Dividend Stocks

The S&P 500 index lost 1.5% last week from peak to trough, as investors became more cautious. With the index up 16% year-to-date and 34% over the last 12 months, some profit-taking isn’t unreasonable. For the most part, investors have bought the dips recently more often than not in everything from tech to dividend stocks.

Heading into 2020, S&P 500 dividend stocks had averaged 8.1% dividend growth over the previous five years. In 2020, thanks to Covid-19, that growth slowed to a trickle, up by a scant 0.07%. Now halfway through 2021, dividend payouts for the S&P have reversed course, presently down by 3.05%. Many companies have slowed their payouts

While even former dogs like Ford Motor (NYSE:F) have gotten expensive of late, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) stock remains dirt cheap. Source: Roman Tiraspolsky / Shutterstock.com America’s biggest bank opened July 14 at $149.71 per share. That’s a market cap of $447 billion, which sounds massive. But it’s also a price-to-earnings ratio of just 10. There’s

In general, Dividend Aristocrats are the foundation for the portfolios of most serious dividend growth investors. European Dividend aristocrats are typically blue-chip stocks that have proven to reward shareholders with rising dividends over a long period. While historic dividend payment does not guarantee future distributions, it can help investors when accessing the likelihood of a

After suffering from the pandemic last year, the energy sector is by far the best-performing sector of the stock market this year making royalty trusts worth another look. Thanks to the massive rollout of vaccines and the deep production cuts of OPEC and Russia, the price of oil has rallied to a 3-year high while

Income investors are always searching for high yields, which are hard to find with today’s historically low interest rates and record-high stock prices. But investors should not sacrifice dividend safety in favor of higher yields. This is why high-quality dividend stocks like the Dividend Aristocrats are so valuable. The Dividend Aristocrats are a select group

More and more economists are warning that high inflation is here to stay for the next few years. Because of that, investors are becoming increasingly focused on using stocks to create an inflow of cash that earns them reliable income. To that end, dividend stocks offer folks returns through capital gains along with extra cash

Invesco Mortgage Capital (NYSE:IVR) is an attractively priced mortgage REIT that has a 10.8% dividend yield well covered by its earnings. Moreover, its price of $3.33 is still below its book value per share. Based on my calculations, the new IVR stock book value is $3.62, down slightly from $3.65 at the end of the

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) stock fell this week after analysts called its earnings “mixed.” Source: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com Shares have dropped around 5% during the trading week beginning July 12 after the bank announced net income of $9.2 billion, $1.03 per share and revenue of $21.5 billion for the three months ending in June.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) shares got fizzy this week as earnings crushed estimates, which is good news for anyone investing in PEP stock. Source: suriyachan / Shutterstock.com Pepsi earned $2.37 billion, $1.70 per share, on revenue of $19.2 billion for the three months ending in June. Earnings were 19 cents per share ahead of estimates, and revenue

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) stock looks like it is significantly undervalued at today’s price. On July 8, it closed at $60.14, but XOM stock has a very attractive valuation. For example, it sports a very healthy 5.76% dividend yield and trades for just 16 times this year’s forecast earnings. Source: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com My valuation

Global oil consumption is recovering from the pandemic, which has driven oil prices higher, with Brent crude rising over $70 per barrel. This rally will greatly benefit oil producers, especially oil stocks from the global majors that rely more heavily on the price of oil. In addition, several top oil stocks pay high dividend yields

The U.S. may be on the verge of a major infrastructure spending plan, and a looming infrastructure bill could be a major boost to the nation’s infrastructure stocks. Infrastructure across the country is in need of repair. Investors should always be on the hunt for potential growth catalysts. Indeed, one potential catalyst is underway today

In most cases, taking longshot bets in the market don’t pan out. However, for those brave contrarians that bought publicly traded securities during the initial onslaught of the novel coronavirus pandemic, they managed to accrue incredible profitability. Many onlookers quickly followed with their own money, making the case for buying super-safe dividend stocks less appealing

Increased concern over inflation and valuations have brought choppiness back to equity markets. As the stock market recovers from a volatile month of trading, investors have turned their attention towards more defensive stocks. For many market participants, dividend shares seem to be the most reasonable plays. High-yield dividend stocks are prized among income investors, as

Mid-cap stocks are often overlooked. However, there are terrific dividend stocks in the mid-cap group that we think are worthy of consideration for income investors. In the world of investing, many investors focus on the biggest stocks in the market – so-called large caps – for their stability and predictability. This makes large-cap stocks generally

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) is worth considerably more than its present price. In fact, my view is that it’s worth somewhere between 15% and 50% more from its Jul. 7 close. That means BAC stock should trade between $45.65 and $59.63 per share. The average between these two is $52.64 per share, or about 32%

Merck (NYSE:MRK) has been making news lately for research into a possible pill that would treat Covid-19. The coronavirus pill has led to a surge in MRK stock.  Source: Atmosphere1 / Shutterstock.com The stock has had a smooth ride over the year and is trading close to the same level as last year. It stood

Most investors who want to gain exposure to the financial sector focus exclusively on the well-known U.S. bank stocks, such as Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), and that goes for income investors as well. However, some Canadian bank stocks have much lower valuations and also have higher dividend yields than their domestic counterparts.

I don’t know many investors who don’t like dividends. However, there are many investors who would opt for either dividend income or earnings and revenue growth. This divide between growth and dividend investors has left a rift among dividend stocks. But does there need to be one? Not necessarily.  While we can find growth stocks