Dividend Aristocrat Changes Alter ETF's Lineup

Standard & Poor's is making some additions to the prestigious Dividend Aristocrats Index, home to large-cap blue chips that have boosted shareholder payouts every year for at least 25 consecutive years. Ten new companies, including Dow component and telecom giant AT&T (NYSE: T) will be added to the index and that could mean some changes are in store for the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (NYSE: SDY).

With an expense ratio of 0.35% and $7.82 billion in assets under management, SDY does not track the Dividend Aristocrats Index. Rather, the ETF tracks the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index, but AT&T has already been added to the ETF as the SPDRs Web site indicates.

While CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) was removed from the Dividend Aristocrats Index, Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), Genuine Parts, Illinois (NYSE: GPC), Tool Works (NYSE: ITW), Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), Nucor (NYSE: NUE) and Sysco (NYSE: SYY).

Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN), HCP (NYSE: HCP) and T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW) are the financial services additions to the index.

In addition to AT&T, HCP, Sysco, Nucor, Illinois Tool Works, Genuine Parts, Medtronic, Colgate-Palmolive and T. Rowe Price have also been added to SDY. The ETF now holds about 60 stocks.

HCP, Genuine Parts and Colgate-Palmolive had previously been included in the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index, according to ETFdb.