20 Assorted Growth, Value and Dividend Stocks for 2011

It is a great time of year! The Christmas music, decorations, family gatherings, holiday plays and stock picks. Stock picks? Yes, ’tis the season for stock predictions! Virtually every financial writer will pen an article selecting his or her top picks for the upcoming year. I enjoy reading them and the logic behind the picks. As a long-term buy and hold investor, generally most aren’t useful for me; nevertheless, I find them entertaining and sometimes there is a gem to be found.... more

The Future for Dividends in 2011

What does the future for stock market dividends look like through 2011? The two charts we're presenting today, showing what the dividend futures market is signaling is in store for 2011 (at least as of 17 December 2010), reveal that business is set to improve through much of the year.... more

Dividend Aristocrat List for 2011

The Dividend Aristocrats index includes members of the S&P 500 which have raised distributions for at least 25 years in a row. This is no small accomplishment, given the fact that this long period of time includes several recessions, oil price shocks and two wars in Iraq. The companies that could achieve this accomplishment have been able to generate rising dividends for at least 25 years, due to their strong competitive advantages and sound business models. Only a company with a competitive advantage could afford to raise dividends to shareholders for such a long period of time.Over the past few years, the S&P Dividend Aristocrats index has consistently beaten the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, it has delivered annualized total returns of 5.20%, which was over four percent higher than... more

10 Top Ranked Dividend Champions

I have written extensively on the US Dividend Champion list maintained and updated by DRIP Investing. The list is comprised of stocks which have increased their dividend payout for at least 25 consecutive years. My recent Dividend Champion articles have focused on one or two company metrics, such as payout ratio, yield, or past performance. However, for this article I created a simple quantitative system which combines multiple metrics to give an "overall" rank of the stocks within the US Dividend Champion December list. This ranking system combines Dividend Yield, Payout Ratio, Price to Earnings Growth (PEG), and price momentum. For those interested in creating a system of their own for free using Finviz and Excel, Open Office, or Google Docs please see a recent article providing step by... more

S&P 500: High Dividend Stocks

Matt Phillips at the Wall Street Journal’s MarketBeat blog has a good feature on stocks that have a long record of paying dividends. This list, from Standard & Poor’s, includes large company stocks as usual, but also includes small and mid-cap stocks. Here is an excerpt from the MarketBeat post [emphasis added]: So, here’s a fresh list of dividend payers to know. Compiled by Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard and Poor’s. The list includes 73 stocks from the broad S&P 1500, which includes midcaps and small caps as well as blue chips. These companies have paid increasing annual cash dividends for the past 10 years. The yield information was as of Friday Dec. 17.... more

7 Dividend Stocks Getting Slammed

Contrarian investors should utilize times like this to differentiate between stocks that are dropping for fundamentally sound reasons -- and those stocks that are simply being dragged down because of general market concerns. Sure, there's plenty to worry about -- gigantic federal deficits, sovereign debt problems in Europe, an economic slowdown in China. But let's not forget that in the midst of all of this volatility lies the prospect to grab some great companies at dirt cheap prices. In particular, I'm a huge fan of dividend stocks. Renowned professor Jeremy Siegel has illustrated that from 1957 to 2003, when reinvesting dividends, the S&P's 100 highest-yielding stocks outperformed the market by an average of 3 percentage points. Over a long period of time, 3 percentage points can... more

The Best Dividend Stocks You Can Buy

Investors want dividends these days. Maybe it's a fad, maybe it isn't. Either way, I think it's a good thing as long as it lasts. Dividends have historically treated investors very well because they:
Are a key component of total equity returns.
Are an indicator of a company's financial health.
Provide downside protection in the form of "yield support."
I could continue, but I'm going to assume you're already convinced of the importance of dividends. And in that case, what you're after is which dividend stocks you should be herding into your portfolio.... more

Persistent, Consistent Dividend Payers

Companies with persistent and consistent dividend payment streams are a small portion of the overall stock universe available in U.S. markets. Let's see just how large or small that group really is. First, how many companies have paid dividends year after year without interruption (not without reductions, but always at least something)?... more

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) Declares $0.01 Quarterly Dividend; 0.3% Yield

Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq: FITB) has declared a fourth quarter 2010 cash dividend on its common shares of $0.01 per share, $0.04 annualized. The cash dividend is payable on Thursday, January 20, 2011 to shareholders of record as of Friday, December 31, 2010. The ex-dividend date is December 29, 2010. Yield on the dividend is 0.3%.... more

Fulton Financial (FULT) Declares $0.03 Quarterly Dividend; 1.2% Yield

Fulton Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: FULT) will pay a quarterly cash dividendof $0.03 per common share, $0.12 annualized. The dividend is payable January 14, 2011 to shareholders of record as of January 3, 2011. The ex-dividend date is December 30, 2010. Yield on the dividend is 1.2%.... more