Kaiser Aluminum (KALU) Declares $0.24 Quarterly Dividend; 2% Yield

Kaiser Aluminum Corporation (Nasdaq: KALU) today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend payment of $0.24 per common share, $0.96 annualized. The dividend will be payable on February 15, 2011 to shareholders of record at the close of business on January 24, 2011. The ex-dividend date is January 20, 2011. Yield on the dividend is 2%.... more

JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Sees Dividend Increase on the Horizon; 35% Payout Ratio

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said Tuesday in an interview with CNBC that the firm is ready to boost its dividend in the second quarter. The firm's top executive added in a speech at a health-care conference in San Francisco that JPMorgan hopes to see a payout ratio of 35 percent of normalized earnings on the dividend. Shares of JPMorgan are up 1.31 percent to $44.17 in premarket trade on Wednesday.... more

Cliffs Natural (CLF) Declares $0.14 Quarterly Dividend; 0.7% Yield

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) today announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on the Company's common shares of $0.14 per share, $0.56 annualized. The cash dividend will be payable on March 1, 2011, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 15, 2011. The ex-dividend date is February 11, 2011. Yield on the dividend is 0.7%.... more

Building an Optimal Dividend Portfolio: Keep It Simple

A popular acronym that traders like to throw around a lot is KISS. Translation: Keep it simple, stupid. Truer words have never been spoken. I certainly don't want to imply anyone reading this lacks intelligence, but it pays to remember the KISS principle can be applied to investing or holding periods that are longer than the typical intraday or swing trade. In fact, even conservative, income-minded investors can apply the virtues of KISS to successfully build a winning dividend portfolio. Keeping things simple is especially valuable advice when it comes to dividend investing. Knowing that dividends, particularly when reinvested, account for a substantial chunk of a portfolio's return over time is a starting, but smart investors will not and should not stop there. Consider knowing that... more

Six Stocks That Pay Monthly Dividends

Income investors love the benefits of stocks that pay their dividends monthly, whether they are retired, looking for income or active investors parking their profits. According to the Excel list that was just updated by WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are almost 300 different securities that pay monthly, most with very high yields. Technically, these stocks are real estate investment trusts, oil income trusts, closed end bond funds, and closed end income stock funds, which pay dividends every month. The advantages to having monthly dividends versus quarterly or annual dividend stocks are that the invested capital is returned faster, compounding takes place quicker, and there is usually less stock price volatility. Additionally, many monthly dividend investments pay tax free income. Here... more

The Most Promising Dividends in Business Software and Services

Dividend payers deserve a berth in any long-term stock portfolio. But seemingly attractive dividend yields are not always as fetching as they may appear. Let's see which companies in the business software and services industry offer the most promising dividends. 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.... more

The 10 Highest-Yielding Buffett Stocks

Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK-B) Warren Buffett is widely regarded as the greatest investor of our time. But most people don't realize that dividend investing makes up a large part of his investments. Some of his most sizable holdings pay big yields, which gives the Oracle of Omaha cash to invest in good times and in bad. Owning dividend companies is a hallmark of Buffett's. They fall straight in line with his strategy of owning fundamentally strong companies whose business models provide inherent advantages against competitors -- otherwise known as "moats." Such companies can consistently reinvest cash flow at high rates of return (as revealed through strong returns on equity) and pay out excess cash flow to shareholders as dividends. Only fundamentally robust and well-managed... more

The Next 3 Dividend Dynamos

Pop quiz: Which major event helped some investors to quadruple their returns over the 25 years from 1929 to 1954? Ding ding ding! You guessed it: the Great Depression. Wait, huh?Data from renowned dividend scholar Jeremy Siegel shows that although it took 25 years for the S&P 500 to return to its 1929 levels, those who reinvested their dividends earned a total return of 334%. How did that happen?... more

UniFirst Corp. (UNF) Declares $0.0375 Quarterly Dividend; 0.3% Yield

UniFirst Corporation (NYSE: UNF) today declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.0375 per common share, $0.15 annualized. The dividend is payable on April 1, 2011, to shareholders of record on March 11, 2011. The ex-dividend date is March 9, 2011. Yield on the dividend is 0.3%.... more

Investing for Income in 2011 with Stocks and Options – Part 3: High-Yield Stocks

Click here for Part 1 and Part 2. A discussion about investing for income would be incomplete without looking at stocks with high dividend yields. To screen for good candidates, the following criteria were used:* Current dividend yield over 4%. * Growth rate of dividends over 3% in the last five years.... more