Is "Dividend Growth Stocks" a Separate Asset Class?

I am working on questions of portfolio construction in light of what I have come to accept as the attributes of dividend-growth stocks. The basic issue becomes, how does one meld dividend-growth stocks with the asset allocation principles that have been derived from the teachings of Modern Portfolio Theory? Hypothesis #1: Dividend-Growth Stocks Are a Separate Asset Class:

I might as well start with a proposition that will make traditionalists cringe. I believe that dividend-growth stocks comprise a separate asset class. Traditionally, stocks are sliced and diced in many different ways. The Morningstar Style Box (MSB) has become an industry standard, so common that a category like “large cap value stocks” goes unquestioned as an asset class, and investors are advised to have a certain portion of their assets in that class. So my hypothesis is that, if a single cell of the MSB qualifies as an asset class, then an oval shaped area that cuts across several traditional cells—but which contains stocks that share important behavioral characteristics—also qualifies.

Source: Seeking Alpha

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