How to Find High-Paying Dividend Stocks
Cash dividends are cash distributions to shareholders from a company's after-tax profits. A high-paying dividend stock usually has a yield higher than the current short-term Treasury yields. The dividend yield of a stock is equal to the trailing 12-month cash dividend payments divided by the current share price. Dividend-paying stocks are often less volatile than other stocks and they offer steady income. You can find information on dividend-paying stocks online and in the business section of major newspapers.
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Find listings of high-paying dividend stocks online. "The Wall Street Journal" Market Data Center and the Yahoo! Finance Stock Screener are two free online resources for finding dividend-paying stocks (see Resources). The Market Data Center website is a list of high-yielding stocks grouped by industry. The Stock Screener website is a useful research tool for screening stocks on one or more criteria, including a dividend yield range.
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Look for information on dividend-paying stocks in the business section of major newspapers. Some media companies provide this information free of charge on their websites, while others require subscription or registration. Shortly after a company's board approves a dividend payment, the public relations or investor relations department issues a press release announcing the payment date and the record date. Investors receive the cash payment on the payment date. If they do not own the stock, they must buy it no later than two business days before the record date.
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Review prior dividend payment dates and amounts on corporate websites. Companies often announce their quarterly earnings and dividend distribution information in the same press release. The investor relations websites of public companies usually include a schedule of upcoming earnings release dates, current stock price, dividend yield and other financial information. Invest in stocks that have a long history of steadily increasing dividend payments.
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