Simply investing in dividend-paying stocks, however, hardly limits the investable universe or indicates a realistic strategy.
More than two-thirds of the stocks in the S&P 500 pay dividends, including the majority of the larger companies in the benchmark.
Globally, there are thousands of dividend-paying stocks. There are a number of strategies that further refine the idea of dividend investing, focusing only on dividend payers that meet certain yield, consistency, or balance sheet criteria.
The good thing for us normal investors is that we can easily discover some the most popular indices with focus on long term dividend growth in order to select high-quality dividend stocks.
Today I like to show you some of the 20 highest yielding stocks from the NASDAQ and NYSE Dividend Achievers Index. The strategy is ideal for high-income investors who don't want to invest into junk.
The NASDAQ US Dividend Achievers Select Index includes dividend-paying stocks that meet the following requirements:
- Be incorporated in the United States.
- Trade on the NYSE or NASDAQ.
- Have increased its annual dividend for the last ten or more consecutive years.
- Meet volume requirements.
- The NASDAQ OMX maintains the NASDAQ US Dividend Achievers Select Index.
These are 20 highest yielding, selected Dividend Achievers, sorted by Dividend Yield...
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| 20 Highest Yielding NASDAQ NYSE US Dividend Achievers (click to enlarge) |