There are only 28 such companies in the US, and perhaps a couple more in the rest of the world. It is not a small achievement to have been able to reward long-term shareholders with a dividend raise for over half a century.
Over the past 50 years, some calamities experienced include:
- Seven Recessions since 1967
- The Vietnam War
- The oil crisis in the 1970s
- Stagflationary 1970s
- Double digit interest rates in the 1980s
- Fall of the Soviet Union in 1991
- 9/11 in 2001
- The Dot-com bubble bursting in 2000
- The housing bubble bursting in 2007 - 2008
- ZIRP and NIRP since 2009
Throughout this calamity each of those businesses managed to grow earnings, and raise the dividend to their long-term shareholders. If you are looking for a long-term shareholder base, the best way to build it is by paying those owners more every single year. This is a simple, but novel idea for corporations to embrace.
We had three new additions to the list in 2019, and one company that left the list. These actions brought the number of companies to 28. This is a record since we started tracking the list of dividend kings in 2010.
When I first came up with the idea for the list of dividend kings in 2010, there were only eleven companies on it. While our 2019 list also included 28 companies, I had to remove Target for now, since its streak of annual dividend increases was only 48 years. I am pretty confident that the retailer will hit 50 years in a row by the end of the decade. Other websites show Target as a dividend king, when its press releases and the dividend history on its website show a 48 year track record of annual dividend increases.
The new addition for the current year include:
Altria Group (MO)
H.B. Fuller Company (FUL)
Sysco (SYY)
These were consistent with my predictions from last year. It is a testament to the predictable nature of their businesses, not in my forecasting abilities.
The company that left the list in 2019 includes Vectren (VVC), acquired by Centerpoint in January 2019. This is the second company to leave the list of dividend kings since I started monitoring it in 2010.
I did some research on historical changes of the Dividend Kings list, which you may find interesting. I reviewed the evolution of the dividend kings prior to 2007 in the article, which has not been done by anyone else.
The companies in the 2019 dividend kings list include:
|
Company
Name
|
Symbol
|
Sector
|
Years
Dividend Increases
|
10
Year Annualized Dividend Growth
|
Dividend
Yield
|
Share
Price
|
|
ABM
Industries Inc.
|
ABM
|
Industrials
|
52
|
3.42%
|
1.92%
|
38.50
|
|
American
States Water
|
AWR
|
Utilities
|
65
|
7.80%
|
1.40%
|
86.90
|
|
Commerce
Bancshares
|
CBSH
|
Financials
|
51
|
4.86%
|
1.45%
|
68.20
|
|
Cincinnati
Financial
|
CINF
|
Financials
|
59
|
3.20%
|
2.16%
|
103.90
|
|
Colgate-Palmolive
Co.
|
CL
|
Consumer
Staples
|
57
|
7.85%
|
2.49%
|
69.18
|
|
California
Water Service
|
CWT
|
Utilities
|
52
|
2.54%
|
1.53%
|
51.52
|
|
Dover
Corp.
|
DOV
|
Industrials
|
64
|
9.72%
|
1.70%
|
115.47
|
|
Emerson
Electric
|
EMR
|
Industrials
|
63
|
4.69%
|
2.61%
|
76.51
|
|
Farmers
& Merchants Bancorp
|
FMCB
|
Financials
|
55
|
3.14%
|
1.85%
|
773.96
|
|
Federal
Realty Inv. Trust
|
FRT
|
Real
Estate
|
52
|
4.95%
|
3.28%
|
128.15
|
|
H.B.
Fuller Company
|
FUL
|
Materials
|
50
|
8.89%
|
1.23%
|
51.83
|
|
Genuine
Parts Co.
|
GPC
|
Consumer
Discretionary
|
63
|
6.33%
|
2.87%
|
106.24
|
|
Hormel
Foods Corp.
|
HRL
|
Consumer
Staples
|
54
|
15.02%
|
2.05%
|
45.26
|
|
Johnson
& Johnson
|
JNJ
|
Health
Care
|
57
|
7.03%
|
2.61%
|
145.75
|
|
Coca-Cola
Company
|
KO
|
Consumer
Staples
|
57
|
7.46%
|
2.89%
|
55.35
|
|
Lancaster
Colony Corp.
|
LANC
|
Consumer
Staples
|
57
|
8.09%
|
1.75%
|
160.39
|
|
Lowe's
Companies
|
LOW
|
Consumer
Discretionary
|
57
|
18.36%
|
1.83%
|
120.23
|
|
3M
Company
|
MMM
|
Industrials
|
61
|
10.52%
|
3.25%
|
177.26
|
|
Altria
Group Inc.
|
MO
|
Consumer
Staples
|
50
|
9.46%
|
6.67%
|
50.40
|
|
Nordson
Corp.
|
NDSN
|
Industrials
|
56
|
13.10%
|
0.93%
|
162.80
|
|
Northwest
Natural Gas
|
NWN
|
Utilities
|
64
|
2.22%
|
2.63%
|
72.56
|
|
Procter
& Gamble Co.
|
PG
|
Consumer
Staples
|
63
|
6.25%
|
2.36%
|
126.09
|
|
Parker-Hannifin
Corp.
|
PH
|
Industrials
|
63
|
12.32%
|
1.70%
|
207.00
|
|
Stepan
Company
|
SCL
|
Materials
|
52
|
8.09%
|
1.10%
|
99.93
|
|
SJW
Corp.
|
SJW
|
Utilities
|
51
|
5.69%
|
1.68%
|
71.61
|
|
Stanley
Black & Decker
|
SWK
|
Industrials
|
52
|
7.43%
|
1.66%
|
165.90
|
|
Sysco
Corp.
|
SYY
|
Consumer
Staples
|
50
|
5.05%
|
2.10%
|
85.74
|
|
Tootsie
Roll Industries
|
TR
|
Consumer
Staples
|
53
|
4.45%
|
1.04%
|
34.73
|
Note: The prices and yields are as of December 29th, 2019.
There are three companies which are set to potentially join the elite list of dividend kings by the end of 2020. These companies have a 49 year record of annual dividend increases:
Black Hills Corp (BKH)
MSA Safety (MSA)
National Fuel Gas (NFG)
This track record is a testament to the stability of the underlying businesses that generated the earnings growth necessary to grow the dividend for half a century (and longer). This track record is an indication of a business that is relatively immune to outside shocks. This resilience throughout the period manifests itself into the long stretch of dividend increases, spanning over half a century.
While these companies are not investment recommendations, I post them as examples for further study by serious dividend investors. Studying the businesses, their industries, could give you clues as to the type of business that can flourish over a half of a century.
As I mentioned above, I have been compiling the list of dividend kings since 2010. To view the historical changes in the list, please follow the links below:
Dividend Kings List For 2019