Thursday, August 18, 2011

12 Select High-Yield S&P 500 Dividend Stocks

The S&P 500 Index is owned and maintained by Standard & Poor's, a division of McGraw-Hill. The index was first published in 1957 and is the second most recognized index in the U.S. behind only the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Stocks included in the S&P 500 are large publicly companies that trade on either the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ.

Most of the stocks are U.S. based companies. However, there are a few companies with headquarters in or incorporated outside of the U.S. For many investors, the S&P 500 represents the U.S. stock market and this index is used as a benchmark for many portfolios.

Not all stock in the index pay dividends, but many of the best known dividend growth stocks are part of the index. The dividend Aristocrats is a subset of the S&P 500 and is limited to stocks that have increased their dividend for 25 or more years.

This week week, I screened my dividend growth stocks database for stocks that are members of the S&P 500 and have a yield of 5% or more. The results are presented below:

Scana Corporation (SCG) - Scana Corporation is an energy-based holding company that provides electric, natural gas, and telecommunications services.
Yield: 5.2% | Aristocrat: No | Sector: Utilities

Leggett & Platt, Inc. (LEG) - Leggett & Platt Inc. makes a broad line of bedding and furniture components and other home, office and commercial furnishings, as well as diversified products for non-furnishings markets.
Yield: 5.4% | Aristocrat: Yes | Sector: Consumer Cyclical

PP&L Corporation (PPL) - PP&L Corporation is a holding company for electric utilities in Pennsylvania and Kentucky (acquired in late 2010) also it owns a U.K. utility and has agreed to acquire another.
Yield: 5.4% | Aristocrat: No | Sector: Utilities

Duke Energy (DUK) - Duke Energy Corp. provides service to 3.9 million electric customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and 500,000 gas customers in Kentucky and Ohio.
Yield: 5.6% | Aristocrat: No | Sector: Utilities

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) - Verizon Communications Inc. offers wireline, wireless and broadband services primarily in the northeastern United States. It acquired MCI in 2006 and has since sold or spun off non-core assets. Alltel was acquired in early 2009.
Yield: 5.7% | Aristocrat: No | Sector: Communication Services

People's United Financial Inc. (PBCT) - People's United Financial Inc. provides a full range of banking and financial service products to individuals, corporations, and municipal customers in the U.S. Northeast.
Yield: 5.7% | Aristocrat: No | Sector: Financial Services

HCP, Inc. (HCP) - Health Care Property Investors, Inc. is an equity-oriented real estate investment trust, based in California, that has direct or joint venture investments in health care-related facilities across the U.S.
Yield: 5.8% | Aristocrat: No | Sector: Real Estate

Integrys Energy Group, Inc. (TEG) - Integrys Energy Group, Inc., serves about 485,000 regulated electric and 1,674,000 regulated gas customers. It also operates an unregulated retail marketing business.
Yield: 5.8% | Aristocrat: No | Sector: Utilities

AT&T Inc. (T) - AT&T Inc. (formerly SBC Communications) provides telephone and broadband service and holds full ownership of AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular Wireless). AT&T Corp. was acquired in late 2005 and BellSouth in late 2006.
Yield: 6.1% | Aristocrat: No | Sector: Communication Services

Cincinnati Financial Corp. (CINF) - Cincinnati Financial Corp. markets primarily property and casualty coverage. It also conducts life insurance and asset management operations.
Yield: 6.3% | Aristocrat: Yes | Sector: Financial Services

Pitney Bowes Inc. (PBI) - Pitney Bowes Inc. is the world's largest maker of mailing systems, also provides production and document management equipment and facilities management services.
Yield: 7.8% | Aristocrat: Yes | Sector: Industrials

CenturyLink, Inc. (CTL) - CenturyLink, Inc. provides voice service to 6.5 million customers and Internet service to 2.4 million customers in rural towns as well as larger cities such as Las Vegas.
Yield: 8.4% | Aristocrat: Yes | Sector: Communication Services

As with past screens, the data presented above is in its raw form. Some of the the companies would be disqualified for poor dividend fundamentals. However some of the others may be worth additional due diligence.

My database, D4L-Data, is an Open Office spreadsheet containing more than 20 columns of information on the 210+ companies that I track. The data is sortable and has built-in buttons and macros to make it easy to use. Companies included in the list are those that have had a history of dividend growth. The D4L-Data spreadsheet is a part of D4L-Premium Services and is updated each Saturday for subscribers.

Full Disclosure: Long LEG, HCP, TEG, T, CINF, CTL. See a list of all my dividend growth holdings here.

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Tags: [SCG] [LEG] [PPL] [DUK] [VZ] [PBCT] [HCP] [TEG] [T] [CINF] [PBI] [CTL]