Dividend growth large caps
Query: US large-cap dividend stocks with dividend growth over the last 5 years, payout ratio below 60% and positive free cash flow, sorted by dividend yield · data as of 2026-11-02
Built a 30-name large-cap (>$10B) dividend-grower screen: sub-60% payout ratio, positive FCF, and an unbroken record of higher annual dividends over the past four years with positive 5-year dividend CAGR. Ranked by dividend yield (General Mills 5.3% at the top, Mastercard 0.4% at the bottom), with market cap, 5Y dividend CAGR, payout ratio, FCF and FCF yield, 1M/6M returns, P/E, forward P/E and technical setup, plus row commentary and a screen-framework narrative.
30 large-cap dividend payers (market cap above $10B) cleared the full quality screen: an unbroken record of equal-or-higher annual dividends across the four most recent payout years (no cuts), 5-year dividend growth, a payout ratio under 60% and positive trailing free cash flow. Ranked by dividend yield, highest first.
Large-Cap Dividend Growers (Yield Ranked)
| Symbol | Company | Sector | Industry | Theme | Market Cap | Dividend Yield | 5Y Dividend CAGR | Payout Ratio | Free Cash Flow ($M) | FCF Yield | 1M Return | 6M Return | P/E (TTM) | Forward P/E | Technical Setup | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GIS | General Mills, Inc. | Consumer Staples | Packaged Foods | Packaged Foods | 1.858e+10 | 5.27% | 3.82% | 41.00% | 1,626 | 8.87% | 10.62% | 4.63% | — | 10.82 | — | The highest yield in the screen comes with a weak spot: volume and mix have been soft as private-label competition bites into branded share, and the low-growth base means the payout is supported more by cost control than by demand. |
| EPD | Enterprise Products Partners L. | Energy | Oil & Gas Midstream | Natural Gas Midstream | 8.238e+10 | 4.44% | 4.24% | 45.00% | 4,041 | 4.91% | 4.79% | -0.49% | 12.93 | 11.84 | — | Midstream payout is capped by the MLP structure rather than earnings power; distribution growth is funded by organic NGL and Permian pipeline additions, so coverage improves only if contracted volumes ramp. Sensitive to NGL spreads and rising project capex. |
| CLX | Clorox Company (The) | Consumer Staples | Household & Personal Products | Branded Consumer Products | 1.087e+10 | 4.15% | 1.57% | 20.10% | 761 | 7.15% | 13.42% | 6.70% | 18.69 | 14.13 | Downtrend | Dividend growth has essentially stalled over the four-year window as the company prioritised debt paydown after its ERP misstep and repeated impairment charges; the yield now reflects a business still rebuilding volume share rather than one compounding cash flow. |
| PAYX | Paychex, Inc. | Information Technology | Software - Application | HR & Benefits Administration | 4.111e+10 | 3.93% | 11.30% | 21.50% | 1,709 | 4.28% | 17.92% | 29.11% | 23.62 | 18.09 | Uptrend | Dividend growth has restarted after a multi-year pause, but the real debate is the sustainability of client-funds float revenue as rates ease and how AI-adjacent HR software (HCM) competes with the core payroll moat. |
| WSO | Watsco, Inc. | Industrials | Industrial Distribution | HVAC & Building Climate Solutions | 1.319e+10 | 3.03% | 10.83% | 7.80% | 535.063 | 4.23% | 7.65% | -22.13% | 27.14 | 23.65 | Downtrend | HVAC distribution profit is tied to repair/replacement demand and to dealer pricing power when equipment inflation cools; the dividend is deeply covered but growth has slowed with the cooling housing construction cycle. |
| BMY | Bristol-Myers Squibb Company | Health Care | Drug Manufacturers - General | Oncology Therapeutics | 1.288e+11 | 3.00% | 3.93% | 39.70% | 1.284e+04 | 10.06% | 3.06% | 12.22% | 13.88 | 9.61 | Uptrend | Payments are low relative to earnings power; the dividend hike cadence is steady and the cash-conversion profile is strong, so the stock's real issue is the Eliquis/Revlimid patent cliff rather than the payout. Optionality comes from pipeline readouts in neuroscience. |
| CVS | CVS Health Corporation | Health Care | Healthcare Plans | Grocery Stores | 1.132e+11 | 2.25% | 4.86% | 37.60% | 7,807 | 6.76% | 3.10% | 9.37% | 23.35 | 10.4 | — | Payout is modest relative to earnings but the dividend competes with heavy buybacks and a leverage-reduction programme after the healthcare-plan acquisitions; the growth question is margin recovery in the insurance and pharmacy segments, not cash generation. |
| EWBC | East West Bancorp, Inc. | Financials | Banks - Regional | US Regional & Community Banks | 1.824e+10 | 2.25% | 10.67% | 41.70% | 1,496 | 8.35% | 5.50% | 8.55% | 12.79 | 11.71 | Uptrend | Cross-border bank with outsized China exposure, so the payout is supported by net interest income while the risk is concentrated in trade-linked loan demand and NIM compression as the Fed eases. |
| STZ | Constellation Brands, Inc. | Consumer Staples | Beverages - Brewers | Non-Alcoholic Beverages | 2.38e+10 | 2.19% | 6.79% | 24.30% | 1,794 | 7.83% | 25.62% | -3.53% | 13.38 | 11.35 | Downtrend, Break-above | Dividend growth outpaces the business: beer volumes have been weak in a spirits-heavy consumption environment and management is optimising the portfolio. The payout is well covered, but the growth rate is unlikely to repeat while destocking persists. |
| CFG | Citizens Financial Group, Inc. | Financials | Banks - Regional | US Regional & Community Banks | 2.722e+10 | 2.12% | 4.07% | 52.60% | 2,085 | 7.79% | 1.74% | 3.64% | 14.15 | 9.95 | Downtrend | Highest payout in the screen among banks and one of the stronger recent hike cadences, but it leans on capital-markets fees and a cyclical loan mix; the dividend is more sensitive to a credit-cost upturn than the BNY or PNC peers. |
| PG | Procter & Gamble Company (The) | Consumer Staples | Household & Personal Products | Branded Consumer Products | 3.791e+11 | 1.98% | 4.62% | 23.10% | 1.515e+04 | 4.04% | 13.62% | 15.65% | 24.74 | 22.11 | Uptrend | The dividend is the lowest-risk growth engine in the consumer staples group: steady mid-single-digit raises supported by price/mix and cost programmes, with China and tariff-driven input costs as the swing risk. |
| ZTS | Zoetis Inc. | Health Care | Drug Manufacturers - Specialty & Generic | Pharmaceuticals | 3.437e+10 | 1.91% | 13.01% | 47.20% | 2,283 | 6.93% | 20.17% | -25.16% | 13.57 | 12.51 | Downtrend | Initiated its dividend recently but has raised it every year since; the animal-health franchise is holding up while the companion-animal base is the growth engine. Watch for the competitive pressure on dermatology and vaccine pricing. |
| ABBV | AbbVie Inc. | Health Care | Drug Manufacturers - General | Autoimmune & Immunology Therapies | 5.104e+11 | 1.80% | 5.25% | 14.50% | 1.782e+04 | 3.42% | 10.58% | 40.60% | 81.36 | 17.74 | Uptrend | Capital-light earnings after the immunology franchise scale-up fund a rising dividend; the puzzle is the depressed reported earnings base from amortisation, so the payout is far safer than the reported ratio suggests. Skyrizi/Rinvoq growth is the compounding engine. |
| ABT | Abbott Laboratories | Health Care | Medical Devices | Pharmaceuticals | 1.906e+11 | 1.72% | 7.60% | 39.70% | 7,395 | 4.02% | 13.68% | 27.52% | 35.65 | 18.17 | Uptrend | Underrated dividend grower: medical devices and nutrition divisions generate consistent cash, while the dividend is anchored by a strong balance sheet and only recently accelerating raises. Two-year add: nothing structural to fix. |
| LOW | Lowe's Companies, Inc. | Consumer Discretionary | Home Improvement Retail | Home Improvement & Building Materials Retailers | 1.224e+11 | 1.67% | 7.28% | 20.40% | 7,651 | 6.52% | 21.42% | -1.27% | 18.42 | 16.35 | Downtrend | Home-improvement exposure pairs with a payout that has grown steadily; housing turnover remains the cyclical swing factor. Buybacks and dividends together return essentially all free cash flow, so the dividend growth treads on the pace of sales. |
| LEN | Lennar Corporation | Consumer Discretionary | Residential Construction | Homebuilding | 2.165e+10 | 1.65% | 8.33% | 50.00% | 28.183 | 0.14% | 14.79% | 9.24% | 14.27 | 14.05 | Downward channel (100%), Uptrend, Cross-above | Cash-flow yield is the weakest in this group because free cash flow is distorted by land acquisition and a build-to-rent pivot; the dividend is small relative to earnings and asset-light shifts could lift cover. |
| CL | Colgate-Palmolive Company | Consumer Staples | Household & Personal Products | Consumer Health & OTC Products | 7.745e+10 | 1.62% | 3.20% | 47.40% | 3,502 | 4.62% | 16.29% | 15.44% | 38.36 | 23.72 | Uptrend | Low-yield, high-consistency compounder: annual raises are near-automatic on strong pricing, but FX translation (with a heavily non-US revenue base) and raw-material costs are the swing risks. Enterprise-level balance sheet is stretched. |
| UNM | Unum Group | Financials | Insurance - Life | Property & Casualty Insurance | 1.441e+10 | 1.57% | 11.25% | 51.80% | 555.4 | 3.85% | 3.34% | 14.73% | 21.12 | 9.59 | Upward channel (19%), Uptrend | Dividend has roughly doubled over five years on profit recovery and reserve release; the risk is the pace of group-disability claims and, secondarily, capital deployment that eats into the buyback-plus-dividend return. |
| TXN | Texas Instruments Incorporated | Information Technology | Semiconductors | Semiconductor Capital Equipment | 2.761e+11 | 1.41% | 5.36% | 17.30% | 2,603 | 0.95% | 3.30% | 9.15% | 45.83 | 29.03 | Uptrend | Payout looks small but free cash flow is constrained by the aggressive fab build-out, so the dividend's real support is the analog business's cash generation, not reported earnings. Cyclical-automotive and industrial demand is the swing factor. |
| MRSH | Marsh | Financials | Insurance Brokers | Insurance Brokers | 9.766e+10 | 1.36% | 13.85% | 26.50% | 5,001 | 5.24% | 20.77% | 23.75% | 25.11 | 18.01 | Uptrend, Break-above | The fastest compounding dividend in the screen after BNY and MA; valuation is rich, but the insurance-broker model — fee-based, capital-light, resilient to the cycle — supports steady raises from organic growth and bolt-on M&A. The concentration is a reinsurance/broker market-conditions story. |
| GD | General Dynamics Corporation | Industrials | Aerospace & Defense | Aerospace & Defense Components | 1.009e+11 | 1.25% | 5.98% | 15.90% | 3,959 | 3.93% | 13.69% | 7.98% | 22.76 | 20.14 | — | Defense demand from two theaters supports the aircraft backlog while the dividend grows at mid-single digits. The growth question is not orders but execution — delivering aircraft on schedule and on margin. |
| CSCO | Cisco Systems, Inc. | Information Technology | Communication Equipment | Data Center & Enterprise Networking | 4.006e+11 | 1.23% | 2.55% | 59.90% | 1.329e+04 | 3.22% | -9.44% | 10.53% | 30.51 | 18.34 | Sideways channel (0%), Uptrend, Break-below | The dividend is close to being the highest payout ratio in the screen because of a rising share count and softer hardware mix; Cisco's dividend is backed by broad gross cash flow but lacks growth optionality beyond the AI networking and Splunk transition. |
| BNY | The Bank of New York Mellon Cor | Financials | Banks - Diversified | Asset Servicing & Custody Banks | 9.944e+10 | 1.14% | 14.28% | 41.30% | 5,177 | 5.23% | 2.08% | 12.99% | 17.24 | 14.42 | Uptrend | Fastest dividend grower after Mastercard: custody and asset-servicing fees are scale-protected and asset-light, so raises come from earnings growth plus buybacks. The risk is cyclical fee revenue on falling market values and rate cuts hitting net interest revenue. |
| INTU | Intuit Inc. | Information Technology | Software - Application | Enterprise Cloud Applications | 9.409e+10 | 1.02% | 15.28% | 20.10% | 6,123 | 6.72% | 25.85% | -12.70% | 21.47 | 12.91 | — | Dividend doubled in the past five years and the low payout makes it resilient, but the growth story is contested: the consumer and mid-market segments are slowing, so the AI-driven accounting and procurement narrative is doing heavy lifting on valuation. |
| DGX | Quest Diagnostics Incorporated | Health Care | Diagnostics & Research | Life Science Tools & Reagents | 2.768e+10 | 1.00% | 6.78% | 29.60% | 1,359 | 4.89% | 7.89% | 31.99% | 26.6 | 20.8 | Uptrend | Diagnostics volumes and cost discipline generate steady cash; the dividend is small relative to earnings and can grow quickly, but the recurring healthcare utilisation and reimbursement environment is the key risk. |
| IEX | IDEX Corporation | Industrials | Specialty Industrial Machinery | Diversified Industrials | 1.737e+10 | 0.92% | 5.51% | 34.50% | 616.8 | 3.59% | 1.52% | 11.46% | 34.03 | 24.69 | Upward channel (47%), Uptrend | Small, dependable dividend with a long record, funded by industrial and fluid-handling niches; organic growth has been slow, so a large acquisition or a cyclical industrial downturn would be the swing factor in payout growth. |
| NTAP | NetApp, Inc. | Information Technology | Software - Infrastructure | Data Storage Devices | 3.639e+10 | 0.84% | 0.99% | 48.10% | 1,869 | 4.78% | -17.94% | 67.88% | 29.17 | 18.5 | Uptrend | Dividend has barely moved over the period: management prefers buybacks and M&A, and the all-flash/storage growth is offset by legacy hardware decline. The dividend is secondary to capital return here. |
| CAT | Caterpillar, Inc. | Industrials | Farm & Heavy Construction Machinery | Construction Machinery & Equipment | 2.821e+11 | 0.76% | 7.98% | 15.90% | 8,918 | 3.12% | -27.25% | -29.56% | 26.44 | 19.01 | Downtrend | The dividend has grown at high single digits alongside the equipment cycle; the large buyback is powered by construction and power-gen demand, while the swing risk remains dealer inventory in construction-equipment downturns. |
| SNX | TD SYNNEX Corporation | Information Technology | Electronics & Computer Distribution | IT Services & Consulting | 1.773e+10 | 0.65% | 12.47% | 52.10% | 1,466 | 7.77% | -20.02% | -2.09% | 15.93 | 10.38 | Uptrend, Break-below | Fast dividend growth tied to the tech-distribution model: low margins but high cash conversion and working capital efficiencies. Elevated inventory in AI servers is the risk; a large buyback also competes for cash. |
| MA | Mastercard Incorporated | Financials | Credit Services | Fintech & Digital Payments | 5.733e+11 | 0.40% | 15.43% | 28.70% | 1.716e+04 | 3.09% | 19.35% | 30.80% | 36.14 | 28.58 | Uptrend | Dividend is the lowest-yield name in the screen but backed by one of the widest-moat, highest-margin businesses in the market; payout is trivially covered and growth is driven by value-added services and international volumed. Multiples are high — the dividend is a by-product of a compounder. |
Screen Framework
How this screen works
This is a quality-income filter, not a yield chase. A name only survives if multiple dividend tests line up:
- Size: market cap above $10B, so the dividend is backed by a real balance sheet and index-level liquidity.
- Payout ratio below 60%: measured from trailing dividends per share against trailing EPS. Ratios comfortably under 60% leave room for future raises and buffer against an earnings shock.
- A clean 5-year dividend record: every annual payout in the last four years equal to or higher than the year before — no cuts, no freezes. The 5-year dividend CAGR column shows how fast the payout has compounded from FY2022 to the trailing 12 months.
- Positive free cash flow: distributions must be self-funded by operating cash flow after capex, with a plausibility cap so one-off anomalies don't sneak through.
The result is deliberately less extreme than a highest-yield screen. Names like Annaly (NLY), AGNC and the mortgage REITs are excluded — they pay huge percentages of book value because they are leveraged pass-throughs, not dividend growers — and the BDC/asset-manager crowd (Blue Owl, Ares Capital) fails the free-cash-flow test. What is left is a menu of consumer staples, healthcare, financials and durable industrials that generate distributable cash and have raised the cheque consecutively.
What to focus on
- Yield vs. growth trade-off: General Mills (
GIS) and Enterprise Products (EPD) sit at the top of the yield ranking but offer low single-digit growth; Mastercard (MA) and BNY (BNY) pay little but compound the payout at a mid-teens clip. A barbell of a high-yield cash cow plus a fast-payout grower usually balances inflation protection with total return. - Coverage more than headline yield: free cash flow yield matters more than the payout ratio for capital-intensive or levered businesses. Texas Instruments (
TXN) and NetApp (NTAP) look safe on the payout ratio but are constrained by capex or a capital-return preference. - Rate sensitivity: with the 10-year near 4.6% and falling while the CPI print ticks down, bond-proxy sectors (utilities, REITs, staples) have led the recent tape. Staples like P&G, Colgate and Clorox are near 52-week highs — the rotation is already underway, so entry timing on the high-multiple names matters more than the yield.
- Watch the outliers: Caterpillar (
CAT), Oracle (ORCL) and Oracle-like capital raisers have been sold hard as investors reward cash generators over cash burners, while consumer and healthcare defensives hold up. Where the dividend growth story is intact and the multiple has compressed, the payoff can be better than buying the leaders at the highs.
No dividend growth data exists for several high-yielders (Vodafone, British American Tobacco, HSBC and most foreign ADRs) in our coverage, so they are not included — the screen depends on a verifiable payout record rather than a current yield estimate.
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