How do you pick a good dividend stock?
Look at dividend growth
Generally speaking, you want to find companies that not only pay steady dividends but also increase them at regular intervals—say, once per year over the past three, five, or even 10 years.
The average dividend yield on S&P 500 index companies that pay a dividend historically fluctuates somewhere between 2% and 5%, depending on market conditions. 7 In general, it pays to do your homework on stocks yielding more than 8% to find out what is truly going on with the company.
The dividend payout amount is typically determined through forecasting long-term earnings and calculating a percentage of earnings to be paid out. Under the stable policy, companies may create a target payout ratio, which is a percentage of earnings that is to be paid to shareholders in the long-term.
Now, there's no fixed amount of money you need to invest for dividends. It all depends on the yield of your investments, so understanding “yield” is pretty essential to understanding dividend investing.
You Can Build a Dividend Portfolio for Regular Income
Hold between 20 and 60 stocks to reduce company-specific risk. Roughly equal-weight each position. Invest no more than 25% of your portfolio in any one sector. Target companies with Safe or Very Safe Dividend Safety Scores™
The dividend yield measures how much income has been received relative to the share price; a higher yield is more attractive, while a lower yield can make a stock seem less competitive relative to its industry.
Stock | Forward dividend yield |
---|---|
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) | 3.5% |
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) | 3% |
Procter & Gamble Co. (PG) | 2.3% |
Home Depot Inc. (HD) | 2.4% |
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Ares Capital (NASDAQ: ARCC), and Realty Income (NYSE: O) are dividend-paying stocks that offer above-average yields. They stand out because there's also a good chance they can continue raising their payouts for many years to come.
AAPL pays a dividend of $0.24 per share. AAPL's annual dividend yield is 0.57%. When is Apple ex-dividend date? Apple's previous ex-dividend date was on Feb 09, 2024.
- Cash dividends. These are the most common types of dividends and are paid out by transferring a cash amount to the shareholders. ...
- Stock dividends. ...
- Scrip dividends. ...
- Property dividends. ...
- Liquidating dividends.
What are the 3 important dates for dividends?
When it comes to investing for dividends, there are three key dates that everyone should memorize. The three dates are the date of declaration, date of record, and date of payment.
There are a couple of reasons that make dividend-paying stocks particularly useful. First, the income they provide can help investors meet liquidity needs. And second, dividend-focused investing has historically demonstrated the ability to help to lower volatility and buffer losses during market drawdowns.
One downside to investing in stocks for the dividend is an eventual cap on returns. The dividend stock may pay out a sizable rate of return, but even the highest yielding stocks with any sort of stability don't pay out more than ~10% annually in today's low interest rate environment, except in rare circ*mstances.
At the most basic level, you only need to own a stock by the ex-dividend date (or deadline) in order to get the dividend. And you can sell the stock a day or two after that, once everything settles. So in theory, you only need to own the stock for a couple of days to get the dividend.
Over time, the cash flow generated by those dividend payments can supplement your Social Security and pension income. Perhaps, it can even provide all the money you need to maintain your preretirement lifestyle. It is possible to live off dividends if you do a little planning.
- Diversify your holdings of good stocks. ...
- Diversify your weighting to include five to seven industries. ...
- Choose financial stability over growth. ...
- Find companies with modest payout ratios. ...
- Find companies with a long history of raising their dividends. ...
- Reinvest the dividends.
In addition to Visa, Warren Buffett also enjoys dividends from Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX), Coca-Cola Co (NYSE:KO) and American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). In its October 2023 investor letter, Lakehouse Capital stated the following regarding Visa Inc. (NYSE:V):
How Much Money You Need to Retire on Dividends. As a rough rule of thumb, you can multiply the annual dividend income you wish to generate by 22 and by 28 to establish a reasonable range for how much you need to invest to live off dividends.
Stock | Dividend yield |
---|---|
Northwest Natural Holding Co. (NWN) | 5.4% |
Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL) | 3.4% |
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) | 6.7% |
Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. (MAA) | 4.5% |
Main Street Capital (MAIN). Prospect Capital (PSEC). Paramount Resources (POU.TO).
Are dividends free money?
Dividends feel like “free money,” but they're not
If you want to buy tickets for a concert that add up to $500, the tickets will still cost you $500 of your portfolio whether you choose to make the purchase using dividends or by selling a few shares and using capital gains.
- Verizon Communications VZ.
- Philip Morris International PM.
- PepsiCo PEP.
- Altria Group MO.
- Bristol-Myers Squibb BMY.
- Medtronic MDT.
- Gilead Sciences GILD.
- Pioneer Natural Resources PXD.
Company (ticker) | Dividend Yield |
---|---|
Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) | 1.6% |
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (BR) | 1.6% |
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) | 1.5% |
Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) | 1.4% |
- Eli Lilly and Co (LLY) -- YES. ...
- Consolidated Edison, Inc. ...
- UGI Corp (UGI) -- YES. ...
- Procter & Gamble Co. ...
- The Coca-Cola Co (KO) -- YES. ...
- Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) -- YES. ...
- PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG) -- YES. ...
- Chubb Corp (CB) -- NO. Dividends Paid Since 1902.
The Coca-Cola Company's ( KO ) dividend yield is 3.24%, which means that for every $100 invested in the company's stock, investors would receive $3.24 in dividends per year. The Coca-Cola Company's payout ratio is 74.22% which means that 74.22% of the company's earnings are paid out as dividends.