Dividend Champions Worth Considering (DIV)

As a dividend growth investor, two of the best dividend lists for further research that I have focused on have been the S&P Dividend Aristocrats and the Dividend Achievers Indexes. The first list focuses on stocks which have increased dividends for 25 consecutive years in row, while the second list focuses on stocks which have consistently raised distributions for over one decade. The Dividend Aristocrats index has supposedly outperformed the stock market over the past five years. In my research I have uncovered many dividend stocks however which have raised dividends for more than 25 years in a row, yet they are not included in the Dividend Aristocrats Index. I discussed this in dividend conspiracies.

The limitations behind the dividend aristocrat’s index are that first a company has to be included in the S&P 500 before it qualifies. In addition to that, S&P requires minimum market capitalization of $3 billion and an average daily trading volume of $5 million. This means that even if a company has managed to raise annual dividends for 25 years in a row, it might not be included in the elite dividend index if it has a low market capitalization or that it is relatively illiquid. As a dividend investor, the last two criteria are irrelevant to me.

Source: Dividend Growth Investor

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