Dividends
Dividend Aristocrat
Dividend aristocrats are companies with a long, unbroken streak of annual dividend increases.
The label is a track record of priorities. Management kept raising the payout through recessions, which usually means a durable business and a board that treats the dividend as a commitment. It is not a valuation. Aristocrats can be expensive, and a 25-year streak can end in year 26 when the business changes.
Use the list as a pond to fish in, then run the same checks as any income stock: payout ratio, free cash flow, debt, and the price you are asked to pay. On Stocklytics the dividend screener is the live way to start that list from yield and size rather than from a marketing badge.
Formula
A common definition: an S&P 500 company that has raised its dividend every year for at least 25 consecutive years.
Live example
Apple Inc. (AAPL) last printed at $345.33 with a market cap of $5.04T. This quote has no dividend yield, which is itself the example: yield is blank when no dividend is being capitalized.
Related
Dividend Growth · Dividend Yield · Blue Chip
See it on a list: best stocks · screener
Questions
Are aristocrats safer?
They have been resilient enough to raise a dividend for decades. They are still stocks. Prices fall. Payouts can be frozen or cut when the streak meets a new industry.
Is a king different from an aristocrat?
Informal usage: aristocrats are often 25 years of raises, kings 50. Definitions vary by index provider. Read the streak, not the nickname.