High Yield From Common Stocks: Income Now

Some of my funds have the primary purpose of generating current income. This article supposes that you have a similar need. Treasury-bond yields do not meet your goals. This leads to a need to look to other, riskier investments. Several categories of investment, such as Preferred Stocks and Closed End Funds, may contribute. From the perspective of diversification, I would say they should contribute. But here the focus is on common stocks.
In the realm of common stocks, and for this portion of my portfolio, I have zero interest in growth stocks. For these funds, Dividend Growth Investing is far too slow and bond yields are too low. I want to find companies that pay out most of their income as dividends. I want these companies to be doing well enough that they can pay significant yields to me. The usual options in this space are Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Business Development Corporations (BDCs), Midstream or LNG Limited Partnerships (LPs), and some Closed End Funds. All these areas deserve consideration, as you probably know. I am a fan of REITs, and for income of their preferred stocks. In this area, I am pleased to have High Yield Landlord to help me understand the options.
Here I wanted to see if we could find some options that go beyond the usual, in the area of common stocks. To do so, I used the Fidelity stock screener as follows. I screened for Dividend Payout Ratio from 75% to 125%. I really prefer companies in the low end of this range, but recognize that... Read more