If you pulled up our dividend stock rankings a year ago and compared them to what you see today, you might do a double take. More than half the list is different. Fifty-four stocks dropped out entirely, fifty-four new ones took their place, and the forty-six that stayed saw some pretty dramatic shuffling. That’s a lot of movement for a ranking built around stability, so it’s worth walking through what actually changed and what it tells us about where dividend quality is being found right now.
King of the Hill
Let’s start at the top. PNC Financial, Eagle Montana (EBMT), Bank of Montreal, Regions Financial, and Fifth Third all landed in the top five with perfect or near-perfect ratings of 102. What they have in common is a combination of consistent dividend growth, reasonable payout ratios, and solid revenue trends. Regions Financial’s jump is one of the more striking stories on the whole list — it climbed from 77th all the way to 4th. That kind of move doesn’t happen by accident. It reflects meaningful improvement across the metrics we weight, including its 11% five-year dividend growth rate and a very manageable 44% payout ratio.
Atmos Energy had the single biggest move of any stock that stayed on the list, climbing 80 spots from 99th to 19th. A utility company making that kind of leap in a dividend quality ranking is noteworthy. With 41 consecutive years of dividend increases, a 8.8% five-year dividend growth rate, and revenue growth of over 14%, Atmos earned its way up. It’s a reminder that the classic utility story — slow and steady — is being rewritten by companies that have found ways to grow their dividends meaningfully without stretching their balance sheets.
Bank of America’s rise from 95th to 37th tells a similar story from the financial sector. The megabanks have been in a rebuilding phase on the dividend front since 2020, and the data is now starting to reflect real progress. DTE Energy climbed 45 spots to land at 13th, which fits with the broader theme of regulated utilities improving their dividend profiles as capital expenditure programs mature and rate cases get settled.
Who Dropped
On the other side of the ledger, some notable names fell hard. Allstate dropped 59 spots, going from 20th to 79th. Hartford Financial slid 54 places. Public Service Enterprise Group (PEG) dropped 48 spots. These aren’t companies in distress, but their relative standing declined because others around them improved more quickly. That’s an important distinction — in a competitive ranking, staying flat is effectively falling behind.
PSB dropped 61 spots, which is the steepest downward move on the list. When you look at its current numbers relative to what qualified a year ago, the competition for spots in the top 100 has simply gotten stiffer.
The turnover of 54 stocks is high, and it’s worth understanding why. Some of the departures are straightforward: Discover Financial (DFS) was acquired, which removes it from consideration. JPMorgan Chase, Waste Management, Automatic Data Processing, and Broadridge Financial were all ranked inside the top 100 last year but couldn’t maintain their standing as newer entrants posted stronger composite scores. That’s not a red flag for any of those companies — it just means the bar kept moving up.
Several stocks that entered the list this year are names dividend investors know well. Johnson & Johnson joins at 33rd with 62 consecutive years of dividend increases. Lockheed Martin comes in at 58th with a 21-year streak. Merck lands at 28th. These are not speculative additions — they’re companies with long track records that hit the right combination of yield, growth, and payout sustainability to score into our top 100 this time around.
A few more interesting new entrants: Clearway Energy (CWEN) arrives at 46th with a 4.69% yield and 15.6% five-year dividend growth, standing out among the utility-adjacent names. Edison International comes in at 54th with a 4.72% yield. OneMain Financial, which shows up at 88th, carries a 7.26% yield — the highest on the current list — though its shorter dividend track record and higher payout ratio explain why it’s sitting near the bottom of the 100 rather than near the top.
The Yield
The yield picture across the list is also worth noting. Among the stocks that stayed on both lists, the average yield actually came down — from about 3.21% then to 2.70% now. That’s partly a reflection of price appreciation in these names over the past year, which compresses yield. Many of the biggest climbers, like Atmos, Regions, and Bank of America, saw meaningful stock price gains that pulled their current yields down even as their absolute dividends grew. It’s a good problem to have if you bought them when they were ranked lower.
The five-year dividend growth rate for the stayed group held essentially flat at around 10.3% — which is an encouraging sign that the core group of quality dividend growers is maintaining discipline even as valuations have moved higher.
What’s the broader takeaway from all this movement? A few things stand out. Banks and financial companies are having a moment. The combination of higher interest income, improved capital ratios, and growing dividends is pushing a lot of regional bank names higher in the rankings. Utilities are splitting into two camps — the well-capitalized ones with real dividend growth are climbing, while those with slower growth and higher payout ratios are getting crowded out. And the overall quality threshold for making the top 100 is higher than it was a year ago, which is good news for dividend investors generally.