𝙍𝙪𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙

In my last article (etoro.tw/3GsLCME) I spoke about Dividend Aristocrats. In this article I will tell you about an even rarer group: Dividend Kings.

Unlike the Dividend Aristocrats, to become a Dividend King requires a single qualification: an increasing dividend payment for 50 or more years.

This more relaxed criterion means that not all Kings are Aristocrats, as some are not part of the S&P500 and some do not meet the market liquidity requirements. The ones that are in both include such household brands such as $KO (Coca-Cola), $MMM (3M), and $JNJ (Johnson & Johnson) .

The 48 companies that comprise this list have steered through multiple cycles of boom and bust without once cutting their dividends, so this select group is probably one of the safer places into which you can put your money in these troubled times.

Unfortunately there aren’t any exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focussing exclusively on Dividend Kings that we can easily buy into, so we are left with picking our own. Fortunately there are only 48 in this list (compared to 65 in the dividend aristocrats).

If you bought at this moment in time into the top 10 holdings, you could expect an approximate 5% yearly return on investment. Those holdings here and now are $MO (Altria Group Inc), $VFC (VF Corp), $UVV (Universal Corp/VA), $LEG (Leggett & Platt Inc), $MMM, $NWN, $FRT (Federal Realty Investment Trust), $SWK (Stanley Black & Decker Inc), $ABBV (AbbVie Inc), and $BKH (Black Hills Corporation) . These groups cover sectors such as Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary, Industrial, Utilities, Real Estate and Healthcare which is a good spread of firms.

When looking further into the Dividend Kings, you may see lists saying that some of these monarchs have been increasing their dividends for more than 100 years. This elite subset are (ungraciously in my opinion) referred to as Dividend Zombies. They have survived various conflicts, geopolitical instability, two pandemics and multiple recessions without (allegedly) once cutting their dividend. An obvious opportunity for positive publicity for these companies, you might think! However, upon checking the various corporate websites, none of these companies make reference to achieving this remarkable feat, which seems something of an own goal if it is indeed accurate. This touches on one of the difficulties with Dividend Zombies. Getting reliable information for the length of time these firms have been increasing their dividends is hard, as according to the usually reliable SeekingAlpha $XOM (Exxon-Mobil) has only been increasing their dividend for the past 20 years, and $ED (Consolidated Edison Inc)‘s own investor pack only goes back as far as 1972!

These observations are merely my thoughts on what I have found out over the past few years of research since beginning my investing journey with eToro. They do not constitute financial advice, and I would strongly recommend anyone considering investing in these companies to do their own research based upon their own risk appetite and financial objectives. From looking into these specific groups however, and with apologies to the writers of a certain TV series, there is an argument to say that “The Crown always wins”.