Dividend-paying companies are an oasis in the desert of underperforming stocks. They offer solid payouts today and the promise of capital gains tomorrow. According to a study by Ibbotson, reinvested dividends made up about 40% of total stock returns from 1926 to 2006. In fact, dividend investing is so appealing that superinvestor Warren Buffett has made it a significant component of his portfolio.

When searching for great dividend stocks, it makes a lot of sense to start with companies that have been playing the dividend game the longest. Standard & Poor's has culled the dividend winners from the also-rans in a list it calls the "dividend aristocrats."

Let's examine the top 20 fastest-growing yields among these dividend aristocrats. For context, I've also included their trailing yield.

Company

5-Year Dividend
Growth Rate

Yield

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL)

64.6%

7.2%
Lowe's (NYSE: LOW)

30.7%

1.6%
McDonald's (NYSE: MCD)

27.5%

3.2%
Walgreen (NYSE: WAG)

21.8%

1.7%
AFLAC (NYSE: AFL)

21.0%

2.3%
Target (NYSE: TGT)

19.3%

2.0%
W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW)

17.7%

1.5%
VF Corp (NYSE: VFC)

17.2%

2.5%
Automatic Data Processing (NYSE: ADP)

16.3%

2.8%
Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT)

15.1%

2.7%
Becton, Dickinson (NYSE: BDX)

15.0%

2.0%
Clorox (NYSE: CLX)

13.7%

3.2%
PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP)

13.4%

2.9%
Ecolab (NYSE: ECL)

12.0%

1.4%
Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE: ADM)

12.0%

1.8%
Sherwin-Williams (NYSE: SHW)

11.9%

1.7%
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG)

11.6%

3.3%
Chubb (NYSE: CB)

11.5%

2.5%
Sigma-Aldrich (Nasdaq: SIAL)

11.0%

1.1%
Leggett & Platt (NYSE: LEG)

11.0%

4.7%

Source: Standard & Poor's.

These aren't formal recommendations -- just ideas for your own further research. Still, they could give you a great start toward find companies capable of paying rising dividends for a quarter-century or more.

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