The Dividend Aristocrats list includes S&P 500 companies which have managed to increase dividends for at least 25 consecutive years.
I compiled the dividend increases for 2024 for this list, along with relevant other information, such as valuation (forward P/E and dividend yield), 5 year annualized dividend growth and dividend payout ratio. You can also see the streak and dividend increase for 2024 as well.
You can view the list from here:
You can download the list from here:
The average dividend increase was 5.95% in 2024.
The smallest dividend increase was from Emerson Electric at just 0.48% in 2024. The highest dividend increase was from Sherwin-Williams at 18.18% in 2024.
Note that this list does not include the companies that were deleted in 2024 due to dividend cuts.
There were two companies that cut dividends in 2024 - 3M and Walgreen's.
Ironically, 3M raised annualized dividend rate in February 2024 to $6.04, before cutting the dividend by 53.64% to $2.80/year annualized in May 2024.
Walgreen's cut dividends in January 2024 by 47.92% to $1/share.
Both companies were booted out of the Dividend Aristocrats list after the cuts.
The overall rate of dividend increases for the dividend aristocrats was still impressive, even if we look at those dividend cuts though. This is where diversification is helpful. If one company cuts dividends, there are many others that raise dividends. This compensates for the small loss in income, and even more helps grow overall income on its own.
Also note that not all of those dividend aristocrats are good investment options in my opinion.
In order to narrow the list down, I would look at various criteria such as:
1. Trends in earnings per share
2. Last Dividend Increase
3. Valuation
I discussed how I actually did that and the list of companies for review in my premium newsletter last year.
Thank you for reading!
