The Best Of The Best Dividend Aristocrats List - January 2016

The ultimate goal of course is a continually increasing flow of income that might "fill the gap" during retirement.

I order to close that gap, a few investors look for safe stocks. One item to get security is to buy value stocks, receive income or look for growth.

It's a very complex process to find the perfect stock. Some investors make it easier by selecting stocks from popular income and dividend growth indices like the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index. 

Those members changed significantly over the past 100 years. What sense makes it to buy a constituent for after you bought it, the company cut its dividends or run them flat?

Only seven stocks of the 1989 Dividend Aristocrats list are origin.

Here are the true value stocks from the Dividend Aristocrats list...

13 Dividend Growth Stocks With A Strong Buy Rating

Companies that have raised their dividend payments for at least 10 consecutive years are known as dividend achievers. It's an exclusive club containing just 335 companies.

It's always hard to find the good stocks from the bad performer. I personal approach is based on fundamentals. If a stock looks cheap, it offers values, than it might be buy. But sometimes they are cheap for a simple reason. They have longer enduring operational problems or face a hard headwind for the future.

It could also make sense to look what analysts recommend or discover the trade statistics of big guru's like Warren Buffett or George Soros.

Today I like to focus on the highest recommended stocks from the dividend achievers list. Those stocks are highlights and were rewarded by analysts with the highest buy recommendation, a strong buy.

Only 13 of 335 companies received such a high rating. Attached you can find a full list of the results.

These are the results....

19 Nearly Debt-Free Dividend Achievers To Consider When Interest Rates Rise

Recently I began looking for dividend paying companies that carried no debt (or very little) on their books.

Not every company that I found would fit into my portfolio but several have found a place on my watch list and could prove to be quality investments over a long time period.

A company may have no debt for many reasons, not all are a positive for an investor. From an investor's stand point right away we see the benefit of a company having no debt because if you choose to invest in that company you are not incurring any share of their debt.

By remaining skeptical and cautious we must ask ourselves how they came to have no debt. It could be that their products sell so well they generate enough revenue to cover all their expenses.

On the other end of the spectrum it could be that the company is doing so poorly that nobody is willing to lend them money.

In no way am I saying that debt is bad for a company, or even an individual. Debt can be a tax advantage for many corporations as the interest payments provide a great tax break.

Companies often also utilize debt to finance their operations rather than their equity. If companies continue to sell additional shares to finance their operations it can destroy shareholder value, especially when that money raised does not go toward improving revenue and growth.

On a broader view, companies with no debt and high amounts of cash are better positioned for higher interest rates. If interest payments go up, the company gets more money from its bank and don't need to pay higher loan rates.

Attached you will find the best dividend growth stocks that are nearly debt-free in relation to its equity. The ratio I've discovered was the debt-to-equity ratio. Each of the stocks I've researched has a very low ratio of less than 0.1.

At the end of this article, you can find the full list with more fundamentals of all 19 results. Below are the 5 best yielding stocks in detail.

Here are the results...

13 Dividend Stocks With The Highest Profitable Earnings Growth For The Future

Stocks of companies that initiate dividends tend to fare well. Shares of dividend payers raise an average of 15% in the 12 months following the announcement of the initial disbursement. 

Growing companies have better things to do with their money than dole it out as dividends. Reinvesting in the business is usually a better idea, especially if a firm is racking up high returns on invested capital (a measure of profitability). 

But a corporate that doesn’t pay money to shareholders is nothing worth. Only the stock market could reward the rising business structure with hopes to get all of the invested money back.

I'm a big fan of dividends and share buybacks. Better is the cash source of the company. If it generates tons of cash and don't need to put most of the money back into the company, it's one of the best investments if they have a stable business with big competitive advances.

Growth combined with value and predictable business models is one of my key premises when I put money into stocks.

Today I like to highlight those dividend paying stocks with the highest growth expectations for the next five years. Especially cyclic stocks have enormous EPS growth rates when they come out of their business cycle.

I like to exclude those companies by implementing a positive sales growth rule of the past years. In addition, the company should not have unsustainable high debt and a double digit Return on Investment ratio. Only a profitable growth makes sense over the long-term.

13 companies fulfilled these criteria of which four yield over 3 percent. Attached you can find the full list of the results with some fundamentals. I hope you find new inpirations and get a broader view on the market. If you like my articles, you can easily subscribe my free newsletter via RSS.

Here are the top yielding results...

12 Value Stocks With Dividend Yields Over 3% To Consider Now!

There are plenty of stocks yielding 3% or more outside of traditional yield sectors like telecoms and utilities. Investors generally have to venture into out-of-favor industries like autos, retailing, and manufacturing to get those dividends.

Attached you can find a selection of interesting value stocks that caught my attention within recent weeks due to falling stock prices. 

Some of the results lost half of their market value in 2015. Valuations of the stocks look normal to cheap right now but if it is cheap for a reason, each investor must create his own opinion.

Which sectors or stocks are on your watchlist? Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment. Thank you.

Here are the results...