Dividend Kings, Champions and Contenders

If 25 years of raises makes a company an Aristocrat, what do you call one that has done it for 50? Investors settled on Dividend King. These companies raised their dividends through the 1970s inflation, the early 1980s interest rates of nearly 20%, the dot-com crash, the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic. Around fifty companies hold the title today.

What makes a King

The rule is simple: 50 or more consecutive years of dividend increases. Unlike the Aristocrats, there’s no official index behind it and no requirement to be in the S&P 500. That means you’ll find small regional water utilities and family controlled candy makers on the list alongside Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble.

Because there’s no single official list, different websites sometimes disagree by a company or two, usually over whether a particular year’s payment counted as a raise.

The longest streaks

The record holders have raised their dividends for around 70 years in a row. That’s every year since the Eisenhower administration.

Notice how unglamorous most of them are. Water, gas, auto parts, valves, soap. Steady demand and modest, predictable growth are exactly what lets a company raise its dividend for 70 years straight. Federal Realty deserves a mention too: it’s the only REIT with a streak long enough to be a King.

Every King, with live figures

As with the Aristocrats, look at the spread of returns. A 60 year dividend record and a poor five-year share price can sit side by side. The streak tells you the dividend has been dependable. It tells you nothing about whether the stock was a good buy at any given price.

Champions, Contenders and Challengers

Investors have a whole ladder of names for dividend streaks. The most common:

The Champions, Contenders and Challengers lists were made popular by a spreadsheet the late investor David Fish kept for years, and others have maintained versions since. They’re useful because they reach beyond the S&P 500 into smaller companies. Several dividend ETFs use similar rules too, such as requiring ten years of growth, which you’ll meet in High Yield vs Dividend Growth ETFs.

Kings that fell

Fifty years of raises is impressive, but it isn’t a force field. Two recent examples:

• Leggett & Platt had raised its dividend for more than 50 years. In 2024, with demand for its mattress and furniture components falling and debt rising, it cut the dividend by about 90%.
• 3M had raised for over 60 years before cutting in 2024, after spinning off its healthcare division and agreeing to multi-billion dollar legal settlements.

In both cases the warning signs were visible for years: slowing sales, rising payout ratios, growing debt and token raises. The streak bought patience from shareholders, but it couldn’t fix the business underneath.

How to own them

There’s no widely held ETF that tracks the Dividend Kings directly, partly because the list isn’t an official index. Investors who want them usually pick individual Kings across a few sectors, or use the list alongside an Aristocrats fund. You can filter for Kings in Dividend Duel’s dividend stocks screener.