Wall Street Is High on These 3 Dividend Aristocrats

Dividend Aristocrats are the creme de la creme of dividend stocks. They go the extra mile by paying out at least a little more income to their shareholders year in and year out, and have done so for so long—at least 25 years, to be precise—that they're treated like Wall Street royalty.

Even then, though, all Dividend Aristocrats aren't built the same. Read on as I highlight three of the best-rated Aristocrats right now.

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute individualized investment advice. Individual securities, funds, and/or other investments appear for your consideration and not as personalized investment recommendations. Act at your own discretion.

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats

The term "Dividend Aristocrats" generally refers to stocks with some sort of track record of dividend growth. There are, in fact, many types of Dividend Aristocrats—European Aristocrats, Canadian Aristocrats, mid-cap Aristocrats, and so on—and each group has a certain set of criteria for inclusion, including a baseline of dividend growth.

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But most discussions around Dividend Aristocrats revolve around one particular subset: the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats.

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats are the biggest, blue-chip dividend growers that the U.S. equity markets have to offer. And ultimately, they have to meet just two criteria for inclusion:

1. Be members of the S&P 500.
2. Have increased dividends for at least 25 consecutive years.

That's pretty easy to remember. However, that second criterion needs a little explaining.

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The Best-Rated Dividend Aristocrats Right Now

Currently, there are 69 S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats—a group of stocks that most people would generally consider to be stable, dependable companies.

But that doesn't mean they all make equally worthy investments.

Let's separate the wheat from the chaff. I'll show you the 10 best-rated Dividend Aristocrats right now, as determined by their consensus analyst rating, provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. S&P boils down consensus ratings down to a numerical system where …

• 1 to 1.5: Strong Buy
• 1.5 to 2.5: Buy
• 2.5 to 3.5: Hold
• 3.5 to 4.5: Sell
• 4.5 to 5: Strong Sell

You can check out our full top 10 list of Dividend Aristocrats. But the following short list of Dividend Aristocrats includes three stocks with a rating of 2 or less, indicating that at worst, each company enjoys a pretty firm consensus Buy rating, if not an outright Strong Buy rating.

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Abbott Laboratories

• Sector: Healthcare
• Market cap: $151.8 billion
• Dividend yield: 2.9%
• Consensus analyst rating: 1.68 (Buy)

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) is a large healthcare firm that develops, makes, and sells medical devices, diagnostic products, nutritional products, and generic pharmaceuticals. Among other things, it's responsible for FreeStyle (and FreeStyle Libre) glucose monitors, Pedialyte hydration products, Similac formulas, PediaSure children's nutritional products, and BinaxNow COVID-19 antigen tests.

It's also the owner of Cologuard screening tests following the March 2026 closure of its acquisition of Exact Sciences.

Medical devices are Abbott's biggest breadwinner at nearly half of revenues, and they've been a key driver of growth of late. The company has reported 13 consecutive quarters of double-digit top-line growth in medical devices; in the first quarter of 2026, it enjoyed a 14% year-over-year improvement in electrophysiology revenues and 11% growth in heart failure product sales.

Abbott has been weighed down by short-term headwinds, including weakness in nutrition that could persist through the first half of this year. Regardless, ABT enjoys a crowded bull camp of 21 Buys (versus seven Holds and no sells).

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"Abbott’s pivot to a price-cutting strategy in Nutrition raises concerns about increased competition in the market," says Argus Research analyst David Toung (Buy). "On the other hand, we believe Abbott’s growth drivers (including the FreeStyle Libre, electrophysiology products, leadless pacemakers, and cardiovascular devices) as well as its ability to develop and launch new products could lead to continued growth in sales and earnings. We note that Abbott plans to expand the FreeStyle portfolio beyond the diabetic market to the consumer market."

"Abbott's continued growth on the MedTech side, disciplined M&A, and margin leverage over time buoy our constructive stance on the name," add Oppenheimer analysts, who rate the stock at Outperform [equivalent of Buy]. "The relative buffers provided by the different business segments, the cash-on-hand, dividend yield, and potential for margin expansion form the basis of our constructive stance on the name."

Abbott is another Dividend King, this one boasting 54 years of uninterrupted dividend growth. The most recent increase to the quarterly payout—a 7% hike to 63¢ per share—was announced in December 2025. The distribution itself dates back more than a century, to 1924.

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Linde

• Sector: Materials
• Market cap: $231.4 billion
• Dividend yield: 1.3%
• Consensus analyst rating: 1.68 (Buy)

Materials companies are often extremely cyclical investments that tend to rise and fall based on broad-based economic trends and industrial demand. That said, a few have passed the test of time and managed to deliver consistent dividends regardless.

Case in point: Ireland-based Linde (LIN). Linde is the world's largest industrial gas producer, offering oxygen, nitrogen, argon, helium, hydrogen, electronic gases, acetylene, and rare gases. It also produces air separation, synthesis, olefin, and other plants for third-party customers. And it does this across every continent.

It's a cyclical business, but Linde offers some shelter from the economic shocks that many of its businessmates suffer. That's in part because of its diverse offerings, but also because of the industries it supplies.

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"The company has a strong presence in many defensive end markets, including healthcare, food and beverages, and electronics that should generate consistent revenues even in a soft economic environment," says Argus Research analyst Alexandra Yates, who is one of 21 Buys on LIN shares (vs. seven Holds and no Sells). "In addition, Linde currently manages a significant $10 billion backlog of projects, mostly under contract with blue-chip companies, which provide strong and steady cash flow and maintain a solid balance sheet. The long-term contracts allow for safe and consistent returns and position the company for future growth."

In fact, its business has been so relatively stable that it has—by virtue of its 2018 merger with fellow gas giant Praxair—been able to deliver 33 consecutive years of increased dividends to its shareholders, most recently a 7% hike announced in February 2026, to $1.60 per share.

While long-term buy-and-holders might look away from the materials sector, Linde sticks out as both a Dividend Aristocrat and a surprisingly stable "forever stock."

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Walmart

• Sector: Consumer staples
• Market cap: $1.0 trillion
• Dividend yield: 0.8%
• Consensus analyst rating: 1.45 (Strong Buy)

Walmart (WMT) needs no introduction, but I'll give it one anyways.

Walmart is a global retailing behemoth, recently eclipsing $1 trillion in market capitalization. It operates nearly 11,000 stores and clubs in 19 countries, including 4,600 stores—not just Supercenters, but also discount stores, Neighborhood Markets and small-format stores—in the U.S. That doesn't even include its 600 Sam's Club warehouse-club locations.

WMT is frequently contrasted with fellow big-box store Target (TGT)—the former is considered a lower-priced but lower-quality retailer, while the latter is pricier but perceived to be more upscale. But Walmart has been addressing this in numerous ways over the past few years, including improving store standards and widening price gaps.

Now, Walmart is going after beauty.

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"Management believes it can double the size of its beauty biz, noting that while WMT already serves the beauty shopper, ~60% of her spend still occurs elsewhere," says a team of Jefferies analysts, which rates shares at Buy. "That gap represents a meaningful wallet-share opportunity as assortment improves and the in-store experience elevates. WMT US digital is expected to lead growth and drive share gains."

Also helping Walmart is its continued rapid technological adoption to address changing consumer interests. For instance, its AI partnership is expected to benefit from reports that OpenAI is retreating from its idea to introduce direct shopping within ChatGPT, instead directing product checkouts to retailer apps.

"We view this as a net positive for Walmart," say BofA Global Research analysts Christopher Nardone and Madeline Cech (Buy). "This change would bring about an integrated commerce solution that's similar to Walmart's partnership with Google's Gemini (announced in January). There will likely be fewer retailers (at first) with this integrated app capability and once Sparky is integrated within the platform, Walmart should have an advantage showing up in searches given its low pricing and vast product assortment."

Walmart is among the best-rated Dividend Aristocrats there are, boasting 38 Buys versus three Holds and one Sell right now. WMT also enjoys King status; its 53rd consecutive dividend improvement came in March 2026, when it juiced its distribution by 5%, to 24.75¢ per share.

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