Investing in High Dividend Healthcare Stocks

Healthcare is a fast-growing industry in the United States. In our previous article, we provided National Health Expenditures (NHE) projections for the next 10 and showed that NHE as a share of Gross Domestic Product is expected to be 19.6% by 2019. As healthcare spending and costs are rising, we believe healthcare stocks will continue to be in hedge funds’ portfolios in the future. Although healthcare stocks are promising, we believe investors should be cautious of the upcoming inflationary environment. Like Jim Rogers and Ray Dalio, we are concerned about the Fed’s inflationary monetary policy, and we think investors should pick defensive stocks with high dividend yields in order to protect themselves against inflation. Defensive investing may not provide the best returns in a... more

The Most Promising Dividends in Packaged Consumer Goods

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

15 Dividend Stocks Sending More Cash to Shareholders

Any income investor will tell you that it is important for a company to sustain its dividend. However, as an investor in dividend growth stocks, it is not enough to simply sustain the dividend – I want to own companies that are capable of sustained dividend growth. Needless to say, this is a little more difficult to accomplish, but well-worth the time to find companies that can deliver on this expectation. Below are several companies growing their dividend and sending more cash to their shareholders: UGI Corporation (UGI) is a distributor and marketer of energy products and services. April 28th the company increased its quarterly dividend 4% to $0.26/share. The dividend is payable July 1, 2011, to shareholders of record as of June 15, 2011. The yield based on the new payout is... more

5 Impressive Oil Stocks That Pay Dividends

In that regard, Canadian oil stocks look quite attractive when it comes to paying dividends. Let us have a look at five companies which look pretty impressive right now: 1. Penn West Energy (NYSE: PWE) : An E&P company operating in Western Canada, Penn West has net proved plus probable reserves of 565 million barrels of oil equivalent. The company started paying dividends in 2004, and due to accumulated earnings over the previous years, it has been paying dividends that exceeded its present-day earnings for the last five years. While this sounds fine, one must be aware that this trend will not continue forever. The trailing annual dividend yield is an impressive 5.1%. Anything above 2% is good, provided the company is not handicapping itself by paying out too much when it could have... more

Dividend Stock Picks for the Next 5 Years

While stocks might look risky in the short-term, they offer the highest yield in the long-run, says Prof. Jeremy Siegel, from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business. In his book Stocks for the Long-Run, Siegel suggests that the stocks offer more stable real returns than bonds in the long run, thanks to the mean reversion effect: Remarkable stability of long-term real returns is a characteristic of mean reversion, a property of a variable to offset its short-term fluctuations so as to produce far more stable long-term returns. Prof. Siegel is also a prominent investor who favors stocks paying substantial dividends. His research shows that the Dow-10 strategy, where one buys the top 10 dividend stocks in the Dow Jones 30 index, can beat the market with... more

15 Dividend Stocks Sending More Cash To Shareholders

Any income investor will tell you that it is important for a company to sustain its dividend. However, as an investor in dividend growth stocks, it is not enough to simply sustain the dividend - I want to own companies that are capable of sustained dividend growth. Needless to say, this is a little more difficult to accomplish, but well-worth the time to find companies that can deliver on this expectation. Below are several companies growing their dividend and sending more cash to their shareholders: UGI Corporation (UGI) is a distributor and marketer of energy products and services. April 28th the company increased its quarterly dividend 4% to $0.26/share. The dividend is payable July 1, 2011 to shareholders of record as of June 15, 2011. The yield based on the new payout is... more

5 Canadian Oil and Gas Companies That Currently Yield Over 4%

Many trustees believe commodities are presently a good US currency hedge and general investment, even though most have recently undergone considerable price increases. The reasons some believe commodities will increase in cash-value vary, including inflation pressure, supply shortages and growing global demand for most things. One popular commodity choice continues to be petroleum, primarily in oil form, but also natural gas. As many readers know, oil has appreciated a great deal in the past 1-2 years, while gas has not. Beyond commodities, individuals fearing inflationary devaluation to the U.S. dollar have also considered positions in currencies that are more strongly tied to natural resource prices. Examples of such currencies include Australian, Brazilian and Canadian currencies,... more

This Is One Cheap Life Insurance Company

Kansas City Life Insurance (Nasdaq: KCLI) is this surprisingly inexpensive company. The company, which sells life and annuity policies throughout the U.S., has paid out a fairly steady dividend over the course of the past 15 years and sports a current yield north of 3.5%. Why have you never heard of this company? Well, frankly, it's a small company -- $350 million market cap -- that trades an average of just 14,000 shares per day. Also, how many investors out there are actively seeking out insurance companies? Be honest now … not many of you.... more

5 Electric Utilities Paying Substantial Dividends

Electric utility companies are among the safest investments in stock markets, offering regular dividends. The thought of replacing high-priced gas with electrical power is gaining more popularity. If the consumer’s demand for electric vehicles gains momentum, the demand for electricity will also explode, turning these companies into profit machines. Here is a list of five large-cap electricity stocks offering excellent dividends and a maximum P/E ratio of 20. All of the large-cap companies that follow offered a minimum 5% dividend yield and have a minimum market capital of $12 billion. American Electric Power Co., Inc. (AEP): The Ohio-based AEP is in the business of generation, transmission and distribution of electric power. Credit Suisse suggested an outperform rating for AEP,... more

Rising Stars: Safe High Yielders

My real-money Rising Star portfolio uses a smart screening process to find great stocks. Today, we're going hunting for the most attractive high-yielding companies out there -- those with businesses strong enough to hopefully avoid a devastating dividend cut. Most people now recognize the power of dividend investing. Higher-yielding stocks tend to offer higher returns over time than low- or no-yield stocks, according to research from Jeremy Siegel and others. In fact, the 20 best-performing survivor stocks from the original S&P 500 in 1957 are all dividend payers.... more