A couple of years ago, I published a list of “Dividend Aristocrats” – S&P 500 constituents that have increased their dividend payouts for at least 25 consecutive years. This list is actually updated every year, though I neglected to publish the 2010 update.
For 2011, there are three new companies (MKC, HRL, and ECL), as well as three that got kicked out (LLY, SVU, and TEG). Here is the full list:
- 3M Co (MMM)
- AFLAC Inc (AFL)
- Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
- Air Products & Chemicals Inc (APD)
- Archer-Daniels-Midland Co (ADM)
- Automatic Data Processing (ADP)
- Bard, C.R. Inc (BCR)
- Becton, Dickinson & Co (BDX)
- Bemis Co Inc (BMS)
- Brown-Forman Corp B (BF/B)
- CenturyLink Inc (CTL)
- Chubb Corp (CB)
- Cincinnati Financial Corp (CINF)
- Cintas Corp (CTAS)
- Clorox Co (CLX)
- Coca-Cola Co (KO)
- Consolidated Edison Inc (ED)
- Dover Corp (DOV)
- Ecolab Inc (ECL)
- Emerson Electric Co (EMR)
- Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM)
- Family Dollar Stores Inc (FDO)
- Grainger, W.W. Inc (GWW)
- Hormel Foods Corp (HRL)
- Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
- Kimberly-Clark (KMB)
- Leggett & Platt (LEG)
- Lowe’s Cos Inc (LOW)
- McCormick & Co (MKC)
- McDonald’s Corp (MCD)
- McGraw-Hill Cos Inc (MHP)
- PPG Industries Inc (PPG)
- PepsiCo Inc (PEP)
- Pitney Bowes Inc (PBI)
- Procter & Gamble (PG)
- Sherwin-Williams Co (SHW)
- Sigma-Aldrich Corp (SIAL)
- Stanley Black & Decker (SWK)
- Target Corp (TGT)
- VF Corp (VFC)
- Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)
- Walgreen Co (WAG)
As you can see, there are 42 companies in all. If you’re interested in dividend investing, but not interested in trading individual stocks, you might consider the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY), which tracks an index of 60 high yield stocks.
The tax tables are a joke for 2011. Not supposed to have raised taxes, well they did. Cut Social Security Tax to .042 for employee but raised income tax. I get a whole $7.50 a week. Sure don’t want to spend it all in one place.