Stanley Black & Decker's Dividend Is Safe

Here, we'll highlight a given company and its closest competitors to see just how safe their dividends are, with a little help from three crucial tools: The interest coverage ratio, or earnings before interest and taxes, divided by interest expense. The interest coverage ratio measures a company's ability to pay the interest on its debt. An interest coverage ratio less than 1.5 is questionable; a number less than 1 means that the company is not bringing in enough money to cover its interest expenses. The EPS payout ratio, or dividends per share divided by earnings per share. The EPS payout ratio measures the percentage of earnings that go toward paying the dividend. A ratio greater than 80% is worrisome. The FCF payout ratio, or dividends per share divided by free cash... more

ExxonMobil: Dividend Dynamo or Blowup?

Let's examine how ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) stacks up in four critical areas to determine whether it's a dividend dynamo or a disaster in the making. 1. YieldFirst and foremost, dividend investors like a large forward yield. But if a yield gets too high, it may reflect investors' doubts about the payout's sustainability. If investors had confidence in the stock, they'd be buying it, driving up the share price and shrinking the yield.... more

Williams Companies: Dividend Dynamo or Blowup?

Let's examine how Williams Companies (NYSE: WMB) stacks up in four critical areas to determine whether it's a dividend dynamo or a disaster in the making. 1. YieldFirst and foremost, dividend investors like a large forward yield. But if a yield gets too high, it may reflect investors' doubts about the payout's sustainability. If investors had confidence in the stock, they'd be buying it, driving up the share price and shrinking the yield.... more

30 Dividend Earners That Hedge Funds Love

We love high dividend stocks and consider them as one of the best options for conservative investors. We don’t like the Fed’s inflationary monetary policy and the federal government’s huge budget deficits. We think high dividend-yielding stocks will perform much better than the 10-year treasuries over the next 10 years. One of the ways of picking the best dividend stocks is to invest in what prominent hedge funds like. We track more than 300 hedge funds that mostly use fundamental analysis to make investment decisions. We look for at least a 5% dividend yield and $5 Billion in market cap (dividend yields were sourced from Google Finance). Here are the 30 dividend monsters that we maintain hedge funds love the most: Company name Symbol Div yield (%) No of Funds ... more

9 Undervalued Dividend Stocks With Rising Payouts, Cash Flows

If you're looking for dividend stocks with rising cash flows, the following list might offer a good starting point. To compile this list, we started with a universe of divided stocks with the following characteristics: Declining payout ratios, with TTM payput ratio below 35% Rising dividend per share payouts Rising operating cash flows relative to revenues To narrow down the list, we focused on the most undervalued names by comparing the current price to analyst target price (used as a proxy for fair value). Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the top six stocks mentioned below. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research. Your browser does not support iframes. Analysts seem to think these dividend... more

6 Institutional Picks Raising Dividends on Improved Net Profit Margins

Increases in dividends are usually greeted favorably by the market, as long as the payout ratio remains sustainable (dividend per share/EPS under 35%). Dividend increases convey greater confidence from management in the company’s operations, and they directly increase value for shareholders. When dividend increases are coupled with improvements in profitability, the signal to the market is even more positive. Here we ran a screen with that idea in mind, searching those stocks that have seen significant net buying interest from institutional investors (i.e. the “smart money”) while increasing dividends on improved net profit margins. We also controlled for sustainable payout ratios below 35%. Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two... more

7 High-Yielding Stocks Worth Waiting For

Many income investors are always on the look out for promising dividend stocks. If an investor performs due diligence, he / she can locate a few gems to allocate investment funds to. In this article I discuss 7 interesting stocks with high yields worth diving into and taking a deeper look. Let's see what we can find!Cornerstone Progressive Return Fund (CFP) CFP has pluses and negatives to consider. The fund has announced plans to increase monthly distribution to 10.3-cents for July, August, and September distributions. The current annual yield is 17.48%. The dividend is a managed distribution and paid monthly. Examining the 1st quarter SEC N-Q filing, Cornerstone Progressive is clearly loaded with high-yield securities. CFP holdings include 91.44% in closed-end funds. These holdings... more

Sweet Dividend Contenders: Ranking the Sugared Foods Stocks

Food stocks should have a place in any dividend portfolio for obvious reasons. Consumers cannot go without eating, but different types of foods prosper in different economic environments.Over the last two months the price of sugar has risen quite significantly (as seen in the graph below, click to enlarge) and the volatility of the market has been extremely high. Generally, food stocks are relatively safe plays with generous dividends that may offer growth opportunities if purchased at the right time, and stability in times of disarray.I recently introduced a list of 12 Dividends Stocks You Must Own Regardless of Age and included on this list was both Coca-Cola (KO) and Kraft Foods (KFT). Each is quite susceptible to changes in the cost of sugar, but as described below, they are still the... more

AT&T: Dividend Dynamo or Blowup?

Let's examine how AT&T (NYSE: T) stacks up in four critical areas to determine whether it's a dividend dynamo or a disaster in the making. 1. YieldFirst and foremost, dividend investors like a large forward yield. But if a yield gets too high, it may reflect investors' doubts about the payout's sustainability. If investors had confidence in the stock, they'd be buying it, driving up the share price, and shrinking the yield.... more

The Strangest Special Dividend I've Ever Seen

I love to follow special situations in my Special Situations portfolio (hence the name). Special situations are often caused by transactions that create value where it didn't exist before. But the keys here are to be able to figure out how the transaction creates value and what the stock could be worth. Often the value created by such transactions is incalculable. And that's what we have with the recently announced special dividend from Sino Clean Energy (Nasdaq: SCEI) , a producer of coal-water slurry fuel in China.... more