Dividend Aristocrats Index Making Changes (CTAS, BBT, PFE, GE)
December 07, 2009 4:46 AM
The Standard & Poor's Dividend Aristocrats Index should be a place where investors can find some of the best dividend payers around, but the index has inlcuded some dubious members recently. Considering that companies must raise their payouts for at least 25 consecutive years to included, the index's recent members have been interesting to say the least. In other words, a lot of dividend cutters have remained in the index over the past year.
That's slated to change on December as the Dividend Aristocrats welcome spirits maker Brown-Forman (NYSE: BF-B) and uniform maker Cintas (Nasdaq: CTAS).
Stocks being removed from the index are: BB&T (NYSE: BBT), Avery Dennison (NYSE: AVY), Gannett (NYSE: GCI), General Electric (NYSE: GE), Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI), Legg Mason (NYSE: LM), M&T Bank (NYSE: MTB), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), State Street (NYSE: STT) and U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB).
The Dividend Aristocrats Index is rebalanced every December, hence why some firms that cut their dividends earlier this year remained in the index.
