The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats is a stock market index composed of the companies in the S&P 500 index that have increased their dividends in each of the past 25 consecutive years. It was launched in May 2005.

There are other indices of dividend aristocrats that vary regarding market cap and minimum duration of consecutive yearly dividend increases.

Components are added when they reach the 25-year threshold and are removed when they fail to increase their dividend during a calendar year or are removed from the S&P 500. However, a study found that the stock performance of companies improves after they are removed from the index.

The index has been recommended as an alternative to bonds for investors looking to generate income.

To invest in the index, there are several exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which seek to replicate the performance of the index. One example would be NOBL by ProShares, which is traded in BATS.

Components There are 69 companies in the index, with communications being the only sector unrepresented.

Ticker symbol Company Sector AOS A.O. Smith Industrials ABT Abbott Laboratories Health Care ABBV AbbVie Health Care AFL AFLAC Financials APD Air Products & Chemicals Materials ALB Albemarle Corporation Materials AMCR Amcor Materials ADM Archer-Daniels-Midland Co Consumer Staples ATO Atmos Energy Corp Utilities ADP Automatic Data Processing Information Technology BDX Becton Dickinson & Co Health Care BRO Brown & Brown Inc. Financials BF.B Brown–Forman (class B) Consumer Staples CAH Cardinal Health Inc Health Care CAT Caterpillar Inc Industrials CHRW C.H. Robinson Industrials CVX Chevron Corp Energy CB Chubb Limited Financials CHD Church & Dwight Consumer Staples CINF Cincinnati Financial Corp Financials CTAS Cintas Corp Industrials CLX Clorox Consumer Staples KO Coca-Cola Co Consumer Staples CL Colgate-Palmolive Consumer Staples ED Consolidated Edison Inc Utilities DOV Dover Corp Industrials ECL Ecolab Inc Materials EMR Emerson Electric Industrials ERIE Erie Indemnity Financials ES Eversource Energy Utilities ESS Essex Property Trust Real Estate EXPD Expeditors International of Washington Industrials XOM Exxon Mobil Corp Energy FDS FactSet Research Systems Financials FAST Fastenal Industrials FRT Federal Realty Investment Trust Real Estate BEN Franklin Resources Inc Financials GD General Dynamics Industrials GPC Genuine Parts Company Consumer Discretionary HRL Hormel Foods Corp Consumer Staples ITW Illinois Tool Works Industrials IBM IBM Information Technology SJM The J. M. Smucker Company Consumer Staples JNJ Johnson & Johnson Health Care KVUE Kenvue, Inc. Consumer Staples KMB Kimberly-Clark Consumer Staples LIN Linde plc Materials LOW Lowe's Consumer Discretionary MKC McCormick & Company Consumer Staples MCD McDonald's Corp Consumer Discretionary MDT Medtronic plc Health Care NEE NextEra Energy Utilities NDSN Nordson Corp Industrials NUE Nucor Corp Materials PNR Pentair Industrials PEP PepsiCo Consumer Staples PPG PPG Industries Materials PG Procter & Gamble Consumer Staples O Realty Income Real Estate ROP Roper Technologies Industrials SPGI S&P Global Inc Financials SHW Sherwin-Williams Materials SWK Stanley Black & Decker Industrials SYY Sysco Corp Consumer Staples TROW T Rowe Price Group Inc Financials TGT Target Corp Consumer Discretionary GWW W. W. Grainger Industrials WMT Walmart Inc. Consumer Staples WST West Pharmaceutical Services Health Care

Components history In 2008, the index contained 52 companies.

The following are the changes to the components of the index since 2008:

+ Changes to the components of S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Year Added Removed Reference(s)2025Erie Indemnity (ERIE), Eversource Energy (ES), Royal Gold (RGLD) and FactSet Research Systems (FDS) none 2024 Fastenal Co. (FAST) Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) and the 3M Company (MMM) - after spinning off Solventum https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/documents/indexnews/announcements/20240124-1470263/1470263_spdaudp2024rebalanceannouncement.pdf (PDF). January 24, 2024. 2023 CH Robinson Worldwide (CHRW), Nordson (NDSN), J.M. Smucker (SJM) and Kenvue (KVUE). VF Corporation (VFC) 2022 Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) and Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (CHD). AT&T Inc. (T); People's United Financial, Inc. (PBCT) (after its merger with M&T Bank Corporation was finalized.) 2021 IBM (IBM), NextEra Energy (NEE) and West Pharmaceutical Services (WST) Raytheon (RTX), Carrier Global (CARR), Otis Worldwide (OTIS), Stryker Corporation (SYK) and Leggett & Platt (LEG) (removed when it moved from the S&P 500 to the S&P MidCap 400) 2020 Amcor (AMCR), Atmos Energy (ATO), Realty Income Corporation (O), Essex Property Trust (ESS), Ross Stores (ROST), Albemarle Corporation (ALB), and Expeditors International (EXPD) (prior to market open on February 3); Carrier Global (CARR) and Otis Worldwide (OTIS) (prior to the market open on April 3) Ross Stores (ROST) and Helmerich & Payne (HP). 2019 Chubb Limited (CB), People's United Financial (PBCT), Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), United Technologies (UTX) none 2018 none none 2017 none none 2016 none Chubb Corp (CB) (upon acquisition by ACE Limited (ACE)) 2015 none Family Dollar Stores (FDO) (after purchase by Dollar Tree), Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL) (after acquisition by Merck Group) 2014 none Bemis (BMS) (after removal from the S&P 500 index) 2013 none Pitney Bowes (PBI) 2012 AT&T (T), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Franklin Templeton Investments (BEN), Genuine Parts Company (GPC), Health Care Property Investors (HCP), Illinois Tool Works (ITW), Medtronic (MDT), Sysco (SYY), and T. Rowe Price (TROW). CenturyLink (CTL) 2011 Ecolab (ECL), Hormel Foods (HRL), and McCormick & Company (MKC) none 2010 Brown Forman (BF.B) Avery Dennison (AVY), BB&T (BBT), Gannett (GCI), General Electric (GE), Johnson Controls (JCI), Legg Mason (LM), M&T Bank (MTB), Pfizer (PFE), State Street Bank (STT), and U.S. Bancorp (USB) 2009 Bemis Company (BMS) and Leggett & Platt (LEG). Anheuser Busch (BUD) (acquired by InBev), Bank of America (BAC), Comerica (CMA), Fifth Third Bank (FITB), Keycorp (KEY), Progressive Corp (PGR), Regions Financial (RF), Synovus Financial (SNV), and Wrigley Company (WW) (which was acquired by Mars, Incorporated)

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