Dividend-Paying Stocks

This year, the 100 stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index with the highest dividend yields are up an average of 3.7% before dividend payouts, according to Birinyi Associates. The 100 lowest-yielding stocks are down an average of 10%. Dividend yield is calculated by dividing a company’s annual per-share dividend by share price. In the third quarter, share-price returns on high-dividend payers exceeded those of lower-paying companies by 17 percentage points, AllianceBernstein calculates.

Investors hungry for stock-price gains have been barreling into dividend-paying shares, long regarded as “widow-and-orphan stocks” because of their steady but stodgy performance. Some analysts say such stocks are the most “crowded” trade around these days. Investors have been dazzled by dividend yields of more than 4% on many utilities, household-goods manufacturers and telecommunications companies. That is twice as much as recent paltry yields on 10-year Treasurys.

Source: Ritholtz

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