Proctor & Gamble (PG) Declares $0.4818 Quarterly Dividend; 3.0% Yield

Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.4818, $1.9272 annualized. The dividend is payable on or after February 15, 2011 to Common Stock shareholders of record at the close of business on January 21, 2011. The ex-dividend date is January 19, 2011. The yield is 3.0%... more

Education Realty Trust (EDR) Declares $0.05 Quarterly Dividend; 2.7% Yield

Education Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: EDR) has approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share of common stock, $0.20 annualized. The dividend will be payable February 15, 2011, to shareholders of record as of January 31, 2011. The ex-dividend date is January 27, 2011. Yield on the dividend is 2.7%.... more

International Paper (IP) Increases Quarterly Dividend 50% to $0.1875; Yields 2.7%

International Paper (NYSE: IP) has declares a quarterly dividend of $0.1875 per common share, $0.75 annualized. The dividend is a 50% increase from the current rate of $0.125. The dividend is payable March 15, 2011 to shareholders of record on February 15, 2011. The ex-dividend date is February 11, 2011. Yield on the dividend is 2.7%.... more

6 Dividend Stocks the Bull Won't Leave Behind

Dividend stocks have attracted the attention of investors across the globe in recent years. But even though most investors have come to appreciate the substantial regular income that dividend stocks provide, one thing that most investors don't expect from dividend stocks is strong earnings growth. That led me to ask the obvious question: Do dividend investors really have to sacrifice any chance of scoring big capital gains -- or are there some stocks that let investors have their cake and eat it, too? Why dividends became more important than everBefore 2008, relatively few investors paid much attention to dividend stocks. With many dividend-paying stocks being seen as mature companies that were past their prime and didn't have any real growth left in them, looking to stocks to provide... more

Wal-Mart Has All the Makings of a Dividend King

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is the world’s largest retailer. WMT serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 8,613 retail units under 55 different banners in 15 countries, and employs 2 million people worldwide. EPS, Dividends, FCF... more

Tsakos Energy (TNP) Declares $0.15 Quarterly Dividend; 6% Yield

Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. (NYSE: TNP) today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share of common stock, $0.60 annualized. The dividend is payable on February 1, 2011 to shareholders of record on January 25, 2011. The stock will trade ex-dividend on January 21, 2011. Yield on the dividend is 6%.... more

CVS Caremark (CVS) Raises Qtr. Dividend by 43% to 12.5c/Share, Yielding 1.42%

CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) raises its quarterly dividend by 43% to 12.5c/share, payable on Feb. 2 to shareholders of record on Jan. 21. The ex-dividend date is Jan. 19. With CVS shares closing at $35.18 yesterday, the dividend yield moves from 0.99% to 1.42%.... more

MAXIMUS (MMS) Bumps Quarterly Cash Dividend by 25%

MAXIMUS (NYSE: MMS) has approved a 25% increase to the Company’s quarterly cash dividend. The $0.15 per share dividend is payable on February 28, 2011 to shareholders of record on February 15, 2011. MAXIMUS is a provider of government services worldwide and is devoted to providing health and human services program management and consulting services to its clients.... more

Telecoms' Dividend Yields

Those investors who are skeptical about dividends from the major telecoms AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) point to the declining wireline revenues as a factor putting the sales growth and dividend stream at risk. Clearly, telecoms don't have the utility-like stability of decades past, but we think fears are overstated. Telecoms today are not just about phones, wired or wireless, but also about data delivery in competition with cable companies for internet and TV services. We think that provides an important revenue replacement source for the declining wireline business.... more

11 High Yield Stocks to Consider Now

Approximately once per month I run a high-yield momentum screen and post the results. Last month's list is here. Returns for the last month were flat, returning -.02% including dividends (-.44% before dividends) versus 1.54% for SPY and -.04% for SPY, the S&P Dividend ETF. The top performing stock from last month's list was Verizon (VZ) returning 4.81% excluding its $.488 dividend. The strategy did relatively well in 2010 and is one I continue to track because of its promise. In recent months I have also done a variation of this strategy with the Dividend Champions list in which I only search stocks that have had a history of raising dividends for 25+ years. The screen looks for high yielding high momentum stocks. I screen the S&P 500 for stocks yielding greater than 4% and then rank... more