Continuing my series (etoro.tw/3jhBCfZ and etoro.tw/3kn0yTB) on finding a safe harbour for your money we leave America for the Old World where Aristocrats first come from.
While the UK & Europe have Dividend Aristocrats the rules regarding them are slightly more relaxed.
The UK Dividends is a select group of the 40 highest dividend yielding companies who have a policy of increasing or stable dividends for at least seven consecutive years. These companies are taken from the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250.
Like the US Dividend Aristocrats you may recognise some of the names in the list with companies such as $ULVR.L (Unilever), $LGEN.L (Legal & General), and $PETS.L (Pets at Home Group Plc) being included. Like the US $NOBL counterpart, the UK has an ETF for its Aristocrats, though eToro does not include it at time of writing: $UKDV. I have requested that it be added.
$UKDV returns a nice yield of 4.36% compared to the wider FTSE 100 market return of 3.54%.
The Eurozone Dividend companies are slightly more stringent with the requirement tightened to the 40 highest dividend yielding companies who have a policy of increasing or stable dividends for at least ten consecutive years. This too has an ETF and like the UK one, but eToro does not carry it: $EUDV. The largest country represented is Germany with just over 30% of the fund given over to them with France and Finland in 2nd and 3rd which takes up nearly another 30%. In the fund you will see companies such as $BAS.DE (BASF SE), $ALV.DE (Allianz SE) and $AI.PA.
UK and European companies are more pragmatic when it comes to remaining in their respective lists. They will cut or hold their dividends according to business needs rather than a sense of pride. Also some of the UK and European Aristocrats pay twice yearly rather than quarterly like most of the American ones do. None of the UK or European Aristocrats pay monthly like $O (Realty Income Corp) does.
If you would like to see the $UKDV and $EUDV please visit docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeB7RyeEHlBYkTk2mdG52JRIoEfsP0MYfk_Ewbx7A1HynFdLQ/viewform and add it to the form.
Note: Since my first article was written on the Dividend Aristocrats ($NOBL), the S&P has rebalanced the index on the 24th of January and there were 3 additions and 0 deletions leaving 68 constituents, and then on February 7th, V.F. Corp. (VFC) announced a dividend cut. VFC will be excluded when S&P announces the 2024 changes.
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