by Fred Fuld III
Many investors prefer dividends. Yet, just because a stock pays a dividend does not make it a good stock. But if a company has been raising dividends, and raising them on a consistent basis, it probably means that the company has been doing something right.
A Dividend Aristocrat takes this concept to the extreme. It is a stock that has increased its dividend every year for at least the last 25 years.
One of the Aristocrat leaders is Proctor & Gamble (PG) which has increased its dividend over 61 years.
At 3.76%, the yield is fairly high, compared to a bank savings account, a certificate of deposit, or a money market fund.
Other well-known companies that fall into this elite category are the following:
Coca-Cola (KO) 55 years
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 55 years
Lowe’s (LOW) 55 years
Colgate Palmolive (CL) 54 years
Target (TGT) 50 years
PepsiCo (PEP) 45 years
If you had bought any of these stocks ten or twenty or 30 years ago, and reinvested the dividends, your yield based on your original investment would be enormous.
Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above at the time the article was written.