24/7 Wall St. Key Points:
- Dividend champions are companies that have raised dividends for 25+ consecutive years, regardless of market cap or S&P 500 inclusion, offering a broader pool than aristocrats or kings.
- Stocks on the dividend champion list, such as Altria (NYSE: MO | MO Price Prediction), have proven resilient by maintaining payouts through crises like the 2008 financial meltdown.
- Even minimal annual dividend increases preserve a company’s champion status, reinforcing their commitment to income-focused investors.
- As good as the dividend champions are… the dividend legends are even better. They are a rare class of stock that can’t stop making investors rich. Click here to learn more.
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Transcript:
[00:00:04] Doug McIntyre: So we have something now called dividend champions. There are other dividend kings. Dividend aristocrats, right. Tell me what are dividend champions?
[00:00:16] Lee Jackson: Well, they’re similar to the dividend aristocrats and dividend kings in that the stocks that make up the portfolio. And these are very good stocks for our readers and our viewers to watch because in dividend aristocrats, they have to have raised their dividend for 25 years or more, and they have to be part of the S&P 500.
[00:00:37] Lee Jackson: To be a dividend king, you have to raise your, dividend for 50 years or more. But you don’t have to be, you do not have to be in the S&P 500. The interesting thing about the dividend champions, and this is why we like to write about it and suggest it to, viewers, is that. they have to have been raising their dividends for 25 years or more.
[00:01:00] Lee Jackson: But a dividend champion can be, any market cap doesn’t have to be in the S&P 500. So it expands the list a lot bigger than e either the dividend kings or the dividend aristocrats where, which were about in the fifties. I think there’s 150 some odd dividend champions, and a lot of the names are smaller names that don’t make the other ones because, they don’t even have the market cap, or they’re not in the S&P.
[00:01:28] Lee Jackson: But for our viewers, that are thinking hard about dividend stocks, this is the place to be because any company, and Altria is one of them, and it’s a stock. I know you, like anybody that’s raised their dividend for 25 years or more is a best bet for people looking for growth and income because that dividend’s gonna be there and it’s gonna go up.
[00:01:52] Lee Jackson: it’s not just gonna stay static, it’s gonna go up, and that helps you keep up with inflation. That is exactly what we, try to always stress total return. And dividend stocks really help.
[00:02:05] Doug McIntyre: Well, the thing I love about stocks that have made it 25 years small, big, medium sized, is that means that they paid dividends through the Great Recession.
[00:02:16] Doug McIntyre: Right? So if you, said to me, what’s a battle tested dividend? My battle test for dividends is what about the worst economic period of the second half of the 20th century if you were still sending those checks out to people and you didn’t have to cut. That means, in a better economic environment like the one we’re in right now, the chances of that thing being solid are pretty close to a hundred percent.
[00:02:44] Lee Jackson: Oh, absolutely. And the thing is for, many of these companies, even if they only raise it a penny. And sometimes that’s the case. They don’t have the kinda year where they can raise, the Altria increase recently for their shareholders was over 4%, in terms of the dividend.
[00:03:01] Lee Jackson: Well, hey, if you can’t do that, they don’t wanna lose the designation as dividend aristocrat or dividend king or dividend champion. So they’ll raise it by a penny. But yeah, I mean, that’s a really good point, Doug. Is that. Any company that can survive due through what we saw in, ’06 , ’07, ’08, and then just a total meltdown in ’08 and ’09.
[00:03:25] Lee Jackson: Anyone that could keep paying their dividend during that struggle, that’s the kinda stock that growth and income investors need to have in their portfolios. And there’s a ton of them. And we write about it at 24/7 all the time because new co new companies go in, sometimes they drop out. Walgreens was a perfect example.
[00:03:43] Lee Jackson: It was in there for years, but they had to slash their dividend and AT&T (NYSE: T) was one. There’s been other companies that were big name companies that, Stopped, that didn’t raise their dividend. And that’s all that’ll do. I mean, whether it’s a penny or a dime or 20 cents, if you raise it at all, you keep your classification.
[00:04:03] Lee Jackson: So I think it would be really smart. And you’re right. Look at, and there’s, the nice thing about the dividend champions is the stock list is so much broader than the other two. So it’s probably a good, it’s a good idea for those that are looking for quality, passive income and looking for dependability, these are the stocks you need to look at that are in the dividend champions.
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