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As many of you may already know, there is an index product put out by the same company that does the world famous S&P 500 that is focused exclusively on companies that have followed a managed-dividends policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 25 years. It is called the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats a very elite list of companies and is one of the first places I go when I am looking for stocks to invest in. Every year the company updates the list by removing companies that did not raise their dividends and by adding companies that hit the magical 25 year mark.
In a recent press-release, S&P provided investors of the additions and deletions. To save you some time from downloading the pdf, here is what transpired:
Companies that Were Dropped from the Dividend Aristocrats List
First Horizon National (FHN)
Altria (MO)
SLM (SLM)
Companies that Were Added to the Dividend Aristocrats List
Aflac (AFL)
Air Products & Chemicals (ADP)
Exxon Mobil (XOM)
Integrys Energy (TEG)
Pitney Bowes (PBI)
A couple of very familiar names on the list. Exxon in particular is one that I am going to look at during an upcoming Dividend Stock Wednesday where I have a look at a dividend stocks to determine a buy price.
As I have said before on this blog, if you are looking for a good place to start some analysis, the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats is a great place to start. In addition, there are some index products that attempt to replicate the index that are an option as well if you are not into the individual stock thing.