33 Safe High-Yield S&P 500 Stocks

Dividend-paying stocks that have gotten left behind in the rally now feature higher dividend yields, which may be attractive to investors. 

But buyer beware: Many yields are high because some investors fear the stocks. But if you do extra research on specific companies and reach a certain comfort level, you may be looking at some bargains. 

Long-time income investors are constantly facing the problem of how to replace income lost when older and higher-yielding bonds and callable preferred stocks are redeemed. And more than eight years into the bull market, while interest rates are still historically low, the problem keeps getting worse. 

We have featured the S&P High-Yield Dividend Aristocrats, which are companies included in the S&P 1500 Composite Index that have raised dividends for at least 20 consecutive years. 

But many have yields that aren’t attractive. 

We also put together a list of dividend stocks culled with rather stringent criteria for free cash flow and sales growth. This time around, we are taking a far less stringent approach. 

A total of 33 companies among the S&P 1500 met these criteria:

• Dividend yields of at least 5%. 
• No cuts of regular dividends over the past five years
• A free cash flow yield, for the past 12 months, exceeding the current dividend yield.

These are the results...

My 6 Favorite Dividend Growth And Share Buyback Stocks Of The Week

I've traveled last week which was one of the reasons why I haven’t made a clear post on this blog during the past week. I hope you are not worried about this.

Today I've compiled the latest dividend growth stocks and share buyback announcements. Twelve companies have released a share buyback program but only Lockheed Martin was the company with significant influence.

The military provider to the U.S. Government plans to buy additional $2 billion in own shares in the future. That's good news for shareholders and those will also receive more money by dividends. Lockheed also boosted its dividend payments by 12.78 percent. The new yield will hit the 3.3 percent level.

On the dividend growth side, only 14 companies or funds/trusts announced to pay higher dividends. The biggest company was Lockheed Martin followed by the electric utility stock OGE Energy.

In my view there were no interesting companies on the attached list. For sure you need a second check but for my own asset allocation, which excluded highly cyclical stocks and financials/banks/trusts etc...The research effort was very small for me.

What do you think from the latest dividend grower and share repurchaser? Do you like them or do you own one of them? Please let me known by leaving a little comment on this blog. Thank you for reading my blog.

My favorite Dividend Grower and Share Repurchaser 
of the recent week are...

Insiders Are Crazy About These High-Yield Stocks

By Guest Author Insider Monkey. According to economic theory, company insiders should avoid buying stock and in fact should generally tend towards selling shares (and diversifying their wealth) unless they are confident in the company’s prospects. Insider purchases should therefore signal this confidence, and in fact studies generally show a small outperformance effect for stocks bought by insiders (read our analysis of studies on insider trading). We track insider purchases and like to take a brief look at those where the purchase is large enough to be significant to see if the company might be a good buy.

Read on for our quick take on five high yield stocks which at least one insider has bought recently:

AT&T

An AT&T [T] Board member’s trust bought 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in late July. At current prices and dividend levels, AT&T pays an annual yield of 5%; in addition, the telecom giant is quite defensive with a beta of only 0.2. The company’s financials are stable as well, with growth in wireless being canceled out by a decline in the wireline segment resulting in total revenue and earnings only changing by 1-2% compared to a year ago.

We also track hedge fund activity, including through quarterly 13F filings; our research shows that the most popular small cap stocks among hedge funds outperform the S&P 500 by an average of 18 percentage points per year (learn more about our small cap strategy), and our own small cap portfolio based on hedge funds’ top picks has seen an excess return of 33% in the last 11 months. According to our database, Phil Gross and Robert Atchinson owned nearly 7 million shares of AT&T at the end of March.

Freeport-McMoRan

Another large company where an insider has been indirectly buying is commodities producer Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold [FCX]. With the stock down 13% in the last year against a market which has returned over 20%, the current dividend yield is now 4.3%. One contributing factor to the stock’s decline has been market disapproval over the company’s recent acquisition of two oil and gas companies; in addition to normal integration risk, it’s possible that this diversification could weaken management’s focus. Paulson & Co., managed by billionaire John Paulson, reported a position of 9 million shares at the end of Q1. George Soros, Ray Dalio, and Leon Cooperman were also bullish about the stock.

Philip Morris

One of the members of Philip Morris [PM]’s Board of Directors bought 1,000 shares of stock on July 23rd at prices around $89 per share. The $150 billion market cap global cigarette company offers a 3.8% dividend yield- lower than many other cigarette companies, on the theory that there are still a good deal of growth opportunities in international markets. With growth being weak in many countries around the world, Philip Morris’s revenue and earnings decreased modestly last quarter compared to the second quarter of 2012. Billionaire Ken Griffin is among PM shareholders.

Digital Realty Trust

An insider, as well as his children, recently bought shares of technology use-focused real estate investment trust Digital Realty Trust [DLR]. Because REITs receive favorable tax treatment as long as they distribute a large share of taxable income to shareholders, they often pay high dividend yields. Digital Realty Trust’s annual yield is 5.7%, and unlike many REITs it has been consistently increasing its dividend for years even through the financial crisis. We’d note that the stock is down 21% year to date following a steep drop in July, but investors who are not already too exposed to REITs may want to consider it.

Hersha Hospitality Trust

Another real estate investment trust which we’ve recorded an insider buying recently is Hersha Hospitality Trust [HT]. Hersha, an owner of hotel properties, did not perform well during the financial crisis and recession and so its dividend still has not recovered to its levels from the middle of 2008. The yield is still somewhat high, at 4.3%, but given the other opportunities available in REITs it might not be worth the risk. Ken Heebner’s Capital Growth Management initiated a position of 6.3 million shares in Hersha between January and March.

Disclosure By Author: none

Ex-Dividend Stocks: Best Dividend Paying Shares On March 27, 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 March 27, 2013. In total, 28 stocks and preferred shares go ex dividend - of which 10 yield more than 3 percent. The average yield amounts to 4.51%.

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

Company	Ticker	Mcap	P/E	P/B	P/S	Yield
Dynex Capital Inc.	DX	591.76M	8.08	0.96	5.21	10.63%
Spirit Realty Capital, Inc	SRC	1.63B	-	1.30	5.75	6.52%
Realty Income Corp.	O	8.57B	58.17	2.45	18.03	4.91%
Liberty Property Trust	LRY	4.75B	37.82	2.25	6.93	4.78%
Hersha Hospitality Trust	HT	1.16B	-	1.40	3.23	4.12%
CBL & Associates Properties	CBL	3.81B	35.22	2.87	3.68	3.90%
Prudential plc	PUK	41.98B	12.48	2.68	0.50	3.81%
Maiden Holdings, Ltd.	MHLD	770.55M	16.89	0.76	0.41	3.38%
BankUnited, Inc.	BKU	2.66B	12.62	1.36	3.69	3.25%
Republic Services, Inc.	RSG	11.84B	21.06	1.53	1.46	2.88%
CubeSmart	CUBE	2.11B	-	2.10	7.45	2.79%
Cardinal Health, Inc.	CAH	14.33B	12.74	2.19	0.14	2.62%
Pebblebrook Hotel Trust	PEB	1.55B	210.00	1.17	4.07	2.54%
Dell Inc.	DELL	25.35B	10.75	2.36	0.45	2.21%
ProAssurance Corporation	PRA	2.87B	10.48	1.27	4.02	2.14%
International Bancshares	IBOC	1.39B	14.85	0.97	3.69	1.94%
State Street Corp.	STT	27.10B	14.19	1.30	8.99	1.75%
Mondelez International, Inc.	MDLZ	53.14B	34.74	1.65	1.52	1.74%
AmTrust Financial Services, Inc.	AFSI	2.34B	12.70	2.05	1.25	1.61%
HCC Insurance Holdings Inc.	HCC	4.18B	10.85	1.18	1.65	1.59%