A dividend king is a company that has managed to increase dividends to shareholders for at least 50 years in a row.
There are only 45 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
- The Covid-19 Pandemic
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 seven new additions to the list in 2022. There were no companies that left the list. These actions brought the number of companies to 46, from 38 at the end of 2021. 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. Our 2023 list includes 45 companies.
The new additions for the current year include:
Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
Gorman-Rupp Company (GRC)
Kimberly-Clark Corp. (KMB)
Middlesex Water Co. (MSEX)
Nucor Corp. (NUE)
PepsiCo Inc. (PEP)
VF Corp. (VFC)
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.
There are a few companies, which are incorrectly listed as dividend kings elsewhere. One is Sysco (SYY). Upon review of their dividend history, I realized they only have 46 years of consecutive annual dividend increases under their belt. They would be eligible for inclusion in 2026. They kept dividends unchanged in 1975 and 1976. It pays to review the dividend history, before deciding
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.
Since 2010, there have been only two companies that have left the list. One, Vectren (VVC) was acquired. The second, Diebold (DBD), kept dividends unchanged, but ultimately ended up cutting them.
The companies in the 2022 dividend kings list include:
The companies in the 2022 dividend kings list include:
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: