S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats: Who's Out, Who's In

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index looks only a little different as we head into the second half of the year.

Widely regarded as some of the best dividend stocks for dependable dividend growth, the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats is an index of S&P 500 companies that have raised their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years.

That's kind of a big deal if you are a long-term equity income investor. Regular dividend hikes not only increase the yield on an investor's original cost basis over time, often quite dramatically; they also help investors sleep better at night.

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After all, any company that manages to raise its dividend year after year – through recession, war, market crashes and more – is demonstrating both its financial resilience and its commitment to returning cash to shareholders.

S&P Dow Jones Indices, which rebalances the index quarterly, ditched Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) at the beginning of 2024 after the pharmacy chain slashed its dividend by almost half.

Walgreens had increased its dividend every year for nearly half a century before the cut. Analysts, who regularly give WBA one of the lowest rankings of all 30 Dow Jones stocks, applauded the decision to take cash earmarked for shareholders and invest it back into the business.

Perhaps most interesting is what will happen to long-time member 3M (MMM). The Dow stock is on the Aristocrats chopping block after slashing its dividend as part of its Solventum (SOLV) spin off. 3M is expected to be cut from the list of dependable dividend payers when S&P Dow Jones next rebalances the index.

Dividend Aristocrats Fastenal and Kenvue

The Dividend Aristocrats membership list remains at 67 stocks, however, as Fastenal (FAST) was added to the index in the first quarter of 2024. The industrial supplier has raised its dividend for 25 consecutive years, making it available for inclusion in the index.

Most recently, Fastenal declared a quarterly cash dividend of 39 cents per share to be paid on February 29 to shareholders of record as of February 1. The company generated more than $1 billion in levered free cash flow in fiscal 2023, and that was after paying out more than a billion dollars in dividends.

Fastenal stock sports a dividend yield of 2.4%, which is fairly generous for an Aristocrat. The exchange-traded fund that tracks the index, the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL), has a dividend yield of 2.1%.

Other changes to the Dividend Aristocrats over the past year include the removal of VF Corp. (VFC) and the addition of Kenvue (KVUE), which was spun off from fellow Aristocrat Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, SmartMoney, InvestorPlace, DailyFinance and other tier 1 national publications. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Consumer Reports and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among many other outlets. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about markets and macroeconomics.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade individual stocks or securities. He is eternally long the U.S equity market, primarily through tax-advantaged accounts.