25 Best Dividend Aristocrats to Buy According to Analysts

9. Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX)

Upside Potential as of May 26: 18.6%

American energy giant Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) has raised its dividends for 37 years in a row. Moreover, the company has paid uninterrupted dividends to shareholders since 1984. It currently offers a quarterly dividend of $1.63 per share which gives its stock a yield of 4.13%. Its dividend growth and solid yield make it one of the best dividend aristocrat stocks on our list.

Oil Companies are generally known for paying dividends even in bad times when oil prices are down and they are generating less cash. Usually, in such periods, these companies prefer to take on debt and divest assets in order to maintain their payouts. Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) is no exception to this rule. Crude prices have been range-bound in the past several months and they are lower than their $120 highs recorded in 2022. However, at around $79 per barrel, WTI is higher from 2020 lows, when lockdowns due to COVID led to an oversupply of oil.

The current dividend yield makes Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) more attractive than Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), which is also featured on this list of best dividend aristocrats to buy. At the same time, the company’s debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19 makes it more attractive than Exxon. The stock did have a 13% drop in October on the back of weaker-than-expected results but has since rebounded by 14%. Chevron is also currently in the process of acquiring Hess Corp (NYSE:HES), with the latter’s shareholders recently voting in favor of the deal. However, the deal still has to be approved by regulators. Moreover, there are issues surrounding Hess’s share in the Stabroek block in Guyana, the majority stake in which is owned by Exxon, and which is the main reason why Chevron launched the acquisition in the first place.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, 62 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), down from 72 in the previous quarter. These stakes have a total value of over $23.2 billion. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owned the largest stake in the company at the end of March, having disclosed ownership of 122.98 million shares in its latest 13F filing.