Comments on: Investing in the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats

By: sam rhodes

sam rhodes — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:28:41 +0000

Van Kampen offers a unit investment trust. I do not work for them but have invested in two of their trusts. It has done very well this year.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:52:52 +0000

Just to let everyone know. Vanguard has a fund based on the Dividend Achievers Select Index. Check it out the symbol is VDAIX.

By: nickel

nickel — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:34:52 +0000

Bud: That’s a problem with strategies aimed at high dividends. You’ll notice that the Aristocrats aren’t defined based on yield. Rather, the only requirement is that they’ve consistently raised dividends. If the stock price has been appreciating, as well, then the yield won’t necessarily be all that high. This results in a more diverse assemblage of historically strong companies.

By: Bud

Bud — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:23:57 +0000

In addition to the comment by stockmanmarc, the following are similar ETF’s, VTV, FDL, DTD. Several of these are recent (2006&later). They also (currently at least) have a severe financial services basis (eg25-39% based on the data bases or articles I found).

By: Scott

Scott — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:37:43 +0000

For years what you descibe as the “Aristocrats” of the S&P have been available for retail investment through a number of Unit Investment Trusts. Tytpically most trusts have limited the number of holdings to the top 10 – 25 of the index. I suggest looking into Claymore and First Trust for starters. For your info I am not employed by either firm but I have been an investment professional for the past 20+ years.

By: taxrascal

taxrascal — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:27:00 +0000

Nickel,

It’s an interesting list, but I’d be careful: there are many hedge funds that will use criteria like this to buy and sell stocks — sometimes, this can mean that the trend is already ‘priced in’.

You don’t want to be in a situation like in the summer of 2007, when lots of quant funds had to get out of their trades all at once — the statistically cheap stocks (high yield, low price/book) went down more, and the expensive stocks went up. That said, it’s an interesting idea.

By: Super Saver

Super Saver — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:04:08 +0000

Nickel,

Thanks for the list.

I would guess that several more will drop of the list in 2009. I think Financial, Retail and GE will be at risk.

I’ve been considering the Dogs of the Dow list, which are high dividend payers, as a way to tip toe back into the market. Pfizer happens to be the Dogs list also.

Are you thinking of purchasing some of these stocks? Just curious Thanks.

By: Money Beagle

Money Beagle — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:05:40 +0000

This is great information. I didn’t know such a thing existed. It shows it’s true: There are really people tracking everything!

By: stockmanmarc

stockmanmarc — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:34:30 +0000

Thomas,

Their are ETF’s that specialize in dividend stocks- DVY,SDY,and PEY, just to name a few. Check them out.

We all need to start paying more attention to dividend payouts. Like ‘Dividend Growth Investor’ states your passive income increases over time, it just takes patience.

nice article FCN

By: Dividend Growth Investor

Dividend Growth Investor — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:48:04 +0000

Investing in the dividend aristocrats would have been a smart choice last year as the dividend aristocratsâ€™ index outperformed the S&P 500 by 15.50 percent. The dividend aristocrates lost 21.55% in 2008 versus the 37.00% loss for the S&P 500.

The greatest part about these stocks is that they keep raising their dividend payments every year on average, which increases your passive income without really doing much, other than buying and holding the stocks. Better yet, the rate of dividend growth increases is higher than the rate of inflation.

I do write a lot about dividend investments in general, and the Dividend Aristocrates are the best companies to own as most are non-cyclical recession proof companies whose products we use on a daily basis ( Coca Cola anyone)

By: The Happy Rock

The Happy Rock — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:17:10 +0000

I agree with JD. Dividend investing has move way up on my list of investing strategies. It appeals to my invest and forget little energy style of investing.

Thanks for the list!

By: thomas

thomas — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:51:10 +0000

I’m shocked that there isn’t an ETF that caters to this sort of position. Maybe there is a reason for that. Just speculating.

By: J.D.

J.D. — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:09:00 +0000

Nice. After reading the new Motley Fool book, I’ve been thinking more about dividend investing. It appeals to me. A lot. I’m bookmarking this list as a crib-sheet for the future.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:28:27 +0000

I just read about this in SmartMoney magazine. The Sound Investing podcast also recently interviewed someone who had a similar approach (although I think his timeframe was 10 years instead of 25 years).

I’d be interested to find out more information, if anyone finds funds or ETF’s that track it more closely or exactly. The article from Smart Money describing the S&P Aristocrats got me interested.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:31:57 +0000

Thats an interesting list…..

By: Eric J. Nisall

Eric J. Nisall — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:21:06 +0000

This is similar to a list that a company called Mergent used to publish called The Dividend Achievers. It was a very detailed listing that was broken down into several categories including Broad Dividend Achievers (covering the entire market), Nasdaq Dividend Achievers, High-Growth Rate Dividend Achievers, as well as several other classifications. The company had published a book each quarter outlining each of the companies making the lists with all of the qualifying information and company profiles as well, making it very easy to do the research.