We know that the Dividend Aristocrats outperform in down markets. In the six most recent down years for the S&P 500 (1990, 2000-2002, 2008, and 2018), the Dividend Aristocrat Index has outperformed the broad market in each year. If we had a longer dataset for this sub-index, this naturally defensive strategy that focuses on companies that have paid increasing dividends over long-time intervals would have outperformed in additional down years as well.
Over the trailing five years, from April 2014 through this past month, the Dividend Aristocrat Index (NOBL) has produced an identical