What is a Dividend Aristocrat?

A dividend aristocrat is a company that has paid dividends consecutively for 25 years or more. Standard and Poor's (S&P) maintain a list of US dividend aristocrats. Dividends are key to investing successfully. Dividends are cash payments made to shareholders. Once a dividend is paid it can never be taken back.

If you had invested $100 at the end of 1940 in the stock market, this would have been worth approximately $174,000 at the end of 2011 if you had reinvested dividends, versus $12,000 if dividends were not included. Dividends also provide an immediate return on your investment while you continue to hold your stocks.

This year the S&P Dividend Aristocrat list contains 51 companies:

• AT&T Inc, T
• Automatic Data Processing, ADP
• Bard C.R. Inc, BCR
• Becton Dickinson & Co, BDX
• Bemis Co Inc, BMS
• Brown-Forman Corp B, BF.B
• Chubb Corp, CB
• Cincinnati Financial Corp, CINF
• Cintas Corp, CTAS
• Clorox Co, CLX
• Coca-Cola Co, KO
• Colgate-Palmolive Co, CL
• Consolidated Edison Inc, ED
• Dover Corp, DOV
• Ecolab Inc, ECL
• Emerson Electric Co, EMR
• Exxon Mobil Corp, XOM
• Family Dollar Stores Inc, FDO
• Franklin Resources Inc, BEN
• Genuine Parts Co, GPC
• Grainger W.W. Inc, GWW
• HCP Inc, HCP
• Hormel Foods Corp, HRL
• Illinois Tool Works Inc, ITW
• 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
• Medtronic Inc, MDT
• Nucor Corp, NUE
• PepsiCo Inc, PEP
• Pitney Bowes Inc, PBI
• PPG Industries Inc, PPG
• Procter & Gamble, PG
• Sherwin-Williams Co, SHW
• Sigma-Aldrich Corp, SIAL
• Stanley Black & Decker, SWK
• Sysco Corp, SYY
• T Rowe Price Group Inc, TROW
• Target Corp, TGT
• VF Corp, VFC
• Wal-Mart Stores, WMT
• Walgreen Co, WAG

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