Rick Orford

Tue, Jun 17, 2025, 3:22 PM4 min read

Some say that Dividend Investing is boring, claiming that dividend stocks are low growth and offer near-flat capital appreciation compared to the latest investment trends.

But when all things fail, these boring stocks prevail. Examples of boring stocks include those on the Dividend Kings list: resilient companies with shareholder-friendly management that have raised their dividends for at least 50 consecutive years. However, aside from stability, what most people overlook is their ability to generate significant income in retirement that increases - and to me, that’s anything but boring.

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So, let’s take a look at three quality names: three Dividend Kings that are well-suited to own, literally forever.

Using Barchart’s Stock Screener, I selected the following filters to get my list:

• Overall Buy/Sell/Hold Signal: Buy.

• 5-Yr Dividend Growth (%): Set at 40% - Very High.

• Number of Analysts: 16 analysts. The more, the better, as it builds a stronger consensus.

• Current Analyst Rating: Moderate to strong buy.

• Watchlist: Dividend Kings.

I also added filters for overall opinion strength and direction to avoid any red flags.

With the filters in place, I got exactly three Dividend Kings:

Let’s discuss each, starting with the Dividend King with the highest 5-year dividend growth rate.

Parker-Hannifin Corp is the leader in motion and control technologies, operating in 104 countries. Its products are found in, on, and around nearly everything that moves. The company solves the most significant engineering challenges that make the world cleaner, smarter, and safer.

Parker-Hannifin’s latest quarterly financials reported sales of  $4.96 billion, down 2.2% year-over-year. Despite this, net income was $961 million, up 32% compared to the previous same quarter, last year.

Parker is a Dividend King, having increased its dividends for 69 consecutive years. The company pays a forward annual dividend of $7.20, which translates to a yield of approximately 1.1%. That said, Parker-Hannifin’s 5-year dividend growth rate is 92.09%, and the stock has an average rating of 4.55, or a strong buy, from 20 analysts.

The second company on this list is Abbott Laboratories - a company I covered a fair bit, so I’ll keep the introductions short. Abbott operates as one of the most diversified healthcare companies in the world, providing a range of healthcare products tailored to various health needs.