Dividend Aristocrats

I was doing some research this morning and came across this chart on the Dividend Growth Investor website (http://www.dividendgrowthinvestor.com/). It shows the performance of the S&P 500 versus the S&P Dividend Aristocrats index. It also makes pretty clear why we like companies that pay dividends.

Dividend Aristocrats are companies which have paid and increased their dividends for the last 25 years. These are the types of companies that we look at when researching stock ideas. Some examples of Dividend Aristocrats are General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Procter & Gamble.

This chart may not mean much today given the turbulent market environment, but it should help to provide some comfort that buying quality dividend paying companies is an attractive long term strategy.