Mergent, Inc. Announces Dividend Achievers™ 2011 Reconstitution

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Mergent, Inc. today announced the reconstitution of its Mergent Dividend Achievers™ indices for 2011. Mergent's Dividend Achievers indices are a highly regarded series of indices that track companies with strong long-term dividend growth. Products based on these indices currently have over $7.5 billion in assets under management, and are offered by major investment management firms worldwide, including BlackRock Inc., The Vanguard Group Inc., Invesco PowerShares (a part of Invesco, Ltd.), Invesco Trimark (also part of Invesco, Ltd.) and others.

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The 2011 Broad Dividend Achievers Index is comprised of 191 constituents compared with 212 constituents in the 2010 Dividend Achievers Index. The net difference of 21 constituents is the result of 25 constituents failing to meet the required criteria for continued inclusion in the Index Series. Twenty companies had regular dividends in 2010 that were unchanged from calendar year 2009. In addition, two companies saw a reduction in their 2010 dividends compared with 2009, while three companies increased their dividends but did not meet the minimum liquidity requirements for inclusion in the Index. It is notable that of the twenty constituents that did not increase their dividends for calendar year 2010, nine were companies in the Financial Sector reinforcing the value of the Dividend Achiever Index Strategy across variable business cycles.

Four constituents were added to the Index in 2011 led by Conoco Phillips, a large integrated international oil company, Carbo Ceramics Corp., an oil well equipment and services company, and two electric utilities, SCANA Corp. and UniSource Energy Corp.

The changes for 2011 therefore resulted in a modest alteration to the Indices sector allocation, with the largest increase being in the Energy Sector, resulting from the addition of ConocoPhillips and Carbo Ceramics Corp., which more than offset the removal of Holly Corp. from that sector. The Health Care Sector had the largest decrease in 2011, with two companies DENTSPLY International Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. not increasing their Dividend. As a result of these changes, the 2011 Broad Dividend Achievers Index has the following sector weights compared with the 2010 Index:

Source: Intrinsic Research Systems, Inc.

A complete list of the 2011 Mergent Dividend Achievers Constituents can be found at http://www.indxis.com/pdfs/DividendAchieversIndicesConstituents(2011).xls

About Mergent

Mergent, Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial information on global publicly listed companies. Based in the U.S., the company maintains a strong global presence, with offices in New York, Charlotte, San Diego, London, Tokyo and Melbourne.

Founded in 1900, Mergent operates one of the longest continuously collected databases of: descriptive and fundamental information as well as pricing and corporate action data on domestic and international companies, together with terms and conditions data on corporate and municipal bonds. In addition, Mergent develops and licenses equity, fixed income and commodity index and investment products based on proprietary methodologies. Our licensed products have over $7.5 billion in assets under management and are offered by major investment management firms. Mergent subsidiaries provide services in independent equity research, index calculation and administration and tools for portfolio building and measurement. To learn more, visit www.mergent.com

About Intrinsic Research Systems Inc.

Designed as the next generation in the evolution of equity analytics, Intrinsic Research System's suite of research products has been created for investment managers seeking an intuitive and comprehensive approach to original equity research and decision making. Intrinsic Research solutions have been built from the ground up, using today's technology, for a rich user experience that is unmatched by any other service. Likewise, Intrinsic's integrated central database of company, sector, industry and economic data has been specially constructed to provide analysts and portfolio managers with access to the key components driving equity performance in a single, consolidated package. Intrinsic Research is a subsidiary of Mergent Inc.

SOURCE Mergent, Inc.