Dividend investors are primarily looking for two things when choosing stocks: high yield and reliability. Maintaining a dividend through thick and thin is one thing, but actually raising it during recessions, economic crises and cyclical business downturns is even more impressive.

Incredibly, about 10 percent of the stocks in the S&P 500 have managed to hike their dividends for at least 20 consecutive years. These stocks are known as the S&P 500 “Dividend Aristocrats.”

Here are the top five Dividend Aristocrats with the highest yields:

• HCP, Inc. HCP 1.81% — 5.8 percent.
• AT&T Inc. T 0.19% — 4.4 percent.
• Chevron Corporation CVX 1.21% — 4.1 percent.
• Emerson Electric Co. EMR 0.06% — 3.5 percent.
• Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM 0.92% — 3.4 percent.

Of those five stocks, Emerson has the longest-running streak of dividend hikes. Emerson has raised…

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