10 High Dividend Yield, Low Beta Stocks to Consider for a Market Pullback

The S&P 500 is up almost 7% over the past two weeks. We feel that this short term rally is more of a technical bounce and is not representative of the underlying fundamentals of the U.S. economy. The U.S. economy continues to have significant headwinds (e.g., high unemployment, end of QE2, weak housing market, high debt levels, etc.) and signs are definitely pointing toward further weakness in the equity market. In the current market environment, it is important for income investors to choose their dividend stocks wisely as they are putting new money to work. As volatility increases (especially downside volatility), investors may want to add some low beta stocks to their holdings to help dampen portfolio volatility. In general, companies with low betas will tend to be less volatile than... more

5 Undervalued Blue Chips With Above-Average and Growing Yield

Yesterday the following PRNewswire press release reported that S&P indices announced a powerful uptrend in dividend increases for calendar year 2011. This provides continued validation of the unique opportunity that blue-chip dividend paying stocks offer investors today. (Click to enlarge) Five Dividend Paying Blue Chips Offering Yields Above the 10-year Treasury Bond The following table lists five blue-chip companies with long histories of increasing their dividends that are currently trading at discounts to their historical valuations. Consequently, these five blue chips are also offering investors abnormally high entry-level yields greater than available from a 10-year treasury bond. But best of all, each offers the opportunity for their yields to increase at above-average... more

Sunoco Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.15 Per Share on Common Stock

Sunoco, Inc.'s (NYSE: SUN) Board of Directors today declared a cash dividend for the third quarter of 2011 of $0.15 per share on all full shares of common stock outstanding, payable September 9, 2011 to shareholders of record at the close of business on August 11, 2011.... more

Paychex Declares Quarterly Dividend

Today the Board of Directors of Paychex, Inc. (Nasdaq: PAYX) declared a regular quarterly dividend of $.31 per share payable August 15, 2011 to shareholders of record August 1, 2011.... more

The Most Promising Dividends in Air Delivery and Freight

Yields and growth rates and payout ratios, oh my! Before we get to those companies, though, you should understand just why you'd want to own dividend payers. These stocks can contribute a huge chunk of growth to your portfolio in good times, and bolster it during market downturns. As my colleague Matt Koppenheffer has noted: "Between 2000 and 2009, the average dividend-adjusted return on stocks with market caps above $5 billion and a trailing yield of 2.5% or better was a whopping 114%. Compare that to a 19% drop for the S&P 500."... more

Let These Dividends Fund Your Retirement

This is especially true if you can keep the tax man away by holding your dividend stocks in an IRA. Deferring the need to pay taxes (or avoiding them altogether with a Roth IRA) lets you reinvest all of those dividends, giving you more shares to grow with the market over time. That steady growth means that good dividend stocks are a great cornerstone for your retirement portfolio -- or any long-term investment plan.... more

Dividend Yields: Finding Value in Today's Bull Market

But, if we are in a bull market, then why has investing activity in the stock markets stagnated? Russell's letter provides insight into why investors have been wary of current market conditions. Russell writes that he is avoiding stocks at the moment because of their subpar value. For this assessment he is looking chiefly at dividend yields, which are payments made by a company to its shareholders calculated as a percentage of each share. The money is a portion of the company's profits.... more

Second-Quarter Dividend Duds

With stock buybacks all the rage, dividend investors in S&P 500 companies aren't always getting the rewards they deserve from their stocks. It pays to take notice when companies make healthy payouts. But just as Santa has a naughty or nice list, so do I. Last week, I detailed seven companies that have gone above and beyond their fiduciary responsibility to reward shareholders with a healthy and growing dividend. But every coin has two sides, and even the S&P 500 has lumps of coal mixed in with the bars of gold. Today, I propose we take a look at two companies that went out with a thud in the second quarter and see whether their lowered quarterly payout is a short-term anomaly or a genuine cause for concern. Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK) Hudson City isn't a fan of doing what others... more

7 High-Yield Dividend Stocks I'm Watching

As uncertainty has reared its ugly head, I've started to become more and more interested in dividend stocks. Stocks certainly have problems, but they're preferable to bonds because of today's historically low interest rates. It's hard to beat guaranteed returns in the form of cash dividend payments. What's more, companies can raise their dividend payouts from year to year unlike bonds, which have fixed coupon payments. This is a double-whammy -- stocks have the potential to pay more than bonds and to grow those payments.... more

Dividend Yield: How Much Bumpiness Is Acceptable?

In an article by Robert Allan Schwartz entitled How Bumpy Are Your Dividends? published on June 7, the author presented an example of two companies with the same initial dividend and ten years later the same final dividend. Because the initial and final dividends are identical, both have the same Dividend Compounded Annual Growth Rate (also known as a Dividend Growth Rate, or DGR) of about 17%. Mr. Schwartz makes the point that selecting the company with the “smoother” history of dividend increases provides a planning advantage for those who depend on dividends for meeting their retirement expenses. That seems logical. However, as a retiree with fixed expenses (or in some cases, expenses with an expected rate of increase), I want to know “will I have the funds to cover those... more