Updated on February 4th, 2026 by Bob Ciura
Spreadsheet data updated daily
The Dividend Kings are the best-of-the-best in dividend longevity.
What is a Dividend King? A stock with 50 or more consecutive years of dividend increases.
The downloadable Dividend Kings Spreadsheet List below contains the following for each stock in the index among other important investing metrics:
- Payout ratio
- Dividend yield
- Price-to-earnings ratio
You can see the full downloadable spreadsheet of all 57 Dividend Kings (along with important financial metrics such as dividend yields, payout ratios, and price-to-earnings ratios) by clicking on the link below:
The Dividend Kings list includes recent additions such as Pentair (PNR), MGE Energy (MGEE), and RLI Corp. (RLI).
Each Dividend King satisfies the primary requirement to be a Dividend Aristocrat (25 years of consecutive dividend increases) twice over.
Not all Dividend Kings are Dividend Aristocrats.
This unexpected result is because the ‘only’ requirement to be a Dividend Kings is 50+ years of rising dividends.
On the other hand, Dividend Aristocrats must have 25+ years of rising dividends, be a member of the S&P 500 Index, and meet certain minimum size and liquidity requirements.
Table of Contents
- How To Use The Dividend Kings List To Find Dividend Stock Ideas
- The 5 Best Dividend Kings Today
#5: S&P Global (SPGI)
#4: Stepan Co. (SCL)
#3: Becton Dickinson & Co. (BDX)
#2: Automatic Data Processing (ADP)
#1: H2O America (HTO) - The Dividend Kings In Focus Series
- Performance Of The Dividend Kings
- Sector & Market Capitalization Overview
- Final Thoughts
How To Use The Dividend Kings List to Find Dividend Stock Ideas
The Dividend Kings list is a great place to find dividend stock ideas. However, not all the stocks in the Dividend Kings list make a great investment at any given time.
Some stocks might be overvalued. Conversely, some might be undervalued – making great long-term holdings for dividend growth investors.
For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Excel, the following walk-through shows how to filter the Dividend Kings list for the stocks with the most attractive valuation based on the price-to-earnings ratio.
Step 1: Download the Dividend Kings Excel Spreadsheet.
Step 2: Follow the steps in the instructional video below. Note that we screen for price-to-earnings ratios of 15 or below in the video. You can choose any threshold that best defines ‘value’ for you.
Alternatively, following the instructions above and filtering for higher dividend yield Dividend Kings (yields of 2% or 3% or higher) will show stocks with 50+ years of rising dividends and above-average dividend yields.
Looking for businesses that have a long history of dividend increases isn’t a perfect way to identify stocks that will increase their dividends every year in the future, but there is considerable consistency in the Dividend Kings.
The 5 Best Dividend Kings Today
The following 5 stocks are our top-ranked Dividend Kings today, based on expected annual returns over the next 5 years. Stocks are ranked in order of lowest to highest expected annual returns.
Total returns include a combination of future earnings-per-share growth, dividends, and any changes in the P/E multiple.
Dividend King #5: S&P Global (SPGI)
- 5-Year Annual Expected Returns: 14.5%
S&P Global is a worldwide provider of financial services and business information with revenue of over $15 billion. Through its various segments, it provides credit ratings, benchmarks and indices, analytics, and other data to commodity market participants, capital markets, and automotive markets.
S&P Global has paid dividends continuously since 1937 and has increased its payout for 52 consecutive years, and it is one of the newest members of the prestigious Dividend Kings.
S&P posted third quarter earnings on October 30th, 2025. The company saw adjusted earnings-per-share of $4.73, which was 32 cents ahead of estimates.
Earnings were up sharply from $3.89 a year ago. Revenue was up almost 9% year-on-year to $3.89 billion, beating estimates by $60 million.
Expenses were $2.22 billion, flat to the prior quarter, and up from $2.17 billion a year ago. Adjusted operating margin expanded once again to 52.1% of revenue.
The company entered into an agreement to buy private firm With Intelligence for $1.8 billion. The transaction is expected to close late this year or early next year, and should be slightly dilutive to EPS in 2026, followed by accretion in the years after.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on SPGI (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Dividend King #4: Stepan Co. (SCL)
- 5-Year Annual Expected Returns: 15.4%
Stepan manufactures basic and intermediate chemicals, including surfactants, specialty products, germicidal and fabric softening quaternaries, phthalic anhydride, polyurethane polyols and special ingredients for the food, supplement, and pharmaceutical markets.
It is organized into three distinct business lines: surfactants, polymers, and specialty products. These businesses serve a wide variety of end markets, meaning that Stepan is not beholden to just a handful of industries.
The surfactants business is Stepan’s largest by revenue, accounting for ~68% of total sales in the most recent quarter. A surfactant is an organic compound that contains both water-soluble and water-insoluble components.
Stepan posted third quarter earnings on October 29th, 2025. Adjusted earnings-per-share came to 48 cents, but that missed estimates widely by 13 cents. Revenue was up 8% year-over-year to $590 million, but also missed by $3.5 million.
Surfactants net sales were $422 million, a 10% increase from the year-ago period. Adjusted EBITDA fell $6.2 million, or 14%, due to volume contraction, higher startup expenses, and rising raw material prices.
Polymers net sales were $144 million, a 4% decline year-over-year. Volume was up 8%, while adjusted EBITDA was down 4%, or $1 million, due to lower unit margins and unfavorable mix.
Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was up $3.1 million, or 6%, year-over-year. Cash from operations was $69.8 million, while free cash flow was $40.2 million driven by reductions in working capital.
The dividend was raised by 2.6%, Stepan’s 58th consecutive annual increase.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on SCL (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Dividend King #3: Becton Dickinson & Co. (BDX)
- 5-Year Annual Expected Returns: 16.3%
Becton, Dickinson & Co. is a global leader in the medical supply industry. The company was founded in 1897 and has 75,000 employees across 190 countries.
The company generates about $20 billion in annual revenue, with approximately 43% of revenues coming from outside of the U.S.
Becton, Dickinson & Co., or BD, is a global leader in the medical supply industry. The company generates almost $22 billion in annual revenue, with approximately 43% of revenues coming from outside of the U.S.
On November 6th, 2025, BD increased its quarterly dividend 1.0% to $1.05, extending the company’s dividend growth streak to 54 consecutive years.
BD also reported results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025, which ended September 30th, 2025. For the quarter, revenue grew 8.3% to $5.89 billion, but this was $20 million below estimates.
Adjusted earnings-per-share of $3.96 compared favorably to $3.81 in the prior year and was $0.05 more than expected. For the fiscal year, revenue grew 8.2% to $21.8 billion while adjusted earnings-per-share of $14.40 compared to $13.14 in FY 2024.
BD provided an outlook for fiscal year 2026 as well. Revenue is projected to grow at a low single-digit rate. Adjusted earnings-per-share are expected to be in a range of $14.75 to $15.05.
At the midpoint, this would represent growth of 3.5% from FY 2025.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on BDX (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Dividend King #2: Automatic Data Processing (ADP)
- 5-Year Annual Expected Returns: 16.8%
Automatic Data Processing is one of the largest business services outsourcing companies in the world, with more than 700,000 corporate customers.
The company provides payroll services, human resources technology, and other business operations. The company generates nearly $22 billion of annual revenues.
Automatic Data Processing released Q1 earnings results on October 29th, 2025.
Source: Investor Presentation
Adjusted earnings-per-share of $2.49 was $0.05 better than expected while revenue grew 7.2% to $5.18 billion and beat estimates by $50 million.
Employer Services revenue improved 7% to $3.49 billion while segment earnings were up 6% to $1.23 billion. PEO Service revenue also increased 7% to $1.69 billion, though segment earnings were down to $219 million.
Automatic Data Processing also has raised its dividend 10.4% to $1.70, extending the company’s dividend growth streak to 51 consecutive years.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on ADP (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
Dividend King #1: H2O America (HTO)
- 5-Year Annual Expected Returns: 18.5%
H2O America, formerly known as SJW Group, is a water utility company that produces, purchases, stores, purifies and distributes water to consumers and businesses in the Silicon Valley area of California, the area north of San Antonio, Texas, Connecticut, and Maine.
It also has a small real estate division that owns and develops properties for residential and warehouse customers in California and Tennessee. The company generates about $670 million in annual revenues.
On July 8th, 2025, H2O America announced that it purchased Quadvest for $540 million. This purchase adds to the company’s position in the Houston area.
Quadvest has 50,500 active connections, almost 91,000 connections under contract and pending development, 50 water treatment plants, 27 wastewater treatment plants, and 89 lift stations and underground assets.
On October 28th, 2025, H2O America reported third quarter results for the period ending September 30th, 2025. For the quarter, revenue improved 6.9% to $240.6 million, which beat estimates by $2.1 million.
Earnings-per-share of $1.27 compared favorably to earnings-per-share of $1.18 in the prior year and was $0.09 better than expected.
For the quarter, higher water rates overall added $21.2 million to results and higher customer usage added $700K. Operating production expenses totaled $175.9 million, which was a 6% increase from the prior year.
The increases were due to higher pensions costs, salaries and wages, and inflationary increases.
Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on HTO (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):
The Dividend Kings In Focus Series
You can see analysis on every single Dividend King below. The newest Sure Analysis Research Database report for each security is included as well.
Consumer Staples
- Altria Group (MO) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Colgate-Palmolive (CL) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Coca-Cola (KO) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Hormel Foods (HRL) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Kimberly-Clark (KMB) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Lancaster Colony (LANC) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- PepsiCo (PEP) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Procter & Gamble (PG) [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Sysco Corporation (SYY) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Target Corporation (TGT) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Tootsie Roll Industries (TR) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Universal Corporation (UVV) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Walmart (WMT) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
Industrials
- ABM Industries (ABM) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Automatic Data Processing (ADP) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Dover (DOV) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Emerson Electric (EMR) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Gorman-Rupp Co. (GRC) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Illinois Tool Works (ITW) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- MSA Safety (MSA) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Nordson Corporation (NDSN) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Parker-Hannifin (PH) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Pentair (PNR) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Tennant Co. (TNC) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- W.W. Grainger (GWW) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
Health Care
- Abbott Laboratories (ABT) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Becton, Dickinson & Company (BDX) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Kenvue Inc. (KVUE) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
Consumer Discretionary
- Genuine Parts Company (GPC) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Lowe’s Companies (LOW) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
Financials
- Commerce Bancshares Inc. (CBSH) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Cincinnati Financial (CINF) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (FMCB) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- RLI Corp. (RLI) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- S&P Global (SPGI) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- United Bankshares (UBSI) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
Materials
- H.B. Fuller (FUL) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- PPG Industries (PPG) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Nucor (NUE) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- RPM International (RPM) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Stepan Co. (SCL) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
Energy
Real Estate
Utilities
- American States Water (AWR) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Black Hills Corp. (BKH) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- California Water Service Group (CWT) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Canadian Utilities (CDUAF) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Consolidated Edison (ED) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Fortis Inc. (FTS) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- MGE Energy (MGEE) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Middlesex Water Company (MSEX) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- Northwest Natural Holding (NWN) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
- H2O America (HTO) | [See newest Sure Analysis report]
Performance Of The Dividend Kings
The Dividend Kings out-performed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) in December 2025. Return data for the month is shown below:
- Dividend Kings December 2025 total return: 1.5%
- SPY December 2025 total return: 0.8%
Stable dividend growers like the Dividend Kings tend to underperform in bull markets and outperform on a relative basis during bear markets.
The Dividend Kings are not officially regulated and monitored by any one company. There’s no Dividend King ETF. This means that tracking the historical performance of the Dividend Kings can be difficult.
More specifically, performance tracking of the Dividend Kings often introduces significant survivorship bias.
Survivorship bias occurs when one looks at only the companies that ‘survived’ the time period in question. In the case of Dividend Kings, this means that the performance study does not include ex-Kings that reduced their dividend, were acquired, etc.
But with that said, there is something to be gained from investigating the historical performance of the Dividend Kings. Specifically, the performance of the Dividend Kings shows that ‘boring’ established blue-chip stocks that increase their dividend year-after-year can significantly outperform over long periods of time.
Notes: S&P 500 performance is measured using the S&P 500 ETF (SPY). The Dividend Kings performance is calculated using an equal weighted portfolio of today’s Dividend Kings, rebalanced annually. Due to insufficient data, Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (FMCB) returns are from 2000 onward. Performance excludes previous Dividend Kings that ended their streak of dividend increases which creates notable lookback/survivorship bias. The data for this study is from Ycharts.
In the next section of this article, we will provide an overview of the sector and market capitalization characteristics of the Dividend Kings.
Sector & Market Capitalization Overview
The sector and market capitalization characteristics of the Dividend Kings are very different from the characteristics of the broader stock market.
The following bullet points show the number of Dividend Kings in each sector of the stock market.
- Consumer Staples: 14
- Industrials: 13
- Utilities: 9
- Consumer Discretionary: 2
- Health Care: 5
- Financials: 6
- Materials: 5
- Real Estate: 1
- Energy: 1
- Communication Services: 0
The Dividend Kings are overweight in the Industrials, Consumer Staples, and Utilities sectors. Interestingly, The Dividend Kings have zero stocks from the Information Technology sector, which is the largest component of the S&P 500 index.
The Dividend Kings also have some interesting characteristics with respect to market capitalization. These trends are illustrated below.
- 6 Mega caps ($200 billion+ market cap; ABT, ABBV, JNJ, PG, KO, WMT)
- 27 Large caps ($10 billion to $200 billion market cap)
- 16 Mid caps ($2 billion to $10 billion)
- 8 Small caps ($300 million to $2 billion)
Interestingly, 25 out of the 57 Dividend Kings have market capitalizations below $10 billion. This shows that corporate longevity doesn’t have to be accompanied by massive size.
Final Thoughts
Screening to find the best Dividend Kings is not the only way to find high-quality dividend growth stock ideas.
Sure Dividend maintains similar databases on the following useful universes of stocks:
- The High Yield Dividend Kings List is comprised of the 20 Dividend Kings with the highest current yields.
- The Dividend Aristocrats: S&P 500 stocks with 25+ years of consecutive dividend increases.
- The Complete List of High Dividend Stocks: Stocks with 5%+ dividend yields.
- The Complete List of Monthly Dividend Stocks: our database currently contains over 80 stocks that pay dividends every month.
There is nothing magical about investing in the Dividend Kings. They are simply a group of high-quality businesses with shareholder-friendly management teams that have strong competitive advantages.
Purchasing businesses with these characteristics at fair or better prices and holding them for long periods of time will likely result in strong long-term investment performance.







