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

will be added to the index and that could mean some changes are in store for the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF

. 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

was removed from the Dividend Aristocrats Index, Colgate-Palmolive

, Genuine Parts, Illinois

, Tool Works

, Medtronic

, Nucor

and Sysco

. Franklin Resources

, HCP

and T. Rowe Price

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

.