Dividend aristocrats are popular with investors. After all, what dividend investor wouldn’t want to own the stocks of companies with a history of growing their dividends consistently over time?
It’s no wonder, then, that some investors fall into the dividend aristocrat trap: They assume dividend aristocrats are the best long-term dividend stocks to buy. That’s not always the case.
What Is a Dividend Aristocrat?
Dividend aristocrats are defined as companies that have increased their dividends every year for 25 years or longer. There are currently more than 60 dividend aristocrats among the companies included in the S&P 500.
Investors like dividend aristocrats because they expect companies with a history of dividend growth to be able to continue to grow their dividends in the future. In addition, dividend aristocrats are mature companies with sufficient earnings to continue to increase their dividends and are run by management teams that prioritize dividends in the capital structure.
That being said, dividend aristocrats aren’t immune to dividend cuts. Onetime dividend aristocrat Walgreens Boots Alliance cut its dividend nearly in half in 2024. How can investors sidestep the dividend aristocrat trap and avoid those most likely to cut their dividends? “Companies with wide economic moats have been less likely to cut dividends than companies with narrow moats,” explains Morningstar Indexes strategist Dan Lefkovitz. “No-moat businesses are most likely to cut.”
The 5 Best Dividend Aristocrats to Buy in 2026
To come up with our list of the best dividend aristocrats to buy, we therefore screened on the following parameters:
- Dividend stocks included in the ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF NOBL
- Dividend aristocrats with
Morningstar Economic Moat Ratings
of narrow or wide that are trading below our fair value estimates
Here are five dividend aristocrats that made the list.
Here’s a little bit about each dividend aristocrat on our list. All data is as of May 29, 2026.
Clorox
- Morningstar Price/Fair Value: 0.55
- Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Wide
- Forward Dividend Yield: 5.51%
- Sector: Consumer Defensive
Clorox tops our list of the best dividend aristocrats to buy. Morningstar director Erin Lash expects mid-single-digit dividend growth over the next 10 years, resulting in a payout ratio near 60% long term. Clorox stock trades at a 45% discount to our $163 fair value estimate.
See Clorox’s dividends per share and other data.
Medtronic
- Morningstar Price/Fair Value: 0.66
- Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Narrow
- Forward Dividend Yield: 3.85%
- Sector: Healthcare
Medtronic is one of the lower-yielding stocks on our list of the best dividend aristocrats to buy. The firm has long set a benchmark of 50% free cash flow distributed to shareholders, but the payout ratio has crept up closer to 70% to 80% in recent years, reports Morningstar senior analyst Debbie Wang. The stock looks attractive, trading 34% below our fair value estimate of $112.
See Medtronic’s dividends per share and other data.
Brown-Forman
- Morningstar Price/Fair Value: 0.70
- Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Wide
- Forward Dividend Yield: 3.58%
- Sector: Consumer Defensive
The second wide-moat stock on our list of undervalued dividend aristocrats, Brown-Forman, trades 30% below our fair value estimate. Over the next 10 years, we expect dividend payments to grow steadily alongside earnings, with the payout ratio stabilizing around 52%, which we view as prudent and achievable, explains Morningstar senior analyst Kris Inton. We think shares are worth $37.
See Brown-Forman’s dividends per share and other data.
McCormick & Co
- Morningstar Price/Fair Value: 0.73
- Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Wide
- Forward Dividend Yield: 4.05%
- Sector: Consumer Defensive
McCormick is the third and final wide-moat stock on our list of top dividend aristocrats. We expect McCormick to remain committed to returning excess cash to shareholders and forecast its dividend payout to hold near 60% over our explicit outlook, says Morningstar’s Lash. We forecast high-single-digit annual dividend increases over time. The stock trades 28% below our $65 fair value estimate.
See McCormick & Co’s dividends per share and other data.
Kimberly-Clark
- Morningstar Price/Fair Value: 0.73
- Morningstar Economic Moat Rating: Narrow
- Forward Dividend Yield: 5.25%
- Sector: Consumer Defensive
In addition to rounding out our list of best dividend aristocrats to buy, Kimberly-Clark is also a dividend king, which means it has raised its dividend for 50 years or more. We think the company has carved out a narrow moat with its portfolio of billion-dollar brands that includes Huggies, Scott, Kleenex, Cottonelle, Depend, and Kotex. Our long-term outlook calls for mid-single-digit annual dividend growth, says Lash.
See Kimberly-Clark’s dividends per share and other data.
Dividend Aristocrat ETFs: Are They Good?
Investors who’d rather not buy individual stocks can access a portfolio of dividend aristocrats via an exchange-traded fund.
In particular, ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF tracks the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index. This ETF isn’t actively covered by Morningstar’s analysts. Like most passive funds, its ongoing expenses are modest. But it has underperformed standard dividend-growth benchmarks, such as the Morningstar US Dividend Growth Index, during the past five years.
Investors who’d like exposure to the dividend growth potential that aristocrats offer might be better served by one of several highly-rated ETFs focused on dividend-growth stocks (not just dividend aristocrats) that Morningstar’s analysts cover and that earn high ratings. Consider these to be quasi-dividend aristocrat ETFs, as they invest in stocks that may not have a 25-year unbroken streak of dividend growth but that have nevertheless grown their dividends over time. Be sure to read the analyst reports of these quasi-dividend aristocrat ETFs, as they each invest differently from one another.
Should You Buy Dividend Aristocrats?
Dividend aristocrats can be compelling investments, but they have their caveats.
For starters, dividend aristocrats can, in fact, cut their dividends if business conditions warrant. “A streak of annual dividend increases of any length provides no guarantee that a company’s dividend is secure,” argues former Morningstar DividendInvestor editor David Harrell. He points to VF VFC and AT&T T as examples of onetime dividend aristocrats that have cut their dividends during the past few years.
Moreover, dividend aristocrats aren’t necessarily high-dividend stocks. “Twenty-five years of consecutive dividend growth doesn’t necessarily result in a high-yielding stock,” he notes.
And last, dividend aristocrats aren’t attractive unless they’re underpriced—at least not in our book. Overpaying for a stock simply because it has a solid history of dividend growth only increases the odds that the stock is likely to underperform.
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