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 April 22, 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.
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.
Related: 11 Best Stock Trading Apps [Free + Paid]
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.
Related: How to Get Free Stocks for Signing Up: 9 Apps w/Free Shares
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 1.20% 50
Automatic Data Processing ADP Technology 3.40% 51
Consolidated Edison ED Utilities 3.20% 52
Walmart WMT Consumer Staples 0.80% 53
Nucor NUE Materials 1.10% 53
Archer-Daniels-Midland ADM Consumer Staples 2.90% 54
PepsiCo PEP Consumer Staples 3.70% 54
Kimberly-Clark KMB Consumer Staples 5.30% 54
Target TGT Consumer Staples 3.50% 54
S&P Global SPGI Financials 0.90% 54
Abbott Laboratories ABT Health Care 2.70% 54
AbbVie ABBV Health Care 3.40% 54
Becton Dickinson BDX Health Care 2.70% 54
W.W. Grainger GWW Industrials 0.80% 54
PPG Industries PPG Materials 2.60% 54
Sysco SYY Consumer Staples 2.90% 55
Altria Group MO Consumer Staples 6.60% 57
Stanley Black & Decker SWK Industrials 4.30% 58
Federal Realty Investment Trust FRT Real Estate 4.00% 58
Hormel Foods HRL Consumer Staples 5.50% 60
Illinois Tool Works ITW Industrials 2.40% 62
Nordson NDSN Industrials 1.20% 62
Colgate-Palmolive CL Consumer Staples 2.60% 63
Kenvue** KVUE Consumer Staples 4.80% 63
Johnson & Johnson JNJ Health Care 2.40% 63
Lowe's LOW Consumer Discretionary 1.90% 64
Coca-Cola KO Consumer Staples 2.80% 64
Cincinnati Financial CINF Financials 2.10% 66
Procter & Gamble PG Consumer Staples 3.00% 69
Emerson Electric EMR Industrials 1.50% 69
Parker Hannifin PH Industrials 0.70% 69
Genuine Parts GPC Consumer Discretionary 3.70% 70
Dover DOV Industrials 0.90% 70
* Newest Dividend King. ** In November, 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.
Make Young and the Invested your preferred news source on Google
Simply go to your preferences page and select the ✓ box for Young and the Invested. Once you’ve made this update, you’ll see Young and the Invested show up more often in Google’s “Top Stories” feed, as well as in a dedicated “From Your Sources” section on Google’s search results page.
A Look at the Newest Dividend King: Pentair
You can get a closer look at many of these names in our exploration of the most prominent Dividend Kings, but here, let’s zoom in on the newest member:
- Sector: Industrials
- Dividend yield: 1.2%
- Dividend-growth streak: 50 years
Pentair (PNR) is one of the world’s largest providers of water solutions, operating in five continents. Its products include fluid treatment and pump products and systems, commercial and residential water treatment products and systems, and residential and commercial pool equipment and accessories. And it does so across a wide variety of names, including Aurora, Haffmans, Hydromatic, Everpure, Pentek, Kreepy Krauly, Sta-Rite, and many more, plus a few brands that utilize the Pentair name (Pentair Pool, Pentair Flow).
Like with many industrials, Pentair is a cyclical business whose top and bottom lines ebb and flow with the economy. That’s not a traditional recipe for even dividend stability, let alone unflinching growth, but Pentair has managed to do so with a tight grip on the wheel.
Pentair joins the Dividend Kings by virtue of its 50th consecutive dividend increase, which came in December 2025. PNR raised its payout by 8%, to 27¢ per share. That comes out to only 20% of the company’s expected earnings for 2026, which is an extremely conservative payout ratio that could survive a massive fluctuation in business conditions.
Also worth mentioning is that alongside the upgraded dividend, Pentair also announced a new $1 billion share-repurchase program that’s expected to run through the end of 2028.
Related: 10 Best Dividend Mutual Funds You Can Buy Now
Want to talk more about your financial goals or concerns? Our services include comprehensive financial planning, investment management, estate planning, taxes, and more! Schedule a call with Riley to discuss what you need, and what we can do for you.
