Do Not Forget About Dividends

Picture this. You've just finished running a marathon. You haven't had a drink of water in the past five miles, and your throat is parched. As you walk through the finish line, someone hands you a drink. Looking at the clear liquid that you presume to be water, you greedily take a big gulp and then realize: oh no, it's tequila. That's how I feel every time I read an article that talks about the performance of a given stock or index over time without including dividends, as if dividends are this optional consideration that can either be included or not, like putting a slice of cheese on a hamburger. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a financial column titled "Stocks Quickly Went Nowhere in 2011" that mentioned: "The S&P 500 Index of big companies ended the year flat, down a mere... more

Seeking High Yield In Foreign Telecommunications

As investors begin to return to the market to find income via dividend yield, many are turning to the telecommunications sector as a useful sector to find higher rates. Popular U.S.-based companies like mobile communications mogul Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T (T), the largest domestic telecom provider, have already become the stable backbones of many dividend portfolios. Yet income investors may find it beneficial to familiarize themselves with foreign telecom companies, some of which have consistently offered substantially higher rates, are often discounted over fears of the global economy, and can operate in regions with more growth potential. The following values are current as of January 19, 2012. Company Market Cap. Trailing Div% Region P.T.... more

4 Top Dividend Stocks That I'm Committed To Adding In 2012

My recent article on dividends created more controversy on the subject to the extent where several readers were offended about my comparison with retirement. In describing my reasons for being divided over dividends, I made the following statement: "As with anything else, issuing companies establish a certain status - one that says, we have arrived, and here's the proof. Our managerial excellence has allowed us to share our cash as opposed to being in constant need. Now mind you, I have already conceded that for investors, this is a great thing and it is absolutely beneficial. For the company, it has essentially retired and is now looking for plaid pants and golf courses. But what it also implies is that the company is now more valuable even with its indirect admission of lack of... more

Dividend Sustainability Among 5 Stocks

The demand and popularity of high paying dividends stocks has been constantly increasing due to the low-interest rate environment set by the Fed. Nevertheless, investors are always able to find stock with high annual dividends. The question is, are the dividends of these corporations sustainable? Home Depot (HD): Home Depot has a current annual dividend of $1.16, a yield of 2.7%, and a payout ratio of 43%. Cash flow has been solid and growing, in fact the stock has recently reached a 52-year high and its momentum is expected to grow because of its stronger financial position in comparison to other stocks. For instance, Home Depot has a much higher dividend and yield than Lowe's (LOW), which currently has annual dividend and yield of 0.56 and 2.10%, respectively. In fiscal year 2011, the... more

Fish Dividend Champions Vs. Dogs Of The Dow In January

Last week David Fish published his Dividend Champions: 26 Increases Expected By March 30 on this Seeking Alpha site. He defines Champions as "companies that have paid higher dividends for at least 25 straight years." This article utilizes the dogs of the index strategy to sort David's Top ten Champions as of January 13 into a suitable grouping to trade. One aim of this article is to help answer the question, "which dividend stocks are good, better, best, bad or ugly?" This article also aims to provide strong evidence of the need to heed Yale professor Robert Shiller's observation: "People still place too much confidence in the markets and have too strong a belief that paying attention to the gyrations in their investments will someday make them rich, and so they do not make conservative... more

Dividend Champs With Yields As High As 14%

Our favorite play on this list is Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD). It has enterprise value of $56.2 billion, a quarterly revenue growth of 40.40%, a ROE of 14.55%, a five-year dividend growth rate of 6.03%, a total return of 144% for the past three years, and has been paying dividends since 1998. It has a levered free cash flow rate of -$1.01 billion. Out of a possible five stars, we would assign EPD four. The dividend was raised from $0.6050 to $0.6125. Net income for 2011 has surged and could potentially top the $1.7 billion mark. As a comparison net income for 2010 came in at $320.8 million. Two other noteworthy players are Pfizer Inc (PFE) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC), which have yields of 3.7% and 1.8%, respectively. Pfizer Inc has been paying dividends since 1901, has increased... more

Apogee Enterprises Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend

The Board of Directors of Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq: APOG) announced it has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.0815 per share, payable on February 22, 2012 to shareholders of record on February 7, 2012. The company has approximately 28.0 million shares outstanding.... more

Alcoa Announces Dividend

The Board of Directors of Alcoa (NYSE: AA) declared (a) a quarterly common stock dividend of 3 cents per share payable February 25, 2012 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 3, 2012 and (b) a quarterly dividend of 93.75 cents per share on Alcoa’s $3.75 cumulative preferred stock payable April 1, 2012 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 9, 2012.... more

8 Cheap, Safe Dividend Stocks Now On Sale

Defensive investors like stocks with sustainable high dividend yields. Dividend stocks can protect investors from potential inflation and stocks with sustainable high dividend yields will enable investors to achieve their target returns over long periods of time. Though dividend stocks historically outperformed the market, some of them did not perform well over the past few months. The market was up 9.46% over the past three months, but some safe dividend stocks suffered losses in that period. It is very likely they are currently trading at a discount and have great potential to grow in the future. Below we compiled a list of safe dividend stocks now on sale. All companies have at least $2 billion market cap, dividend yields of over 3%, EPS growth rate higher than 10% per year over the... more

Coke Consolidated Announces First Quarter Dividend

Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (Nasdaq: COKE) today announced that the Board of Directors has declared a dividend for the First Quarter of 2012 of $.25 per share on shares of the Company's Common Stock and Class B Common Stock payable on February 17, 2012 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 3, 2012.... more