Management Commitment

The consistency of a dividend in the past is no guarantee it will continue in the future. In 2009, 10 stocks, including General Electric (GE) and Pfizer (PFE), lost their status as dividend aristocrats.

While a company's dividend history is important, a more useful measure of a dividend's strength are the statements of management, Shearer says. "We like companies that will state the growth of the dividend as one of their key goals," he says, citing Chevron (CVX) as an example. Such statements "align company management with the shareholders."