The 20 Best Performing Dividend Aristocrats And Possible Year-End-Rally Winners 2012

Submitted by Dividend Yield as part of our contributors program.

Dividend Aristocrats With Best Year-To-Date Performance Researched By “long-term-investments.blogspot.com“. Stocks with a very long history of rising dividends have a solid business model and possess a huge reliability. Dividend Aristocrats are 52 stocks that have raised dividends over a period of more than 25 consecutive years and be selected by Standard & Poor’s for the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index. They are the Kings below the Dividend Champions. But which one could be the possible year-end-rally gainers?

I reviewed the performance of all stocks within the current trading year and listed 20 stocks with a strong year-to-date stock performance. Nearly all (49 stocks) have a positive performance. The best performing stocks could be the top performing stocks for the rest of the year due to window dressing effects by institutional investors. This means that investors will sell bad performing stocks and buy the good ones in order to show their clients a good worksheet of stocks they own at year-end.

Below the 20 best Aristocrats are four with a yield over three percent. Eleven are recommended to buy.

Here are my favorite stocks:

Illinois Tool Works (ITW) has a market capitalization of $28.48 billion. The company employs 65,000 people, generates revenue of $17,786.58 million and has a net income of $2,017.01 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $3,320.68 million. The EBITDA margin is 18.67 percent (operating margin 15.35 percent and net profit margin 11.34 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 22.19 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 39.83 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 20.60 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $3.98. Last fiscal year, the company paid $1.40 in form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 15.26, P/S ratio 1.60 and P/B ratio 2.93. Dividend Yield: 2.50 percent. The beta ratio is 1.17.

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) has a market capitalization of $257.35 billion. The company employs 2,200,000 people, generates revenue of $446,950.00 million and has a net income of $16,454.00 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $34,688.00 million. The EBITDA margin is 7.76 percent (operating margin 5.94 percent and net profit margin 3.68 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 27.62 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 74.92 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 22.55 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $4.75. Last fiscal year, the company paid $1.46 in form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 16.12, P/S ratio 0.58 and P/B ratio 3.67. Dividend Yield: 2.08 percent. The beta ratio is 0.31.

McCormick (MKC) has a market capitalization of $8.33 billion. The company employs 9,000 people, generates revenue of $3,697.60 million and has a net income of $348.80 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $626.10 million. The EBITDA margin is 16.93 percent (operating margin 14.61 percent and net profit margin 9.43 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 30.63 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 78.17 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 24.49 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $2.91. Last fiscal year, the company paid $1.12 in form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 21.58, P/S ratio 2.04 and P/B ratio 5.21. Dividend Yield: 1.97 percent. The beta ratio is 0.42.

Ecolab (ECL) has a market capitalization of $20.44 billion. The company employs 40,200 people, generates revenue of $6,798.50 million and has a net income of $463.30 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $1,149.50 million. The EBITDA margin is 16.91 percent (operating margin 11.09 percent and net profit margin 6.81 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 41.86 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 134.76 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 11.87 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $1.78. Last fiscal year, the company paid $0.72 in form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 39.18, P/S ratio 3.01 and P/B ratio 3.60. Dividend Yield: 1.14 percent. The beta ratio is 0.69.

Take a closer look at the full table of the best performing Dividend Aristocrats for 2012. The average price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio) amounts to 22.24 and forward P/E ratio is 16.20. The dividend yield has a value of 2.16 percent. Price to book ratio is 5.19 and price to sales ratio 2.01. The operating margin amounts to 14.11 percent and the beta ratio is 0.74. The average stock has a debt to equity ratio of 0.78. Year-to-date, the stocks are up 38.54 percent and the full year performance amounts to 29.90 percent.

Selected Articles:

· The 10 Best And Cheapest S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats

· 12 Solid Financed Dividend Aristocrats

· 15 Most Profitable Dividend Aristocrats

· Dividend Aristocrats With Double-Digit Growth Potential

· The Safest Dividend Aristocrats