Stocks)

Continuing my article series on the top holdings of Dividend ETFs, in this article I'll be covering the top Cyclical Sector stocks. 

I decided to split Part 2 into three articles, one for each of the so-called supersectors, a way to categorize GICS sectors based on how they tend to perform during different phases of the business cycle. Part 2a covered the top Defensive Sector stocks and Part 2c will cover the top Sensitive Sector stocks. In each article, I'll provide key metrics and fair value estimates for the top seven stocks in each GICS sector in those supersectors. 

The Highest Quality Dividend Growth Stocks

David Van Knapp used a simple yet elegant system to identify the highest quality dividend growth [DG] stocks in this June 2020 article. The system employs five widely used quality indicators from independent sources and assigns 0-5 points to each quality indicator, for a maximum of 25 points. I call this system DVK Quality Snapshots. 

This article updates David Van Knapp's June 2020 article. I applied the same stringent screens to the DG stocks in  Dividend Radar and found 60 stocks that passed. All these stocks scored at least 20 points according to DVK Quality Snapshots. They truly are the highest quality DG stocks around! 

I provide two bonus lists, one containing stocks that failed the S&P Credit Rating screen and another containing stocks that scored at least 20 total points but otherwise failed the stringent quality screens.

Top Holdings Of Dividend ETFs (Part 2a: The Top Defensive Sector Stocks)

In Part 1 of this article, I presented the top 50 holdings of dividend ETFs. The top holdings in May 2021 are Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). 

The top holdings are not distributed evenly among the eleven GICS sectors. For example, the Information Technology sector has nine representatives in the top 50 holdings, whereas the Materials sector has only one. 

For investors looking to build a diversified portfolio, an uneven distribution across sectors is of little use. In Part 2 of this article, I'm presenting the top seven stocks in each GICS sector, regardless of ranking. 

Top Holdings Of Dividend ETFs (Part 1: The Top 50 In May 2021)

From time to time, I compile a list of the top holdings of Dividend ETFs. I find the exercise insightful, as it helps me identify candidates for further analysis and possible investment. Stocks I don't own pique my interest, and I wonder why I don't own them if they're so popular. 

The top holdings are not distributed evenly among the eleven GICS sectors. For investors looking to build a diversified portfolio, such an uneven distribution is not helpful. In Part 2 of this article, I'll present the top 5 stocks in each GICS sector regardless of ranking. 

In Part 3, I'll showcase high-quality stocks not covered in Part 1 and Part 2. I consider such stocks to be hidden gems. They may be of interest to contrarian investors seeking investment opportunities outside the prevailing sentiment of the time.

The Top-Ranked Dividend Growth Stock In Each GICS Sector

I decided to accept an invitation to write for TheStreet.com. 

While I'll continue to publish some articles exclusively on Seeking Alpha, a recent change in their business model limits the number of free articles readers can access without subscribing.

My first article on TheStreet.com presents the top-ranked dividend growth stock in each GICS sector. The article also presents my approach to finding high-quality dividend growth stocks and explains how I approach stock valuation.

Portfolio Target Weights

For a long time, I've considered a full position in my DivGro portfolio to be about 1% of total portfolio value. 

With fewer than 100 individual positions in my portfolio, the approach seemed reasonable. It allowed some positions to grow to 3% or more while others remained smaller than 1%, as I frequently invested as little as 0.25% when establishing new positions. 

In this article, I'm presenting a new approach I've adopted for DivGro, one that determines target weights based on various factors, including the quality and valuation of individual positions.