A company that has raised its dividend every year for 25 years has survived recessions, rate cycles and technology shifts: this strategy measures that signal.
Save the strategy and StockScorer checks its rules for you every day. You'll get a heads-up whenever a stock crosses the upper or lower score threshold.
Gap to MSCI World: -59.6 percentage points total, -2.2 per year
Index, start = 100
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Based on all 16,182 stocks with a score. Not rated are stocks that the profile does not classify because of a size limit or an exclusion rule.
| Score | Number of stocks | High match | Medium match | Low match | Not rated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 14,532 | 0 | 0 | 4,419 | 10,113 |
| +1 | 1,064 | 0 | 644 | 0 | 420 |
| +2 | 496 | 376 | 0 | 0 | 120 |
| +3 | 86 | 71 | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| +4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Every stock runs through the same disclosed rules. The points add up to a score, traceable down to the individual rule.
Each rule checks a metric against a threshold, here for example “Dividend king: raised annually for ≥ 50 years”.
In this profile, each rule that is met counts +1 to +4 points. Exclusion rules take a stock out of the rating regardless of its points: it is then not rated.
The sum is the score. That gives three classes: high, medium, low match.
These terms describe only the match with the criteria, not a recommendation to buy or sell.
Years of uninterrupted dividend increases: the single metric everything here revolves around.
Only strict increases count. A company that merely pays a constant dividend collects no points here.
A cut or suspension in the past year excludes the stock: the trust signal is broken.
No: small caps are excluded by rule. A decades-long streak of raises is a blue-chip phenomenon.
These exact rules run over every stock daily.
After signing up for free, you can copy the full profile in the rule editor, adjust its thresholds, and save it as your own starting profile.
See and copy all rules for freeIndex, start = 100
The backtest shows a total return of +180.6%. The MSCI World reaches +240.1% over the same period.
The same strategy with the same settings, started at every possible date. Each dot is a separate run over 5 years.
The periods overlap heavily, neighbouring runs share almost all periods. The spread therefore looks smaller than it would for independent periods. Past results say nothing about future ones.
Strategy calculated without fees and taxes, dividends reinvested.
Point-in-time composition since June 30, 2009: each period uses the members at that time. Stocks that left the market early may be missing, which favours the result.
Historical period, quarterly rebalancing. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Purely mechanical rule application, no curated-list effect: stocks with a high match can fall just like any other stock.
Dots per card, in this order: Growth, Quality. Filled means at least one rule in the category is met.
For income investors with a very long horizon who put maximum reliability above maximum yield. If you also want coverage and valuation checked, combine this with its sister strategy Dividend Quality: 4 Factors.
Dividend Continuity asks a single question with maximum rigour: how many years in a row has the dividend been raised, not merely maintained? The principle is inspired by the well-known aristocrats and kings lists: a decades-long streak of raises is the ultimate evidence of pricing power, inelastic demand and management discipline (signalling theory). The point scale runs from +1 for five years to +4 for more than 50; a cut in the past year is, since the fidelity round, exclusion rather than a point deduction, because a cut ends an aristocrat streak by definition. The strategy scores mid and large caps only: a multi-decade streak of raises is a blue-chip phenomenon. The official aristocrats label requires not just 25+ years of raises but also S&P 500 membership and a multi-billion-dollar float minimum.
The point scale follows the streak of raises: more than 50 years of annual increases (+4), the terrain of the "dividend kings", 25 to 49 years (+3, the classic aristocrats standard), 10 to 24 years (+2), 5 to 9 years (+1). Below five years there are no points. A cut or suspension in the latest fiscal year triggers an exclusion rule: the stock is then not rated regardless of the streak's prior length, because a cut ends an aristocrat streak by definition, immediately.
Small caps are excluded: an exclusion rule automatically leaves them not rated, because a decades-long, uninterrupted streak of raises is structurally a phenomenon of established blue chips, not young or small companies. Mid and large caps share a single threshold: the upper zone starts at 2 points, reachable at the earliest with a 10-year streak. Investors looking for dividend growth among smaller companies too will find a size-neutral signal in the sister strategy Dividend Quality: 4 Factors, which measures "not cut" rather than "raised".
≥ 50 years of annual raises: +4 (extreme resilience across several decades).
25–49 years: +3 (aristocrats standard). 10–24 years: +2. 5–9 years: +1.
1–4 years: 0 points, the streak is too young to serve as a signal.
Cut or suspension in the past year: exclusion rule, the stock is not rated.
The streak of raises is the hardest dividend signal, harder than yield or payout: it cannot be "improved" by a falling share price and cannot be built in a single good year. The limit: the strategy deliberately does NOT check whether the raises are earned: a company can artificially extend a streak through rising payout ratios. The coverage check is the job of the sister strategy Dividend Quality.
Fidelity update as of 23 August 2026: a cut now triggers an exclusion rule instead of a fixed 3-point deduction. Previously a "dividend king" with a 50-year history (+4) could almost absorb a single cut (4 − 3 = 1, still in the middle zone); that contradicted the aristocrats concept, where a cut ends the streak immediately and drops the name off the list.
Calculation notes: calendar years with strictly increased total payouts are counted. The cut criterion uses last year's dividend growth and is neutralised in the backtest; the raise streak itself is reconstructed look-ahead-free from the payout history, a cut ends the streak there automatically anyway.
For income investors who want reliable, growing payouts as the foundation of their portfolio and are willing to forgo price fireworks for it.