Several recent articles here on Seeking Alpha have mentioned the S&P Dividend Aristocrats, which are members of the S&P 500 that have recorded at least 25 consecutive years of higher dividends. And while that seems a simple enough criterion to determine, there has been no shortage of confusion about the composition of that listing. A year ago, the list had shrunk to 42 companies, and the S&P recently announced three deletions and three additions for its 2011 list. Here's a good article on the subject.
The first problem is that one of the new components, Ecolab Inc. (ECL), has just a 19-year streak of dividend increases, which begs the question of how it can be added to a listing that requires at least a 25-year streak. Searching at Standard & Poor's website reveals the fact that S&P has adapted the “Aristocrat” idea to produce an index and an ETF, both of which require a 50-stock membership roster. So, besides Ecolab, they have decided to include eight other companies that do not meet the requirement of a 25-year streak. By examining the holdings of the underlying ETF, I was able to determine that they are including the following companies (with number of years of increases):
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