S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats List: Sorted By Analyst Ratings

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In this piece we will take a look at S&P500 dividend aristocrats list sorted by analyst ratings. If you want to skip our introduction to dividends and the general economic climate, then check out S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats List: Top 5 Stocks Sorted By Analyst Ratings.

Dividends are one of the most stable ways that you can make money from the stock market. While most attention is often focused on stock share price appreciations and the potential to cash in at the right time, dividends mostly stay in the background. However, they provide investors the option to earn bond like payments for their stock ownership. Dividends are generally paid by larger and established companies with budgets that are capable of supporting investing in growth or by others that are structured to pay out most of their earnings from investment or other entities as dividends.

Since there are thousands of stocks on the market, picking out only those that have consistently paid dividends for decades despite the prevailing economic environment is quite difficult. This becomes ever more important given the current economic environment. Inflation and the stock market have roiled decision making and created a tough environment for those that seek stability. Meteoric gains made by the big technology and mega-cap firms almost seemed to reverse and start a downward trend in August, and economists and analysts as a whole are now starting to favor a cautious approach towards the stock market. The simple reason behind this is that the rapid interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve to curtail historic inflation are historic themselves. The bank rate in the U.S. is now at a two decade high, and the fact that the economy has managed to weather the storm so far has surprised a lot of professionals.

Dividends can prove to be crucial if they can provide stable income in a tough environment. At the same time, reinvesting dividends into the stock that pays it (after consulting certified professionals) can also enable one to grow wealth over the decades and have a nice nest egg waiting for retirement. There are multiple lists that track dividend companies, and one of the more popular ones is the S&P500 Dividend Aristocrats. The list sets a rather high bar for entry, since not only does it include only those stocks that are part of the S&P 500 index, but further narrows down the selection criteria to include only those firms that have grown their dividends consecutively for the past 25 years. The total returns of these stocks are naturally higher than the S&P500, and except for some rare exceptions, lead and lag the index during periods of upturns and downturns, respectively.

Nearly half of the S&P500 Dividend Aristocrats are firms operating in the consumer staples and industrial sectors. This is unsurprising since these firms are either less prone to the negative effects of economic shocks or are large and established companies that generate stable revenue simply due to their scale and expensive long term capital investments. We've covered this elite list of stocks quite frequently as well. Check out 25 S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats To Avoid, Dividend Aristocrats Ranked: Top 15 According to Analysts, and S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats List: Sorted By Hedge Fund Popularity.

This time around, we'll look at the dividend aristocrats with the best analyst ratings and some notable stocks are Linde plc (NYSE:LIN), Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT), and S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI).

S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats List: Sorted By Analyst Ratings
S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats List: Sorted By Analyst Ratings

Photo by Vitaly Taranov on Unsplash

Our Methodology

To compile our list of the S&P500 Dividend Aristocrats sorted by analyst ratings, we used a list of the dividend aristocrats courtesy of Sure Dividend. The stocks were then ranked based on their average analyst ratings data-based scores courtesy of Yahoo Finance. A lower score indicates a better rating. Out of these, the stocks with scores of 2 or less were chosen

S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats List: Sorted By Analyst Ratings

11. NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)

Average Analyst Rating Score: 2

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) is an American energy company with more than fifteen thousand employees. The firm's shares are rated Strong Buy on average and institutional investors hold close to 80% of the stock.

By the end of this year's second quarter, 59 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's database had held a stake in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE). Out of these, the firm's biggest investor is Ken Fisher's Fisher Asset Management since it owns 9.6 million shares that are worth $717 million.

NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) joins Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT),Linde plc (NYSE:LIN), and S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) in our list of S&P 500 dividend aristocrats ranked by analyst ratings.

10. McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD)

Average Analyst Rating Score: 2

McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) is a fast food retailer. Its shares are in for some good news in September as Wells Fargo has upgraded the stock rating to Overweight from Equal Weight and set a $310 share price target based on the assumption that the firm can weather a tough economic environment due to its value.

After digging through 910 hedge fund portfolios for their Q2 2023 shareholdings, Insider Monkey discovered that 68 had invested in the company. Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group is McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD)'s largest shareholder, owning a stake worth $777 million.

9. General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD)

Average Analyst Rating Score: 2

General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) is one of the oldest companies on our list and also one of the most advanced in the industrial space. Its shares are rated Buy on average, and big ticket names such as Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan have rated the shares Outperform or Overweight.

As of June 2023, 46 hedge funds out of the 910 part of Insider Monkey's database were General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD)'s investors. James A. Star's Longview Asset Management is the biggest stakeholder among these, owning 28.8 million shares that are worth $6 billion.

8. Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR)

Average Analyst Rating Score: 2

Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR) is another industrial equipment manufacturer. Despite weakness in the industrials space, the stock is up by 107% year to date and Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR) has a 2.10% dividend yield.

Insider Monkey took a look at 910 hedge funds for their second quarter of 2023 shareholdings to find out that 49 had held a stake in the company. Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR)'s largest shareholder is John Overdeck and David Siegel's Two Sigma Advisors through its $330 million investment.

7. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO)

Average Analyst Rating Score: 2

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is an iconic, multinational beverage firm. Its shares have been on the losing end of the stock market this year, with a selloff during the first week of September driving the stock down 7.34%.

61 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's research covering this year's second quarter had bought The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO)'s shares. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is the biggest investor, through its massive $24 billion investment.

6. Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX)

Average Analyst Rating Score: 2

Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX) is a medical, scientific, and research equipment manufacturer. The firm has beaten analyst EPS estimates in all four of its latest quarters, and analysts have penned in a $44 share price upside to the stock based on the average price target.

As of Q2 2023 end, 55 hedge funds out of the 910 part of Insider Monkey's database had held a stake in the company. Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX)'s largest hedge fund shareholder is David Blood and Al Gore's Generation Investment Management through a stake worth $501 million.

Linde plc (NYSE:LIN), Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT), Becton, Dickinson and Company (NYSE:BDX), and S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) are some highly rated S&P 500 dividend aristocrat stocks.

 

Click to continue reading and see S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats List: Top 5 Stocks Sorted By Analyst Ratings.

 

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Disclosure: None. S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats List: Sorted By Analyst Ratings is originally published on Insider Monkey.

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