#dividend-aristocrats

#dividend-aristocrats

Most investors are well aware of the distinction between most dividend stocks and dividend aristocrats. The latter group is comprised of companies that have paid out a growing dividend for more than 25 years. Among this group, we have dividend kings, which have paid increasing dividends for more than five decades straight. I'm going to highlight three such companies in this piece.

With an expense ratio of 0.13%, a yield of about 3.7%, and 155 holdings, including a great deal of real estate investment trusts (REITs), the Vanguard Real Estate ETF ( NYSEARCA: VNQ) is a safe, long-term real estate opportunity. In fact, some of the ETF's top holdings include Welltower, Prologis, American Tower Corp., Equinix, Digital Realty Trust, and Simon Property Group. Plus, it just paid a quarterly dividend of just over 86 cents on June 30. Before that, it paid a dividend of just over 93 cents on March 27. Making it even more attractive is the recovery in commercial real estate. According to analysts at Deloitte, the CRE market is showing signs of recovery in 2025, with some predicting a generational opportunity, as noted in Deloitte's 2025 Commercial Real Estate Outlook. Since bottoming out at around $76 in April, the ETF is now up to $92.81. From here, we'd like to see it rally back to $96 a share. While we wait, we can collect its quarterly payouts.

The S&P Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL) may be trailing the market recently, but its 2.1% yield and diverse holdings make it appealing for conservative investors.

After examining the 66 companies in the S&P Dividend Aristocrats index, we found that these firms exhibit robustness due to their proven history of increasing dividends for 25 years.