By Andrew Bary

There are the Dividend Aristocrats and then there are the Kings.

The Aristocrats are companies that have lifted their dividends for 25 years or more. The Dividend Kings are a more elite group, boasting at least 50 consecutive years of annual dividend increases.

There are more than 50 dividend Kings, including such notables as Procter & Gamble (70 years), Coca-Cola (64), Johnson & Johnson (64), Colgate Palmolive (63), PepsiCo (54), Nucor (53), and Walmart (53).

For investors seeking dividend security and the prospect of higher payouts, it's hard to beat the Kings. The average yield in the group is 2.7% and the dividend payout ratio averages just under 50%.

"These companies have delivered higher payouts through multiple recessions, market crashes, and inflation cycles, reflecting resilient business models and dependable cash flow," wrote analysts at the Simply Safe Dividends website, which tracks the Kings and dividend safety.

The Kings also include many utilities, including New York's Consolidated Edison; industrial companies like Dover, Emerson Electric, and Parker Hannifin; and some financials, led by S&P Global, the credit rating firm, and insurer Cincinnati Financial.

The Dividend Aristocrats, tracked by S&P Global, need to be members of the S&P 500 while the Kings don't have that requirement and include smaller companies. American States Water, a California utility with the longest record of dividend hikes among the Kings, at 72 years, has a market value of just $3 billion.

What the Kings lack are technology companies -- not surprising since most big tech firms are less than 50 years old.

That has contributed to an underperformance for the group since 2014, with the Kings returning 8.7% annually against nearly 14% for the S&P 500 index through the end of 2025. The big gap has opened up in the past few years during the tech-led bull run.

'These are defensive stocks," says Brian Bollinger, president of Simply Safe Dividends. 'They're 30% less volatile on average than the S&P 500." The group has produced average annual dividend increases of 5% over the past 10 years.

There are no exchange-traded funds for the Dividend Kings, but investors can get some exposure through the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF, which holds S&P 500 stocks with 25-year records of dividend boosts. Its top holding is dividend King Nucor, followed by Franklin Resources and JM Smucker.

Another choice is the State Street SPDR S&P Dividend ETF, which holds higher-yielding stocks with 20 years of dividend increases. It yields 2.5%, versus 2% on the ProShares ETF and 2.7% for the Kings.

There are many dividend-oriented strategies, and buying the kings is one of the better ones.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 19, 2026 21:31 ET (01:31 GMT)

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