14 Best Dividend Aristocrats to Invest in Heading into 2026

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1. S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 110

Upside Potential as of December 22: 20.3%

S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) is among the best dividend aristocrat stocks to buy now.

On December 10, S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Google Cloud. The goal is to speed up an enterprise-wide transformation tied to agentic innovation, data distribution, and workflow automation.

The move marks another step in S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)’s broader AI and cloud strategy. The partnership draws on Google Cloud’s data and AI capabilities to strengthen how S&P Global builds and delivers intelligence products for customers around the world. The focus is on advancing data and agentic AI for customers and empowering S&P Global’s workforce with agentic capabilities.

As part of the effort, S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) will continue rolling out tools designed to lift productivity and efficiency. That includes Gemini Enterprise, Google Cloud’s agentic platform, along with other AI tools. The company is also developing data agents that embed S&P Global’s datasets directly into client workflows.

A few days later, on December 16, Goldman Sachs raised its price target on S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) to $640 from $637 and reiterated a Buy rating. The firm pointed to structural and cyclical tailwinds that are supporting “healthy” debt issuance volumes and steady growth in ratings revenue over the near to medium term.

S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI)  enables businesses, governments, and individuals to use trusted data, expertise, and technology to make decisions with conviction.

While we acknowledge the potential of SPGI to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SPGI and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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