Investors seeking defensive companies that pay substantial dividends are drawn to the Dividend Aristocrats, and with good reason. The 69 companies on the 2025 S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats list have increased their dividends (not just maintained the same level) for 25 consecutive years. But the requirements go even further, with the following attributes also mandatory for membership on the aristocrats list:
- Companies must be worth at least $3 billion for each quarterly rebalancing.
- Their average daily volume must be at least $5 million in transactions for every trailing three-month period at every quarterly rebalancing date.
- They must be a member of the S&P 500.
We screened the 2025 Dividend Aristocrats to identify companies that Wall Street endorses for passive income investors. Passive income is a steady stream of unearned income that does not require active traditional work. Ideas for earning passive income include investments, real estate, and side hustles. Four companies in the Dividend Aristocrats are large-cap sector leaders that offer yields above 3%, and, importantly, are of high quality and can be bought and held for years. All are rated Buy at the top Wall Street firms we cover.
Why do we cover the Dividend Aristocrats?
S&P 500 companies that have paid and raised their dividends for 25 years or longer are the types that growth and income investors want to buy and hold in their stock portfolios for the long term. These stocks are mostly conservative, and should we see a dramatic market correction, they will likely keep their ground much better than volatile technology names.
AbbVie
AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV | ABBV Price Prediction) is ranked fifth on the list of largest biomedical companies by revenue, and it is one of the top pharmaceutical stock picks across Wall Street. AbbVie discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide.
The company offers:
- Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behçet’s diseases and pyoderma gangrenosum
- Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn’s disease
- Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease
- Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers
- Epkinly to treat lymphoma
- Elahere to treat cancer
- Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers
It also provides:
- Facial injectables, plastics and regenerative medicine, body contouring, and skin care products
- Botox therapeutic
- Vraylar for depressive disorder
- Duopa and Duodopa to treat advanced Parkinson’s disease
- Ubrelvy for the acute treatment of migraine in adults
- Qulipta for episodic and chronic migraine
In addition, the company offers Ozurdex for eye diseases, as well as Lumigan/Ganfort and Alphagan/Combigan for reducing elevated intraocular pressure in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension. The company also offers Restasis to increase tear production, along with other eye care products.
Further, it provides:
- Mavyret/Maviret to treat chronic hepatitis C virus genotype 1-6 infection
- Creon, a pancreatic enzyme therapy
- Lupron to treat advanced prostate cancer, endometriosis, and central precocious puberty, and patients with anemia caused by uterine fibroids
- Linzess/Constella to treat irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation
- Synthroid for hypothyroidism
Exxon Mobil
This energy giant manages an industry-leading portfolio of resources and is one of the world’s largest integrated fuels, lubricants, and chemical companies. The decline in oil prices presents investors with an excellent entry point, and they will likely seize the opportunity to secure a strong dividend yield. Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is the world’s largest international integrated oil and gas company, exploring for and producing crude oil and natural gas globally.
Exxon also manufactures and markets commodity petrochemicals, including olefins, aromatics, polyethylene, and polypropylene plastics, as well as specialty products. Additionally, the company transports and sells crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products.
Top Wall Street analysts expect the company to remain a key beneficiary in a higher oil price environment, and most remain optimistic about the company’s sharp positive inflection in capital allocation strategy. And Exxon offers greater Downstream/Chemicals exposure than its peers.
Kenvue
Kenvue Inc. (NYSE: KVUE) is an American consumer health company. Spun off from Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) last year, this potential total return home run pays a solid and dependable dividend.
The company operates through three segments:
- Self Care
- Skin Health and Beauty
- Essential Health
The self-care segment offers cough, cold, and allergy pain care, digestive health, smoking cessation, and other products under these brands:
- Tylenol
- Nicorette
- Zyrtec
The Skin Health and Beauty segment provides face and body care, hair care, sun care, and other products under these brands:
- Neutrogena
- Aveeno
- OGX
The Essential Health segment offers oral and baby, women’s health, and wound care products under these brands:
- Listerine
- Johnson’s
- Band-Aid
- Stayfree
PepsiCo
This top consumer staples company reported surprisingly solid second-quarter earnings and will continue to supply all the goods for summer tailgates and parties. PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) is a worldwide food and beverage company.
Its Frito-Lay North America segment offers:
- Lay’s and Ruffles potato chips
- Doritos, Tostitos, and Santitas tortilla chips
- Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks and branded dips
- Fritos corn chips
The company’s Quaker Foods North America segment provides:
- Quaker Oatmeal
- Grits
- Rice cakes
- Natural granola and oat squares
- Pearl Milling mixes and syrups
- Quaker Chewy granola bars
- Cap’n Crunch cereal
- Life cereal
- Rice-A-Roni side dishes
PepsiCo’s North America Beverages segment offers beverage concentrates, fountain syrups, and finished goods under these brands:
- Pepsi
- Gatorade
- Mountain Dew
- Diet Pepsi
- Aquafina
- Diet Mountain Dew
- Tropicana Pure Premium
- Sierra Mist
- Mug
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