The Top 25 High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats

When searching for great dividend stocks, it makes a lot of sense to start with companies that have been playing the dividend game the longest. Standard & Poor's has culled the dividend winners from the also-rans in a list it calls the "Dividend Aristocrats." But Standard & Poor's has also created another similar index that it calls the High Yield Dividend Aristocrats. According to Standard & Poor's, "The S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats index is designed to measure the performance of the 60 highest dividend yielding S&P Composite 1500 constituents which have followed a managed dividends policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 25 years."... more

2 Pharmaceutical Dividends to Buy and 1 to Avoid

The secret to spotting true values in this sector lies in finding companies that have diversified drug portfolios and a history of dividend increases. Although seeking out pharmaceutical companies that meet these criteria doesn't guarantee success, the handsome dividends that these companies provide should give you above average returns. Here are two pharmaceutical dividends you can trust and one you might be better off avoiding. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) : Trust itAlthough Johnson & Johnson is more of a medical conglomerate -- manufacturing medical devices and diagnostic services as well drugs -- it would be truly foolish to not include arguably the strongest dividend in existence. The last time Johnson & Johnson's quarterly dividend fell was 1976, and in the 35 years since then,... more

Dividend Stocks Increasing Retirement Incomes For Investors

Investors who plan to live off dividends in retirement should follow several guidelines that would ensure they could do so. First, they should select companies which have raised distributions each year, in order to ensure that they will generate a sufficient income stream that rises over time, which protect purchasing power of their dollars. Second, they should invest only in companies which meet certain quantitative or qualitative criteria, such as the ones described in this article. Last but not least, investors should be properly diversified in order to minimize exposure in the event of dividend cuts, company failures etc. Carefully selected companies raising dividends could ensure a rising income stream in retirement, which maintains and even increases its purchasing power over... more

4 Dividend Stocks Showing You the Money

Some of the market's better performers are easing up on their purse strings, sending more money out to their shareholders. Readers of the Income Investor newsletter can certainly appreciate that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at four of the companies that inched their payouts higher this past week.... more

Dividend Sector Review: Oil & Gas

Not just any dividend-paying stocks will do, however, and it's important to take a holistic approach to evaluating these opportunities. That's one reason that I created the Dividend Report Card last year, which looks at metrics like dividend history, payout ratios, and interest coverage to determine the sustainability and growth potential of a company's dividend. Today, I'd like to take a bird's-eye view of dividend health at the sector level and take a gander at oil and gas companies.... more

Understanding Compounding: Berkshire's Not-So-Hidden Dividend Contrarian Secret

Alice Schroeder’s biography of Warren Buffett, The Snowball, takes its title from a quote of his, “Life is like a snowball: the trick is finding wet snow and a long hill.” Warren Buffett has long been lauded as the best investor of our day. And Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) has been envied for its superior long-term performance. Many reasons have been given for this record. One that has received perhaps less attention is the efficiency with which Berkshire has been able to compound. To try to understand better how compounding manifests itself in investing, let’s start with a simple model: You have an account which holds a single position of $10,000 all of it in a bond bought at par paying 10% and maturing in 20 years. The first question is, what is the return... more

16 High Dividend Yield, Low Beta Stocks With Minimal Corporate Governance Risk

If you are looking to increase your portfolio’s income while managing your risk, then this may be an interesting starting point for your analysis: To compile this list we looked for stocks with a dividend yield greater than 2%, beta below 1, and with low Governance Risk Indicators, according to the ratings developed by the RiskMetrics group. RiskMetrics introduced the Governance Risk Indicator in 2010 and it evaluates the following governance areas: Audit Board Structure Shareholder Rights Compensation All the companies in this list have low risk levels in each of these areas when comparing with the standard market practices.click for expanded image We also created a price weighted index of the stocks mentioned below, and monitored the performance of the list relative to the S&P 500... more

10 Dividend Champions With Significant Free Cash Flow

If you are looking for sources of dividend income, be sure to check a company's free cash flow to gauge whether they can continue to fund their dividend payment. Below we present a list of 10 dividend champions (i.e. companies that have consistently raised their dividend over the past 25 years). These companies also appear to be undervalued, and have high levered free cash flow relative to market cap (Levered free cash flow is the free cash flow from operations after paying back interest on debt and making necessary principal repayments for the year)We last wrote about this screen on April 14, 2011. On that day, the screen produced a list of 8 companies. Since then, 5 out of 8 companies mentioned in that article have outperformed the S&P 500 index (a success rate of 62.5%). The screen... more

4 Great Companies With Reliably High Dividends

With interest rates near zero percent, buying bonds is not the best way for income investors to preserve or even enhance capital. Sure you may be guaranteed a payment, but inflation may erode the real value of that payment or when interest rates rise, the bond's price could crash. An alternative to locking capital in a bond is to buy quality high dividend yielding stocks. Good dividend stocks pay a consistent yield that can grow with their success. They also have the potential for capital gains with the growth of the company, the economy as a whole, or as a hedge against inflation. Finally, stocks have much more liquidity than bonds and losses can be limited by stop loss orders or protective puts. Before just buying the stock with the highest listed dividend yield, investors need to be... more

Do Amazing Technology and Enormous Dividends Make Intel a Buy?

Not so fast! But then you'd be making a terrible mistake. All four of those criticisms are turned on their head by an announcement from Intel last week: The next chip-making process will not only be smaller as always, but it's also done in 3D. Put away the red and blue glasses -- this third dimension will be felt more than seen. Here's what it does to the bullet list above:... more