12 Dividend Stocks You Can Buy and Hold Forever

Members of Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index that have raised cash payments to stockholders 25 years in a row are known as dividend aristocrats. The title dividend champions goes to U.S. stocks, regardless of size, with 25 consecutive increases. There are 105 champions, a handful of which are working to extend more than 60 years of increases. But some U.S. businesses have been doling out cash to public stockholders for longer than six decades. Much longer, in fact. So Kiplinger now presents the dividend centenarians.

We identified a dozen investments that have paid cash dividends annually for at least a century. That’s not to say they’ve granted raises every year for 100 years. But some have never cut their dividend. Most of these companies have humble, workshop-floor origins, but they are not quaint. Most have evolved over their long histories into enormous, multifaceted, worldwide enterprises, providing great growth as well as dividends. Take a look at this intriguing list of income stocks. Some of the names might surprise you.