Dividend Stocks On The Move

Many investors rely on dividend stocks to pay them regular income and provide solid growth over time. Given how many stocks don't pay a dividend at all, it's impressive for a company to be able to maintain and increase their dividend payments over time. Being able to grow steadily through good times and bad is truly a mark of success, and it takes that kind of growth to support dividend payments even during recessions and slowdowns.

In that light, one of the hallmark achievements a company can attain is to become a Dividend Aristocrat. Maintained by Standard and Poor's, the list of Dividend Aristocrats includes members of the S&P 500 that have increased their annual dividends every year for at least 25 years. In order to qualify, a stock has to meet a number of other factors as well, including minimum market cap and daily trading volume requirements. S&P recently announced its annual rebalancing of the index with McCormick (NYSE: MKC), Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL), and Ecolab (NYSE: ECL)in and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY), Supervalu (NYSE: SVU), and Integrys Energy (NYSE: TEG)out.

Source: Motley Fool

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