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.

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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.

Disclaimer

Stocks are listed in order of the year when each company paid its initial dividend, starting with the oldest. Current yields are based on the latest dividend, and share prices are as of May 25. Analysts' stock ratings provided by Thomson Reuters. Research assistance to identify the companies paying dividends for 100 years or more provided by Dividend.com.

York Water Company
(Image credit: Courtesy York Water Company)

York Water Company

  • Symbol: YORW
  • Dividends paid since: 1815
  • Current yield: 2.2%
  • Last increase: 4.0%, declared in November 2015
  • Analysts’ opinion: 0 strong buy, 0 buy, 0 hold, 1 underperform, 0 sell
  • TAKE THE QUIZ: How Well Do You Know Your Dividends?

This small water utility serving York, Pa., and surrounding towns, whose sign and scenic reservoir, Lake Redman, are landmarks along Interstate 83, has been paying cash since James Madison was president. There’s no evidence that he was a shareholder.

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Stanley Black & Decker
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Stanley Black & Decker

  • Symbol: SWK
  • Dividends paid since: 1877
  • Current yield: 1.9%
  • Last increase: 5.8%, July 2015
  • Analysts’ opinion: 3 strong buy, 5 buy, 12 hold, 0 underperform, 0 sell
  • SEE ALSO: Best Dividend Stocks of the S&P 500

Founded as a bolt and hand-tool company in pre-Civil-War Connecticut, Stanley acquired Black & Decker in 2010 and is now big in sophisticated stuff such as electronic security systems and secure hospital supply storage units.

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ExxonMobil
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ExxonMobil

Descended from the original Standard Oil Trust controlled by John D. Rockefeller, ExxonMobil shows no signs of turning off the dividend spigot despite the downturn in oil prices.

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Eli Lilly
(Image credit: Courtesy Eli Lilly)

Eli Lilly

  • Symbol: LLY
  • Dividends paid since: 1885
  • Current yield: 2.7%
  • Last increase: 2.0%, December 2015
  • Analysts’ opinion: 7 strong buy, 9 buy, 6 hold, 0 underperform, 0 sell

Lilly, a research-oriented drug company that has never dabbled much in anything else, closed 2015 up 25%. Despite a 9.8% loss so far in 2016, it has an annualized 17.1% total return since 2010. Its current diabetes, cancer and pain drugs, plus Prozac, weren’t on Lilly’s menu in its early days, but it made a name for itself by offering the first widely available prescription insulin.

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Consolidated Edison
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Consolidated Edison

Utilities have been a splendid source of dividends for 130 years, thanks in no small part to New York City’s power company. ConEd is also working on a streak of 42 straight annual raises. (Wall Street analysts often sneer at utilities although they have been splendid investments. So view those low opinions with a high degree of skepticism).

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UGI
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UGI

  • Symbol: UGI
  • Dividends paid since: 1885
  • Current yield: 2.2%
  • Last increase: 4.4%, April 2016
  • Analysts’ opinion: 1 strong buy, 0 buy, 4 hold, 0 underperform, 0 sell

UGI is a variegated energy company whose main businesses are Pennsylvania natural gas utilities and the distribution of propane in the U.S. and Europe. Although its shares ended 2015 down 8.7% after substantial declines in the shares of some companies with similar holdings, it’s up 29% so far in 2016.

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Johnson Controls
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Johnson Controls

  • Symbol: JCI
  • Dividends paid since: 1887
  • Current yield: 2.6%
  • Last increase: 11.5%, November 2015
  • Analysts’ opinion: 5 strong buy, 4 buy, 9 hold, 0 underperform, 0 sell

Johnson Controls is a wild stock, known for 40% calendar-year gains followed by extended periods of weakness. It should become more stable this year as it completes spinning off its automotive parts businesses, leaving Johnson with energy-efficiency and security systems for commercial buildings.

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Procter & Gamble
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Procter & Gamble

Ignore 2015’s negative results for P&G stock—it ended the year with a very rare 9.9% loss—and note instead its 60-year streak of increased dividends. P&G is eliminating many slow-growing product offerings to try to get its shares moving again. So far in 2016, its shares are up 3.6%

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Colgate-Palmolive
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Colgate-Palmolive

  • Symbol: CL
  • Dividends paid since: 1895
  • Current yield: 2.2%
  • Last increase: 2.6%, March 2016
  • Analysts’ opinion: 1 strong buy, 3 buy, 19 hold, 0 underperform, 0 sell

Household cleanser, mouthwash, toothpaste and soap are perennial sellers, so Colgate marches along, slowly but reliably, with predictable dividend boosts of 1 to 2 cents a year.

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General Mills
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General Mills

  • Symbol: GIS
  • Dividends paid since: 1898
  • Current yield: 2.9%
  • Last increase: 4.5%, March 2016
  • Analysts’ opinion: 2 strong buy, 2 buy, 12 hold, 3 underperform, 0 sell
  • SEE ALSO: 8 Best Dividend Stocks of the Dow

There’s big money in flour and cereal. General Mills is a reliable dividend raiser, with boosts of 17% in 2011 and 2014. This year’s hike is lower because the company’s enormous overseas business brings in currencies that are presently worth fewer dollars, given the strength of the buck. But General Mills is still a powerhouse that has never even once cut its dividend.

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PPG Industries
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PPG Industries

  • Symbol: PPG
  • Dividends paid since: 1899
  • Current yield: 1.5%
  • Last increase: 11.1%, April 2016
  • Analysts’ opinion: 6 strong buy, 11 buy, 3 hold, 0 underperform, 0 sell

PPG stands for Pittsburgh Plate Glass, but the company makes way more money now from coatings, paints and chemicals than from glass. Lately, PPG has advanced from a 3% dividend raiser to 7% and up. It's one of the reasons we recently named PPG a great dividend stock for retirement.

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Church & Dwight
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Church & Dwight

  • Symbol: CHD
  • Dividends paid since: 1901
  • Current yield: 1.5%
  • Last increase: 8.1%, January 2015
  • Analysts’ opinion: 2 strong buy, 3 buy, 10 hold, 4 underperform, 0 sell
  • SEE ALSO: 12 Stocks to Earn Dividends Every Month

The maker of Arm & Hammer, Oxi-Clean and Trojans products is one of a few rare stocks to generate double-digit total returns every year from 2010 to 2014. High profit margins underwrite brisk dividend boosts, too: 7% and up every year since 2010.

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Jeffrey R. Kosnett
Jeffrey R. Kosnett
Editor, Kiplinger Investing for Income

Kosnett is the editor of Kiplinger Investing for Income and writes the "Cash in Hand" column for Kiplinger Personal Finance. He is an income-investing expert who covers bonds, real estate investment trusts, oil and gas income deals, dividend stocks and anything else that pays interest and dividends. He joined Kiplinger in 1981 after six years in newspapers, including the Baltimore Sun. He is a 1976 journalism graduate from the Medill School at Northwestern University and completed an executive program at the Carnegie-Mellon University business school in 1978.

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