Aiming for Royal Returns

S&P believes investing in stocks with consistently rising payouts is a sound strategy, so here's an updated list of "dividend aristocrats"

One of Standard & Poor's favored investing approaches is to buy stocks of companies that regularly increase their dividends.

This way, as you hold the shares, your returns will grow, and the yield on your initial investments should continue to climb (see BW Online, 2/28/05, Bowing to "Dividend Aristocrats").

Investors should remember that about 40% of the total return over the history of the S&P 500-stock index was due to dividends and their reinvestment.

With that in mind, here's S&P's list of "dividend aristocrats" -- companies that have regularly upped their dividends for 25 or more consecutive years. The table also includes the dates of recent dividend boosts for stocks on the list.

As companies announce dividend changes during the year, please check back with us for future updates. (Note: May Department Stores was removed from the list in August, 2005, after its acquisition by Federated Department Stores.)

S&P DIVIDEND ARISTOCRATS

COMPANY	TICKER	RATE ($) (8-31-05)	YIELD (%) (8-31-05)	ACTION IN 2005	ACTION IN 2004
3M Co	MMM	1.68	2.4	Increased in February	Increased in February
Abbott Laboratories	ABT	1.10	2.4	Increased in February	Increased in February
ALLTEL Corp	AT	1.52	2.5		Increased in October
Altria Group	MO	3.20	4.5		Increased in August
AmSouth Bancorp	ASO	1.00	3.8		Increased in October
Anheuser-Busch Cos	BUD	1.08	2.4	Increased in July	Increased in July
Archer-Daniels-Midland	ADM	0.34	1.5	Increased in February	Increased in February
Automatic Data Proc	ADP	0.62	1.5		Increased in November
Avery Dennison Corp	AVY	1.52	2.8		Increased in October
Bank of America	BAC	2.00	4.6	Increased in June	Increased in June
Bard (C.R.)	BCR	0.52	0.8	Increaded in June	Increased in July
BB&T Corp	BBT	1.52	3.7	Increaded in June	Increaded in June
Becton, Dickinson	BDX	0.72	1.4		Increased in November
CenturyTel Inc	CTL	0.24	0.7	Increased in February	Increased in February
Chubb Corp	CB	1.72	2.0	Increased in March	Increased in March
Clorox Co	CLX	1.12	1.9		Increased in November
Coca-Cola Co	KO	1.12	2.5	Increased in February	Increased in February
Comerica Inc	CMA	2.20	3.6	Increased in January	Increased in January
ConAgra Foods	CAG	1.09	4.8		Increased in September
Consolidated Edison	ED	2.28	4.9	Increased in January	Increased in January
Donnelley(R.R.)& Sons	RRD	1.04	2.8
Dover Corp	DOV	0.68	1.7	Increased in August	Increased in August
Emerson Electric	EMR	1.66	2.5		Increased in November
Family Dollar Stores	FDO	0.38	1.9	Increased in January	Increased in January
First Horizon Natl	FHN	1.72	4.4		Increased in October
Gannett Co	GCI	1.16	1.6	Increased in July	Increased in August
Genl Electric	GE	0.88	2.6		Increased in December
Grainger (W.W.)	GWW	0.96	1.5	Increased in April	Increased in April
Jefferson-Pilot	JP	1.67	3.4	Increased in February	Increased in February
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	1.32	2.1	Increased in April	Increased in April
Johnson Controls	JCI	1.00	1.7		Increased in November
KeyCorp	KEY	1.30	3.9	Increased in January	Increased in January
Kimberly-Clark	KMB	1.80	2.9		Increased in January and December
Leggett & Platt	LEG	0.64	2.6	Increased in May	Increased in August
Lilly (Eli)	LLY	1.52	2.8		Increased in December
Lowe's Cos	LOW	0.24	0.4	Increased in May	Increased in May
McDonald's Corp	MCD	0.55	1.7		Increased in September
McGraw-Hill Companies	MHP	0.66	1.4	Increased in January	Increased in January
Merck & Co	MRK	1.52	5.4		Increased in July
Nucor Corp	NUE	0.60	1.1	Increased in February	Increased in February and September
PepsiCo Inc	PEP	1.04	1.9	Increased in May	Increased in March
Pfizer, Inc	PFE	0.76	3.0		Increased in December
PPG Indus	PPG	1.88	3.0	Increased in April	Increased in April
Procter & Gamble	PG	1.12	2.0	Increased in April	Increased in March
Progressive Corp,Ohio	PGR	0.12	0.1		Increased in August
Regions Financial	RF	1.36	4.2	Increased in January	Increased in January and April
Rohm & Haas	ROH	1.16	2.7	Increased in May	Increased in May
Sherwin-Williams	SHW	0.82	1.8	Increased in February	Increased in February
Sigma-Aldrich	SIAL	0.76	1.2	Increased in February	Increased in February
Stanley Works	SWK	1.16	2.5	Increased in July	Increased in July
State Street Corp	STT	0.72	1.5	Increased in June	Increased in June and December
Supervalu Inc	SVU	0.65	1.9	Increaded in June	Increased in August
Target Corp	TGT	0.40	0.7	Increased in June	Increased in June
U.S. Bancorp	USB	1.20	4.1		Increased in December
VF Corp	VFC	1.08	1.8		Increased in October
Wal-Mart Stores	WMT	0.60	1.3	Increased in March	Increased in March
Walgreen Co	WAG	0.26	0.6	Increased in July	Increased in July

All of the views expressed in this research report accurately reflect the research analyst's personal views regarding any and all of the subject securities or issuers. No part of analyst compensation was, is or will be, directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this research report.
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