Dividend Aristocrats In The Defensive Sectors

Seeking AlphaDividend Quick PicksDividend Aristocrats In The Defensive SectorsSep. 29, 2020 9:00 AM ET|| Includes: ABT, ADM, ATO, BDX, BF-A, BF-B, CARR, CL, CLX, ED, HRL, JNJ, KMB, KO, MDT, MKC, MKC.V, OTIS, PEP, PG, RTX, WMTby: FerdiSFerdiS Dividend Growth Investing, portfolio strategy, long-term horizon, ValueDiv Gro.cls-1{fill:#024999;}SummaryThe S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index is a list of companies in the S&P 500 that have increased their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years.
I ranked the 65 Dividend Aristocrats using DVK Quality Snapshots and tie-breaking metrics.
This article presents the rankings of 21 Dividend Aristocrats in the defensive sectors: Consumer Staples, Health Care, and Utilities.
Upcoming articles will present the rankings of 44 additional Dividend Aristocrats in other sectors.

This article provides an update to the article I wrote in March:
Since my March article, several changes have been made to the Dividend Aristocrats, and the stock market has mostly recovered from the crash in late February and early March.
There are now 65 Dividend Aristocrats and, given growing speculations of another market crash (see for example, here and here), I decided to present this update in three articles, with the first covering stocks in the Consumer Staples, Health Care, and Utilities sectors, traditionally considered the defensive sectors.
Readers may want to consider increasing their defensive exposure depending on their risk tolerance.
The Dividend Aristocrats
The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index is a list of companies in the S&P 500 that have increased their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years. The list is maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices and is updated annually in January.
To be included in the list, stocks must meet several criteria:
Be a member of the S&P 500. Have a dividend increase streak of at least 25 years. Have a market capitalization of at least $3 billion.... Read more