These Are The 20 Best Performing Dividend Stocks Of The Year 2015 - Can They Repeat Their Success in 2016?

When investing in dividend stocks, the primary goal isn't necessarily to make a boatload of money right away. 

Rather, most of us invest in dividend stocks for a stable, growing income stream that will build wealth over time. Still, dividend stocks do experience some big moves from time to time.

Today I like to give you an overview of the best performing dividend stocks of the year. The Dow Jones is negative year-to-date. It was a really hard year. Only seven stocks gained more than 100%. Around 40 companies had a performance over 50%.

You will see that high yields are not performance drivers.

Attached you can find the 20 best performing dividend paying stocks of the year. I've only selected those companies with a market cap over 300 million. The performance of the 20 top stocks starts at 60.19% and ends at 290.47%.

These were the best large cap dividend stock investments of the year 2015...

Stay Away From These 25 Stocks When The Fed Hikes Rates

Companies with variable/floating-rate debt are more immediately impacted (negatively) by a rate hike than companies with fixed rate debt.

It's easy to understand that a corporate with high debt and rising rates should lose earnings in the end. Attached you can find a list of companies that may lose values due to a soon rate hike.

I'm not a fan of highly leveraged companies. I know the hefty disadvantages from a debt burden but sometimes there could be some advantages appear. Just remember the tax benefits you should gain or return boosts due to a higher leverage.

Also interesting was the development from ABInbev. Those shares fall like a stone during the financial crisis in 2008/2009. After the freefall, when they found their bottom, they created massive values for investors with risk appetite.

It’s not always bad to invest into companies with a high leverage. You must consider each investment isolated.

Sometimes, when the underlying business is stable, you should find a real investment opportunity.

Attached is a small list of stocks that may offer a higher risk when the rates start to rise.

Here is the list...

12 Stocks That Are No Dividend Champs Due To Flat Payments But Great Dividend Investments

Dividends are nice, to be sure … particularly to long-term investors who specifically need reliable income.

But not all dividend stocks are created equally. To remain a viable long-term holding to income seekers, these cash-producing stocks also need to offer reliable dividend growth over time to fight off the effects of inflation.

What good is a stagnant dividend, after all — as the payout stays the same, its purchasing power slowly erodes. And it’s surprising how many dividend paying companies don’t up their payouts to even keep pace with inflation.

It's not a shame when a company runs his dividend flat for a few years but the strengh dividend growth criteria don't add them up into the Dividend Champions league.

Here is a list of stocks that can be classified the the non-consistent dividend growers. You can also check out the Dividend Aristocrats list from 1989 to 2014. There is a great overview about how the index has changed his members.

These are some of the results:

15 Top Yielding Stocks From The Buyback Achievers Portfolio

Best yielding stocks from the Dividend Buyback Achievers Portfolio originally published at long-term-investments.blogspot.com. I always talk about good dividends that grow over time but receiving big dividends from high quality stocks is only the half truth.

A Dividend payment is only one way to distribute earnings to shareholders. Another very effective way to pay money indirect is to buy own shares back.

Today I started a little screen about stocks that have repurchased at least around 5 percent of its own outstanding shares within the recent twelve months.

You can find a complete list of the top yielding stocks from the Dividend Buyback Achievers Portfolio attached. Only fifteen companies from the list have a current yield of more than 3 percent.

Ex-Dividend Stocks: Best Dividend Paying Shares On August 13, 2013

The best yielding and biggest ex-dividend stocks researched by ”long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Dividend Investors should have a quiet overview of stocks with upcoming ex dividend dates.

The ex dividend date is the final date on which the new stock buyer couldn’t receive the next dividend. If you like to receive the dividend, you need to buy the stock before the ex dividend date. I made a little screen of the best yielding stocks with a higher capitalization that have their ex date on the next trading day.

A full list of all stocks with payment dates can be found here: Ex-Dividend Stocks August 13, 2013. In total, 76 stocks go ex dividend - of which 29 yield more than 3 percent. The average yield amounts to 4.75%.

Here is the sheet of the best yielding, higher capitalized ex-dividend stocks:

Company	Ticker	Mcap	P/E	P/B	P/S	Yield
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company	RRD	3.49B	-	87.23	0.34	5.42%
Healthcare Realty Trust Inc.	HR	2.20B	-	1.87	6.68	4.87%
Duke Realty Corp.	DRE	5.17B	-	2.02	4.59	4.24%
Exelon Corporation	EXC	26.76B	23.16	1.27	1.07	3.97%
Shaw Communications	SJR	11.26B	15.38	2.99	2.27	3.95%
Vectren Corporation	VVC	2.96B	23.53	1.95	1.24	3.94%
American Campus Communities	ACC	3.89B	80.76	1.49	6.46	3.88%
ALLETE, Inc.	ALE	2.04B	19.06	1.63	2.03	3.68%
Eli Lilly & Co.	LLY	58.53B	12.15	3.84	2.55	3.62%
Cablevision Systems Corporation	CVC	5.11B	-	-	0.79	3.06%
E. I. du Pont de Nemours	DD	55.12B	23.52	4.22	1.56	3.01%
Helmerich & Payne Inc.	HP	7.23B	10.34	1.68	2.16	2.95%
Enbridge Inc.	ENB	34.71B	55.92	4.43	1.24	2.88%
Microsoft Corporation	MSFT	272.88B	12.63	3.46	3.51	2.81%
Southwest Gas Corporation	SWX	2.29B	17.28	1.66	1.22	2.66%
International Paper Co.	IP	21.54B	21.93	3.21	0.75	2.50%
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc.	CLF	3.73B	-	0.76	0.65	2.46%
LPL Investment Holdings Inc.	LPLA	4.19B	24.91	3.53	1.09	1.93%
IAC/InterActiveCorp.	IACI	4.21B	22.01	2.58	1.39	1.90%
Applied Industrial Technologies	AIT	2.17B	18.59	2.94	0.89	1.79%

Ex-Dividend Stocks: Best Dividend Paying Shares On May 22, 2013

The best yielding and biggest ex-dividend stocks researched by ”long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Dividend Investors should have a quiet overview of stocks with upcoming ex dividend dates.

The ex dividend date is the final date on which the new stock buyer couldn’t receive the next dividend. If you like to receive the dividend, you need to buy the stock before the ex dividend date. I made a little screen of the best yielding stocks with a higher capitalization that have their ex date on the next trading day.

A full list of all stocks with payment dates can be found here: Ex-Dividend Stocks May 22, 2013. In total, 27 stocks and preferred shares go ex dividend - of which 7 yield more than 3 percent. The average yield amounts to 3.38%.

Here is the sheet of the best yielding, higher capitalized ex-dividend stocks:

Company	Ticker	Mcap	P/E	P/B	P/S	Yield
Medley Capital Corporation	MCC	449.15M	10.79	1.23	6.99	9.20%
Cablevision Systems Corporation	CVC	4.09B	-	-	0.62	3.92%
HSBC Holdings plc	HBC	218.32B	15.88	1.25	3.85	3.41%
Exelis, Inc.	XLS	2.27B	7.51	2.16	0.43	3.39%
Carnival Corporation	CCL	27.39B	18.69	1.16	1.78	2.83%
Guangshen Railway Co. Ltd.	GSH	3.46B	16.50	0.81	1.38	2.83%
Questar Corporation	STR	4.53B	21.72	4.19	3.94	2.79%
Carnival plc	CUK	28.60B	19.51	1.21	1.86	2.71%
The Scotts Miracle-Gro	SMG	3.00B	34.28	4.95	1.12	2.67%
American Water Works Company	AWK	7.59B	19.87	1.68	2.62	2.62%
W&T Offshore Inc.	WTI	1.15B	15.41	2.12	1.28	2.36%
Nu Skin Enterprises Inc.	NUS	3.67B	17.07	5.95	1.62	1.91%
Hershey Co.	HSY	19.87B	28.74	17.87	2.95	1.89%
Robert Half International Inc.	RHI	4.96B	22.81	5.72	1.21	1.80%
Marriott International, Inc.	MAR	13.32B	23.57	-	1.07	1.57%
Heartland Financial USA Inc.	HTLF	465.47M	9.97	1.13	2.47	1.45%
National Interstate Corporation	NATL	596.92M	18.23	1.64	1.15	1.45%
Equifax Inc.	EFX	7.51B	27.08	3.72	3.41	1.41%
Core-Mark Holding Company	CORE	662.51M	20.46	1.66	0.07	1.32%
ITT Corporation	ITT	2.76B	24.15	4.22	1.22	1.30%