Where are the Original Dividend Champions today?

The list of dividend champions was created by David Fish in 2007. It lists companies which have managed to boost dividends for 25 years in a row. David painstakingly maintains and updates the list every month on dripinvesting.org. In latter years, he has also added a list of dividend contenders and challengers ( companies raising dividends for more than 10 and more than 5 years respectively)
I first stumbled upon the list of dividend champions in early 2008, when I was starting my site from scratch. I have utilized the file in my research and investing, and have used it to gain insights into my investing.

In my research, I have also leveraged the historic compilation of the Dividend Champions, on the site of Robert Allan Schwartz. This collection of files has been instrumental in compiling the research on the original dividend champions.

There were 139 dividend champions in December 2007.

Status	Total
Remains on the list	68
Dividend Cut	30
Unchanged Dividend	21
Acquired	19
Split in 2008	1
Grand Total	139

When I first did this analysis I saw that by the end of 2016, 78 of those original dividend champions are still on the list. By late 2021 however, we had 68 companies remaining on the Dividend Champions list.

This means that 71 companies were removed from the dividend champions list.

The most common reason for removal was a dividend cut – 30 companies cut their dividends between 2008 and 2021 for one reason or another.

A further 21 companies kept dividends unchanged, which prompted them to leave the elite dividend champions list.

From the original 139 companies, 19 companies were acquired. This figure does not include the fact that of the 51 companies that cut or kept dividends unchanged, we had companies which were ultimately acquisition targets.

One company was removed due to splitting in two. After reviewing the histories of the separated companies, I think that these should never have been deleted, because shareholders enjoyed annual organic dividend increases.

It looks like none of the original dividend champions failed. I define failure as permanent impairment to capital all the way down to zero. Only quality businesses tend to become dividend champions. As such, even when conditions change, those businesses tend to have staying power.

You can view the full list here:

Company	Symbol	Years	Note
3M Company	MMM	49	Remains
Abbott Laboratories	ABT	35	Remains
ABM Industries Inc.	ABM	41	Remains
AFLAC Inc.	AFL	25	Remains
Air Products & Chem.	APD	25	Remains
Altria Group Inc.	MO	39	Remains
American States Water	AWR	53	Remains
Anheuser-Busch Cos.	BUD	31	Acquired
Archer Daniels Midland	ADM	30	Remains
Associated Banc-Corp.	ASBC	34	Dividend Cut
AT&T Inc.	T	24	Unchanged Dividend
Automatic Data Proc.	ADP	33	Remains
Avery Dennison Corp.	AVY	32	Dividend Cut
Bank of America Corp.	BAC	30	Dividend Cut
Bank of Hawaii Corp.	BOH	27	Unchanged Dividend
BB&T Corp.	BBT	36	Dividend Cut
Becton Dickinson & Co.	BDX	35	Remains
Bemis Company	BMS	24	Acquired
Black Hills Corp.	BKH	37	Remains
C.R. Bard Inc.	BCR	36	Acquired
California Water Service	CWT	40	Remains
Carlisle Companies	CSL	31	Remains
CenturyTel Inc.	CTL	33	Unchanged Dividend
Chemical Financial	CHFC	33	Unchanged Dividend
Chubb Corp.	CB	40	Remains
Cincinnati Financial	CINF	47	Remains
Cintas Corp.	CTAS	24	Remains
Clarcor Inc.	CLC	24	Acquired
Clorox Company	CLX	28	Remains
Coca-Cola Company	KO	45	Remains
Colgate-Palmolive Co.	CL	44	Remains
Comerica Inc.	CMA	38	Dividend Cut
Commerce Bancshares	CBSH	38	Remains
Conn. Water Service	CTWS	38	Acquired
Consolidated Edison	ED	33	Remains
Diebold Inc.	DBD	54	Unchanged Dividend
Dover Corp.	DOV	52	Remains
Eaton Vance Corp.	EV	27	Acquired
Eli Lilly & Company	LLY	41	Unchanged Dividend
Emerson Electric	EMR	50	Remains
Energen Corp.	EGN	25	Dividend Cut
EnergySouth Inc.	ENSI	32	Acquired
ExxonMobil Corp.	XOM	25	Remains
Family Dollar Stores	FDO	31	Acquired
Federal Realty Inv. Trust	FRT	40	Remains
Fifth Third Bancorp	FITB	33	Unchanged Dividend
FirstMerit Corp.	FMER	24	Unchanged Dividend
Florida Public Utilities	FPU	39	Acquired
Fulton Financial Corp.	FULT	31	Dividend Cut
Gannett Company	GCI	39	Dividend Cut
General Electric Co.	GE	32	Unchanged Dividend
Genuine Parts Co.	GPC	51	Remains
Gorman-Rupp Company	GRC	34	Remains
H.B. Fuller Company	FUL	38	Remains
Harleysville National	HNBC	27	Unchanged Dividend
Helmerich & Payne Inc.	HP	28	Dividend Cut
Hershey Company	HSY	32	Unchanged Dividend
Hillenbrand Industries	HB	35	Split in 2008
Hormel Foods Corp.	HRL	42	Remains
Illinois Tool Works	ITW	42	Remains
Integrys Energy Group	TEG	49	Unchanged Dividend
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	45	Remains
Johnson Controls Inc.	JCI	33	Unchanged Dividend
KeyCorp	KEY	43	Dividend Cut
Kimberly-Clark Corp.	KMB	35	Remains
Lancaster Colony Corp.	LANC	45	Remains
La-Z-Boy Inc.	LZB	25	Dividend Cut
Legg Mason Inc.	LM	27	Acquired
Leggett & Platt Inc.	LEG	37	Remains
Lincoln National Corp.	LNC	25	Dividend Cut
Lowe's Companies	LOW	45	Remains
M&T Bank Corp.	MTB	26	Unchanged Dividend
Marshall & Ilsley Corp.	MI	32	Dividend Cut
Masco Corp.	MAS	49	Dividend Cut
McDonald's Corp.	MCD	31	Remains
McGraw-Hill Companies	MHP	34	Remains
Medtronic Inc.	MDT	30	Remains
MGE Energy Inc.	MGEE	32	Remains
Middlesex Water Co.	MSEX	34	Remains
Mine Safety Appliances	MSA	34	Remains
Myers Industries Inc.	MYE	29	Unchanged Dividend
National Fuel Gas	NFG	37	Remains
National Penn Bancsh.	NPBC	30	Dividend Cut
Nordson Corp.	NDSN	45	Remains
Northwest Natural Gas	NWN	52	Remains
Nucor Corp.	NUE	33	Remains
Old National Bancorp	ONB	26	Unchanged Dividend
Old Republic Int'l	ORI	26	Remains
Otter Tail Corp.	OTTR	32	Unchanged Dividend
Parker-Hannifin Corp.	PH	51	Remains
Pentair Inc.	PNR	31	Remains
People's Bancorp OH	PEBO	42	Dividend Cut
PepsiCo Inc.	PEP	35	Remains
Pfizer Inc.	PFE	41	Dividend Cut
Piedmont Natural Gas	PNY	29	Acquired
Pitney Bowes Inc.	PBI	24	Dividend Cut
PPG Industries Inc.	PPG	35	Remains
Procter & Gamble Co.	PG	51	Remains
Progressive Corp.	PGR	35	Dividend Cut
Questar Corp.	STR	25	Acquired
Regions Financial Corp.	RF	37	Dividend Cut
RLI Corp.	RLI	32	Remains
Rohm & Haas Company	ROH	30	Acquired
RPM International Inc.	RPM	34	Remains
Sherwin-Williams Co.	SHW	29	Remains
Sigma-Aldrich Corp.	SIAL	25	Acquired
SJW Corp.	SJW	40	Remains
SLM Corp.	SLM	26	Dividend Cut
Sonoco Products Co.	SON	25	Remains
Stanley Works	SWK	40	Remains
State Street Corp.	STT	27	Dividend Cut
Stepan Company	SCL	40	Remains
Supervalu Inc.	SVU	32	Dividend Cut
Susquehanna Bancsh.	SUSQ	26	Dividend Cut
Synovus Financial Corp.	SNV	28	Dividend Cut
Sysco Corp.	SYY	37	Remains
Target Corp.	TGT	33	Remains
Teleflex Inc.	TFX	30	Unchanged Dividend
Telephone & Data Sys.	TDS	30	Remains
Tennant Company	TNC	34	Remains
Tootsie Roll Industries	TR	37	Remains
Trustmark Corp.	TRMK	25	Unchanged Dividend
U.S. Bancorp	USB	36	Dividend Cut
UDR Inc.	UDR	31	Dividend Cut
United Bankshares Inc.	UBSI	34	Unchanged Dividend
Universal Corp.	UVV	37	Remains
Valspar Corp.	VAL	27	Acquired
Vectren Corp.	VVC	48	Acquired
VF Corp.	VFC	34	Remains
W.W. Grainger Inc.	GWW	36	Remains
Walgreen Company	WAG	32	Remains
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.	WMT	37	Remains
Washington Federal Inc.	WFSL	25	Dividend Cut
Washington REIT	WRE	37	Dividend Cut
Wesco Financial Corp.	WSC	33	Acquired
Weyco Group Inc.	WEYS	26	Unchanged Dividend
WGL Holdings Inc.	WGL	31	Acquired
Wilmington Trust Corp.	WL	26	Dividend Cut
Wrigley (Wm. Jr.) Co.	WWY	27	Acquired

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