dividend aristocrats

Dividend aristocrats are companies that are in the S&P 500 and have increased annual dividend payments for the past 25 years. These companies typically offer products that will be bought even during times of recession. Not only can dividend aristocrats provide a passive income, but they can...

Inflation can be a nuisance for investors, eating away at portfolio returns. The U.S. Labor Department reported a 7.5% increase in the consumer price index in the month of January, the fastest inflation growth since 1982. Inflation And Dividend Growers: One potential way for investors to offset the...

This weekend's Barron's cover story explores the new opportunities and risks that arise for investors as Democrats take power in Washington. Other featured articles examine why it is more important than ever to create a diversified portfolio, what investors will be looking for in upcoming...

Dividend investors are primarily looking for two things when choosing stocks: high yield and reliability. Maintaining a dividend through thick and thin is one thing, but actually raising it during recessions, economic crises and cyclical business downturns is even more impressive. Incredibly, about...

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) may be undergoing a turnaround, which is attracting investor attention. However, dividend-focused investors may now be shying away from the stock. According to Bloomberg Gadfly's Shelly Banjo, the aggregate amount of cash Wal-Mart distributed to investors in the...

As detailed in previous articles on Benzinga, "Dividend Aristocrat" stocks are very desirable holdings for long term investors. To earn that moniker, a company must have increased its dividend payment annually for at least the past 25 years. Many of the best companies in the stock exchange...

Writing in the January 2014 issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, columnist James Glassman picked Coca-Cola as a favorite for 2014. Although it did not perform as well as other selections for 2013, Glassman described Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) as, "a classic 'faith-based stock' that is a...

BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) is the world's largest asset manager, with a very strong franchise in bonds. So the front page advertisement on Wednesday's Wall Street Journal from BlackRock -- with the query, "Once thought safe. Now risky? Rethink your bonds" -- was an eye-catcher for investors looking...

In a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Mike Cherney reported that investors were buying up municipal bonds due to yields increasing. "Municipal bonds," he wrote, "have long attracted individual, or retail, investors because interest payments from them are generally exempt from income...

In previous articles on this site, it was detailed how studies have shown that stocks with low betas and high dividends can turn out to be the most rewarding long term investments. Finding both features in one company that is also a "Dividend Aristocrat" makes for a very attractive equity. With...

Here's something to mull over: Research by Russell Investments found that stocks that were the least volatile and the least risky performed the best over time. In other words, low-risk equities returned the highest rewards to investors. According to two studies by Russell Investments, the first...