There are dividend growers, and then there are dividend growers. Dividend Kings are very much the latter.
Companies that are able to increase the size of the regular cash distributions they dole out to their investors are to be celebrated, and they often are. In fact, if you do it for long enough—25 years without interruption—we pat you on the back and call you an “Aristocrat.” (Which, there’s some irony to that as “aristocrat” is usually a pejorative nowadays, but I digress.)
But there’s a more revered, albeit less well known, group of dividend growers called Dividend Kings. They’re a smaller subset of Dividend Aristocrats that have paid a bigger dividend check, each and every year, for the past half-century. That means these companies have been exhibiting generosity since at least before the Helsinki Accords … or if you’re not a history buff, before the start of Wheel of Fortune.
Kingship is a vanity title, but it also reflects a long history of paying their shareholders increasing sums, and that’s something stock investors can get behind.
Today, I’ll introduce you to the 30-plus Dividend Kings from the S&P 500—in other words, the bluest-chip dividend growers on the planet. I’ll also introduce you to the Kings’ newest member.
Editor’s Note: Tabular data appearing in this article is up-to-date as of Aug. 11, 2026.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. Individual securities, funds, and/or other investments appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.
Table of Contents
Why Dividend Growth Matters
Dividend stocks are companies that pay cash distributions (called “dividends”) to their shareholders. They usually do so on a regular basis—quarterly is the norm here in the U.S., but it can be as infrequent as annually and as frequent as monthly.
That gives you two sources of potential return: capital appreciation (stock go up), and dividend income.
If you’ve heard the business-world phrase “if you’re not growing, you’re dying,” it’s not a concrete truth as it pertains to dividend stocks, but it’s useful general guidance. Said differently: If you’re going to invest in a dividend stock, one of the top qualities to look for is whether that stock routinely increases that dividend, for two reasons:
Reason 1: Dividend Growth Can Be a Sign of Quality
When a company starts paying a regular dividend, they’re making a statement. Put bluntly, they’re saying, “We have the profits to do this, and we expect to continue having the profits to do this.”
That’s a signal of a business’s operational quality. And a company sends a similar signal when it increases its dividend. It means they’re increasingly optimistic that their baseline of profits will continue growing.
And if you’re saying to yourself, “Well, sometimes companies cut or suspend their dividends,” you’re right. Investing is an imperfect science. But for what it’s worth, those are extremely infrequent actions compared to how often companies keep their payouts level or raise them.
Reason 2: Dividend Growth Improves Your ‘Yield on Cost’
Go to your favorite investment-data website or stock-research app and look up a dividend stock like, say, Exxon Mobil (XOM). The dividend yield—the percentage of a stock’s price you can expect to receive in dividends in a given year—reflects the yield on today’s prices.
But if you buy a stock at a 1% yield today, and it raises its dividend over time, your “yield on cost” (the yield you’re receiving on the price you paid when you bought the stock) will eventually climb to 2%, 3% … you get the picture.
That’s not just nice because more money = more money. It’s actually really vital, especially when you’re in retirement and living on a fixed income, that the dividend income you depend on is at least growing at the rate of inflation. If your dividend stock keeps its payout level year in and year out, that dividend is actually losing spending power.
Dividend growth that lasts for even a few years is an encouraging feat, but the longer that streak goes, the more impressive it becomes. That’s because dividend hikes don’t happen in a bubble—over a long enough time, they’re happening during wars, pandemics, recessions, depressions, you name it. That not only is a signal that a business’s profits are downright durable—it’s also evidence that the company is committed to enhancing shareholder value.
And that brings us to Dividend Kings.
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Well, OK: First, the Dividend Aristocrats
I lied. That doesn’t bring us to Dividend Kings. Not directly, anyways.
That actually brings us to Dividend Aristocrats—stocks that have raised their payouts on an annual basis, without interruption, for at least 25 years. It’s a fairly exclusive club of about 70 stocks, most of which (but not all) are well-known blue chips that you could easily pick out of a lineup.
Of course, it’s one thing to get into La Porte d’Argent. It’s another to have a gold membership.
The Dividend Kings are a very exclusive subset of the fairly exclusive Dividend Aristocrats. To pop a crown on its head, a company must deliver at least a half-century’s worth of raises without blinking. For context: Every Dividend King started paying dividends before Steve Wozniak churned out the first Apple computer!
If that made any of you feel old, I’m sorry.
Anyhoo, if 25 years of dividend growth is impressive, then 50 years is doubly so. That means these dividends didn’t just survive, but continued to thrive, during a host of calamities, including at least six recessions, the dot-com bust, the Great Financial Crisis, COVID, and New Coke.
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Now, Here Are the Dividend Kings
So, what are these fabled corporations? Here are the 32 Dividend Kings from within the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats, which is largely populated with large- and bigger mid-cap stocks, including their current yield and annual dividend-growth streak.
Stocks are listed by sector. Yields are as of this writing.
Company Ticker Sector Yield Dividend Growth Streak in Years
Pentair* PNR Industrials 1.6% 50
Automatic Data Processing ADP Technology 2.5% 51
Consolidated Edison ED Utilities 3.3% 52
Walmart WMT Consumer Staples 0.9% 53
Nucor NUE Materials 0.8% 53
Archer-Daniels-Midland ADM Consumer Staples 2.6% 54
PepsiCo PEP Consumer Staples 4.3% 54
Kimberly-Clark KMB Consumer Staples 4.8% 54
S&P Global SPGI Financials 0.9% 54
Abbott Laboratories ABT Health Care 2.3% 54
AbbVie ABBV Health Care 2.8% 54
Becton Dickinson BDX Health Care 2.3% 54
PPG Industries PPG Materials 2.6% 55
Target TGT Consumer Staples 3.1% 55
W.W. Grainger GWW Industrials 0.8% 55
Sysco SYY Consumer Staples 2.6% 57
Altria Group MO Consumer Staples 6.5% 57
Stanley Black & Decker SWK Industrials 3.3% 59
Federal Realty Investment Trust FRT Real Estate 3.7% 59
Hormel Foods HRL Consumer Staples 4.7% 60
Nordson NDSN Industrials 1.1% 62
Illinois Tool Works ITW Industrials 2.3% 63
Colgate-Palmolive CL Consumer Staples 2.3% 63
Kenvue** KVUE Consumer Staples 4.4% 64
Johnson & Johnson JNJ Health Care 2.1% 64
Coca-Cola KO Consumer Staples 2.4% 64
Lowe's LOW Consumer Discretionary 2.3% 65
Cincinnati Financial CINF Financials 2.2% 66
Emerson Electric EMR Industrials 1.4% 69
Procter & Gamble PG Consumer Staples 3.0% 70
Parker Hannifin PH Industrials 0.8% 70
Genuine Parts GPC Consumer Discretionary 3.2% 70
Dover DOV Industrials 1.0% 71
* Newest Dividend King. ** In November 2025, Kimberly-Clark announced it would be acquiring Kenvue. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2026, at which point, Kenvue will fall off the list of Dividend Kings.
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A Closer Look at a Few Dividend Kings
Let’s examine a few Dividend Kings, including the newest addition to the group, so you can really get a feel for what it takes as a business to make it on this list:
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Federal Realty Investment Trust
- Sector: Real estate
- Dividend yield: 3.7%
- Dividend-growth streak: 59 years
Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRT) has a special place among the Dividend Kings, as it’s the only real estate investment trust (REIT) to have reached the 50-year threshold.
Which is funny, because dividends are part and parcel of the REIT business structure.
Real estate investment trusts are companies that own (and sometimes operate) real estate. Congress brought them to life decades ago—through the REIT Act, which was part of the Cigar Excise Tax Extension of 1960, signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower—to widen access to real estate investing. Importantly, REITs enjoy an exemption from U.S. federal income taxes … in exchange for paying out at least 90% of their taxable income as dividends to their shareholders.
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REITs can and do own a wide variety of properties, from apartment and office buildings to hotels and hospitals. Federal Realty Investment Trust specializes in mixed-use (commercial and residential) properties and open-air shopping centers. Its 104 properties represent 29 million square feet of commercial space (which it leases out to about 3,800 tenants) and about 2,500 residential units. Its real estate sits predominantly in “first-ring” suburban locations—areas that are closest to the metropolitan area and typically densely populated.
Federal Realty Investment Trust’s dividend streak of 58 years is the longest of any REIT. It recently extended its run with a decent 3% improvement to $1.13 per share, which it announced in August 2025.
As far as payout coverage is concerned, we want to focus not on profits, but “funds from operations” (FFO), a non-generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) metric that helps gauge REITs’ profitability and ability to fund the dividend. FRT’s current payout is about 60% of 2026 FFO estimates, which is extremely sustainable.
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Parker Hannifin
- Sector: Industrials
- Dividend yield: 0.9%
- Dividend-growth streak: 70 years
Only a handful of Dividend Kings boast streaks of 70 years or more, the newest of which is Cleveland-based industrial firm Parker-Hannifin (PH).
Parker-Hannifin is a multinational specialist in motion and control technologies that operates in two segments: Aerospace Systems and Diversified Industrial. Its aerospace and defense products include avionics, electric power, engine exhaust systems, flight control systems, hydraulic valves, pneumatics, and more. And just a few of its diversified industrial offerings include coatings, sealing, fittings, HVAC/R controls, electric and hydraulic pumps and motors, and high-pressure connectors.
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It’s another cyclical company, but one that has managed to produce outsized growth for decades on end. But it has managed to improve its stability by focusing more on aerospace, as well as other longer-cycle industries such as clean technology, digitization, and electrification.
It also doesn’t overleverage itself for the sake of its dividend. Parker-Hannifin hit 70 years of distribution growth in April, when it announced an 11% hike to $2 per share quarterly. That represents less than 40% of analysts’ expectations for 2026 earnings, giving the company plenty of room to keep extending its top-tier streak.
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Dover
- Sector: Industrials
- Dividend yield: 1.0%
- Dividend-growth streak: 71 years
Established in 1955 and headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, Dover (DOV) is a diversified global manufacturer, providing innovative equipment, components, and services across multiple industries, including energy, engineered systems, fluids, and refrigeration and food equipment.
The company’s strategic approach to diversification and its focus on industrial innovation have been central to its enduring financial performance. Dover provides everything from radio frequency and microwave filters for defense and aerospace firms to trash compactors and recycling balers. This wide variety of competencies has helped Dover weather the ups and downs of the competitive, cyclical industrial manufacturing industry.
Dover has a long and storied history of consistent dividend payments that includes a seven-decade streak of annual payout increases, making it the S&P 500’s longest-paying Aristocrat and King.
DOV’s past few dividend bumps admittedly have been small—increases of roughly 1%, including a half-cent uptick announced in August 2025 to 52¢ per share quarterly. Still, Dover maintains an extremely conservative payout ratio that’s currently just 20% of estimated 2026 earnings, ensuring that rain or shine, the company should be able to afford its dividend while reinvesting most of its profits back into the business.
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