SCHD Dividend Aristocrat Calculator

As of May 2025, SCHD holds 14 Dividend Aristocrats out of its 103 total holdings, representing approximately 32.6% of the fund's total weight. This number can change with each quarterly rebalancing of the fund as companies are added or removed based on the fund's selection criteria. The Dividend Aristocrats in SCHD tend to be among the higher-quality companies with strong financial health metrics.

SCHD does not include all Dividend Aristocrats because it follows different selection criteria from the S&P Dividend Aristocrats Index. SCHD tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, which selects stocks based on four fundamental factors: cash flow to total debt, return on equity, dividend yield, and 5-year dividend growth rate. While dividend consistency is valued (requiring at least 10 years of payment history), the fund prioritizes overall financial health and dividend metrics rather than just consecutive years of dividend increases.

Additionally, some Dividend Aristocrats may not rank highly enough in SCHD's composite score that balances all four factors, especially if they have lower current yields or financial metrics that don't compare favorably to other candidates.

Historical data shows mixed results when comparing Dividend Aristocrats within SCHD to other holdings. Aristocrats tend to show greater dividend growth consistency and lower volatility during market downturns. Over the past five years (2020-2025), the Aristocrat components of SCHD have demonstrated an average dividend growth rate of 8.7% compared to 7.2% for non-Aristocrat holdings.

However, in terms of total return, performance varies based on market conditions. During strong bull markets, non-Aristocrat holdings sometimes outperform due to higher growth characteristics. During market corrections and bear markets, the Aristocrat holdings have typically provided better downside protection.

The most significant advantage of the Aristocrat holdings is their demonstrated ability to maintain and grow dividends through multiple economic cycles, including recessions, which contributes to more reliable income growth over the long term.

These terms refer to companies with different streaks of consecutive dividend increases:

• Dividend Aristocrats: S&P 500 companies that have increased their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years.
• Dividend Kings: Companies that have increased their dividends for at least 50 consecutive years (an even more exclusive group).
• Dividend Champions: Companies that have increased their dividends for 25+ consecutive years, regardless of whether they're in the S&P 500.
• Dividend Contenders: Companies with 10-24 years of consecutive dividend increases.
• Dividend Challengers: Companies with 5-9 years of consecutive dividend increases.

While "Dividend Aristocrats" is the official designation from S&P Dow Jones Indices and requires S&P 500 membership, terms like Champions, Contenders, and Challengers were popularized by the DRiP Investing Resource Center and are used more broadly.

Both SCHD and dedicated Aristocrat ETFs like NOBL have their advantages:

• SCHD advantages: Lower expense ratio (0.06% vs. NOBL's 0.35%), higher yield (3.91% vs. 2.3%), broader diversification with 100+ holdings, and screens for multiple quality factors beyond just dividend streak.
• NOBL advantages: Pure focus on companies with 25+ year dividend growth records, equal weighting methodology that reduces single-stock risk, and potentially higher quality in terms of dividend consistency.

The best approach might be determined by your primary investment goal. If your focus is higher current income with quality screening, SCHD is typically the better choice. If your priority is investing exclusively in companies with the most consistent long-term dividend growth records regardless of current yield, NOBL may be more appropriate. Many investors actually hold both, using SCHD as a core position and NOBL as a complementary allocation.