Income investors rely on dividend stocks to provide both the cash they need for their immediate needs as well as the potential for future capital appreciation that they crave.
But just because a company is successful doesn't mean that it will choose to share its bounty with its shareholders through dividends.
It takes a commitment from company management to build a meaningful dividend policy, and many stocks have adopted dividends that return billions of dollars to their investors.
Below, you'll find the five dividend stocks that have paid the most to shareholders over the past 12 months.
These are the results...
That means receiving a reliable stack of dividend checks no matter what else is going on. Investors can learn more about how to live off dividends in retirement here.
To help you in this process, here are 10 quality, recession-beating stocks that have delivered very reliable dividend income for many years.
Each of these stocks weathered the financial crisis well and yields more than 2%.
A handful of these companies is held in our Conservative Retirees dividend portfolio for this reason. Here are the stocks you should consider for your retirement portfolio...
Today, the S&P 500 has an aggregate dividend yield of 2.08%, a pretty paltry yield from a historical standpoint.
For investors who want income today or are hoping to use reinvested dividends as a wealth generator over multiple decades, then such a modest yield isn't going to get it done.
Luckily, there are quite a few dividend stocks, with dividend yields more than double the S&P 500, that currently look like solid dividend investments.
Attached you will find 6 of the cheapest Dividend Achievers (stocks with over 10 years of consecutive dividend growth). Each of the stocks has a forward P/E under 15 as well as a dividend yield above 4%.
Here are the results.....
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is a titan of the household products industry. The company is nearly 200 years old, worth more than $200 billion, and owns well-known brand names such as Tide, Gillette, and Pampers.
But the company has struggled recently. It's sold off secondary brands like Duracell, Cover Girl, and Zest to cut costs and focus on its core brands.
Moreover, the company's once-strong pipeline of innovation has yielded little success, and spending on R&D as a percentage of sales is lower than it's been in almost any point in the last 20 years.
The Crest-maker's sales have fallen as it has shed brands, struggled to grow domestic sales, and faced a strengthening dollar. The stock is up 12% this year, but the long term looks challenging.
Here are 20 similar stocks with better prospects than P&G.
If income is your investment objective, the deck is stacked against you, as interest rates remain velcroed to record lows. But there are attractive dividend stocks out there, provided you can commit for the long run.
The Dividend Growth stocks from 5 to 50 years of consecutive dividend growth are the most popular stocks within the long-term income asset class.
I often write about stocks with a longer investment period and one basic approach is to look at the past performance of a business in order to develop future prospects of the firm.
I believe that a good past performance tells us something about the quality of the business, the market barriers, brands and consumer loyalty. It also tells us something about volume products and the art of business, the magic formula about selling a product.
Today I like to introduce some of the highest yielding stocks with cheap price mutiples from the Dividend Challengers list. Each of the stocks has increased dividends by more than 5 years in a row.
These are the best dogs from the Dividend Challengers list...
