If you're looking for ways to increase your income, dividend-paying stocks can be good contenders.
That said, there is a group of stocks within the S&P 500 that pays dividends even more reliably than other companies: the dividend aristocrats.
The top 10 dividend aristocrats
Below is a list of the top 10 dividend aristocrats ordered by current dividend yield.
The highest-yielding dividend aristocrat is Amcor Plc (AMCR), with a dividend yield of 5.91%. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Ticker | Company | Dividend Yield | ||
AMCR | Amcor Plc | 5.91% | ||
O | Realty Income Corp | 5.28% | ||
CLX | Clorox Co | 5.16% | ||
KMB | Kimberly-Clark Corp | 4.71% | ||
HRL | Hormel Foods Corp | 4.65% | ||
TROW | T. Rowe Price Group Inc | 4.54% | ||
KVUE | Kenvue Inc | 4.44% | ||
Source: Finviz. Data is current as of July 1, 2026, and is intended for informational purposes only. | ||||
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What is a dividend aristocrat?
A dividend aristocrat is an S&P 500 stock that has increased its dividend every year for at least 25 years. Increasing its dividend means the company increased the dollar value of dividends per share. The dividend aristocrats don't necessarily need to increase their dividend yields over time.
There are 69 dividend aristocrats today, and they’re a diverse bunch. They’re distributed across many different parts of the economy, including the health care, consumer staples, financial and industrial sectors.
However, they do have a couple of things in common. The first is that they’re established — they must have been a publicly traded company for at least 25 years. You won't find any stock market newcomers, such as Tesla, among the dividend aristocrats.
Second, they are all large-cap stocks. To be dividend aristocrats, they must be S&P 500 companies, and all S&P 500 companies must have a market capitalization of at least $13.1 billion.
👉 Check out the full list of dividend aristocrats
Ticker | Company name |
|---|---|
ABBV | AbbVie Inc. |
CAH | Cardinal Health |
NUE | Nucor Corp. |
PPG | PPG Industries |
SHW | Sherwin-Williams Co. |
ALB | Albemarle Corp. |
CAT | Caterpillar Inc. |
GWW | W. W. Grainger |
ECL | Ecolab Inc. |
SPGI | S&P Global |
AOS | A. O. Smith Corp. |
EMR | Emerson Electric |
KVUE | Kenvue Inc. |
CINF | Cincinnati Financial Corp. |
TGT | Target Corp. |
PNR | Pentair plc |
NDSN | Nordson Corp. |
APD | Air Products & Chemicals |
ESS | Essex Property Trust |
WMT | Walmart Inc. |
EXPD | Expeditors International of Washington |
GD | General Dynamics |
LOW | Lowe's Companies |
DOV | Dover Corp. |
ES | Eversource Energy |
BEN | Franklin Resources Inc. |
ADP | Automatic Data Processing |
TROW | T. Rowe Price Group |
ROP | Roper Technologies |
ITW | Illinois Tool Works |
FDS | Factset Research Systems |
CTAS | Cintas Corp. |
ABT | Abbott Laboratories |
GPC | Genuine Parts Co. |
FAST | Fastenal Co. |
FRT | Federal Realty Investment Trust |
ATO | Atmos Energy Corp. |
ED | Consolidated Edison |
LIN | Linde plc |
MDT | Medtronic plc |
CVX | Chevron Corp. |
SWK | Stanley Black & Decker |
CHRW | C. H. Robinson Worldwide |
CLX | Clorox Company |
CB | Chubb Ltd. |
JNJ | Johnson & Johnson |
ADM | Archer-Daniels-Midland |
BF/B | Brown-Forman Corp. |
XOM | Exxon Mobil Corp. |
O | Realty Income Corp. |
MCD | McDonald's Corp. |
NEE | NextEra Energy |
MKC | McCormick & Co. |
IBM | International Business Machines |
KMB | Kimberly-Clark Corp. |
KO | Coca-Cola Co. |
SJM | J. M. Smucker |
CL | Colgate-Palmolive Corp. |
PG | Procter & Gamble |
WST | West Pharmaceutical Services |
SYY | Sysco Corp. |
AFL | AFLAC Inc. |
HRL | Hormel Foods Corp. |
AMCR | Amcor plc |
PEP | Pepsico Inc. |
BRO | Brown & Brown |
CHD | Church & Dwight |
ERIE | Erie Indemnity Co. |
BDX | Becton Dickinson & Co. |
How to invest in dividend aristocrats
If you're new to investing and want to buy the dividend aristocrats, the first step is to open a brokerage account if you don't already have one. Then you'll need to choose between investing in individual dividend aristocrat stocks or investing in a dividend aristocrats fund.
Theoretically, individual stocks can beat funds and market indexes, but they can also be risky. It's important to research stocks before you buy them, and that can be time-consuming if you're considering a lot of individual stocks.
It can also be expensive to buy shares of a large number of individual stocks. For example, to buy shares of all the dividend aristocrats in our list above, you’d be looking at spending thousands.
» Interested in monthly payments? Check out our list of the highest-yield monthly dividend stocks
Dividend aristocrats ETFs
If you’re looking to gain exposure to the dividend aristocrats, but don’t want to spend the time and money it takes to buy the individual stocks, you could consider buying exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that contain dividend-raising stocks instead.
The ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF is the only one that strictly tracks the 69 official S&P 500 dividend aristocrats. There are a variety of other high-dividend ETFs that contain similar groups of stocks that consistently raise their dividends over time.
Next steps
- Estimate your returns using our dividend calculator
- Don’t forget about dividend taxes
Frequently Asked Questions
Dividend kings vs. aristocrats
Stocks that have increased their dividends for at least 50 years are sometimes called "dividend kings."
Unlike dividend aristocrats, dividend kings don't need to be S&P 500 companies. Most are — and are therefore aristocrats as well as kings — but a few aren't.
Still, the dividend kings are a smaller and more exclusive group than the dividend aristocrats — hence the name. While there are more than 60 dividend aristocrats at the time of writing, there are less than 50 dividend kings.
What's an ex-dividend date?
If you own a dividend-paying stock or ETF, you have to be registered as a shareholder by a certain date to actually receive your next dividend payment. This is called an ex-dividend date. If you bought a stock on or after its ex-dividend date, you wouldn't get the next dividend.
Research any company or ETF you're looking into to make sure you know when the ex-dividend date is before you buy or sell.
Neither the author nor editor held positions in the aforementioned investments at the time of publication.
