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Dividend Gems

Ten Highest Dividend Paying Stocks from the Eurozone Countries

The Dow Jones EURO STOXX Select Dividend 30 Index consists of the 30 high-dividend-yielding companies of the Eurozone. The Eurozone countries include Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

The ETFlab DJ EURO STOXX® Select Dividend 30 ETF tracks the performance of the above index.  The Top 10 holdings in this ETF are:

1. Banco Santander (STD)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.36%
Spain

2.Vallourec
France

3. Erste Group Bank (OTC: EBKDY)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.27%
Austria

4. Metso Oyj (OTC: MXCYY)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.04%
Finland

5. Wartsila OYJ
Finland

6.Banco Popular Espanol
Spain

7. Unilever NV (UN)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.77%
The Netherlands

8. Bilfinger Berger AG
Germany

9. Enel Spa (E)
Current Dividend Yield: 6.08%
Italy

10. Wereldhave nV
The Netherlands

Please note that the dividend yields are noted only for the companies that trade as ADRs in the US markets.

High Dividend Stocks in NASDAQ

The table below lists some of the high dividend yield stocks trading in the Nasdaq market. These stocks offer over 10% dividends.

Name Ticker Dividend Yield as of February 9, 2010
Apollo Investment Corp. AINV 10.89%
Alaska Communications Systems Group, Inc ALSK 12.57%
Ares Capital Corporation ARCC 11.83%
Capital Bank Corporation CBKN 10.13%
Collectors Universe, Inc. CLCT 10.85%
Copano Energy, L.L.C. CPNO 10.55%
Formula Systems Ltd. (ADR) FORTY 20.98%
Gladstone Capital Corporation GLAD 10.37%
Gladstone Commercial Corporation GOOD 10.85%
Linn Energy, LLC LINE 10.00%
Monarch Community Bancorp, Inc. MCBF 11.43%
New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. NYMT 14.66%
Otelco, Inc. (USA) OTT 12.08%
Prospect Capital Corporation PSEC 15.08%
Qualstar Corporation QBAK 10.91%
StoneMor Partners L.P. STON 11.84%
TICC Capital Corp. TICC 10.10%
Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc HTGC 12.28%
NUCRYST Pharmaceuticals Corp. (USA) NCST 45.20%
Supertel Hospitality Inc SPPRP 10.85%
Himax Technologies, Inc. (ADR) HIMX 10.17%
Compass Diversified Holdings CODI 11.41%
EV Energy Partners, L.P. EVEP 10.22%
Kohlberg Capital Corp. KCAP 20.57%
Legacy Reserves LP LGCY 10.84%
Triangle Capital Corporation TCAP 13.83%
Capital Product Partners L.P. CPLP 19.25%
PennantPark Investment Corp. PNNT 11.27%
Blackrock Kelso Capital Corp. BKCC 14.88%
Main Street Capital Corporation MAIN 10.69%
American Capital Agency Corp. AGNC 20.57%
Supertel Hospitality Inc SPPRO 11.11%
Windstream Corporation WIN 10.01%

Ten Components of the DJ U.S. Select Dividend Index

The Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index tracks the performance of the 100 stocks with the highest dividend yields on the Dow Jones U.S. Total Market Index.

The components of this index are selected based on:

The iShares Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend  ETF is domiciled in Germany. There are 100 stocks in this fund.The Top 10 holdings are listed below with their current yields as of Jan 5,2010:

1.Company: Lorillard (LO)
Current Dividend Yield: 5.04 %
Sector:Tobacco

2.Company: Entergy Corp (ETR)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.65 %
Sector:Electric Utilities

3.Company: CenturyTel (CTL)
Current Dividend Yield: 7.63 %
Sector:Communications Services

4.Company: Chevron Corp (CVX)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.42 %
Sector:Oil & Gas - Integrated

5.Company: Mercury General Corp(MCY)
Current Dividend Yield: 6.01 %
Sector: Insurance (Property & Casualty)

6.Company: V.F. Corp (VFC)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.21%
Sector:Apparel/Accessories

7.Company: Kimberly Clark (KMB)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.73%
Sector:Paper & Paper Products

8.Company: FirstEnergy(FE)
Current Dividend Yield: 4.76%
Sector: Electric Utilities

9.Company: McDonald’s Corp (MCD)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.53%
Sector:

10.Company: DTE Energy (DTE)
Current Dividend Yield: 4.92%
Sector:  Electric Utilities

Some of the other dividend stocks included in the portfolio are Clorox(CLX), Bank of Hawaii (BOH),FPL Group (FPL), General Mills(GIS), etc. The full listing of 100 stocks can be downloaded here.

Ten German Stocks with High Dividend Yields

The German economy is the largest in Europe and the country is home to many of the world’s top companies such as BMW, Siemens, Volkswagen, etc. German companies also hold the leadership position in the chemical industry.

In order to identify the high dividend-paying German stocks I used the iShares DivDAX ETF (EXSB) which tracks the DivDAX index. This index tracks the 15 stocks with the highest dividends out of the 30 largest and most liquid German companies by market capitalization.

The Top 10 Holdings in the iShares DivDAX ETF are listed below together with current dividend yield:

1. BASF (OTC: BASFY)
Current Dividend Yield: 4.12%

2. Bayer (OTC: BAYRY)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.38%

3. Deutsche Telecom (DT)
Current Dividend Yield: 6.99%

4. Allianz AG
Delisted from NYSE

5. RWE AG (OTC: RWEOY)
Current Dividend Yield: 6.16%

6. E.ON AG (OTC: EONGY)
Current Dividend Yield: 4.98%

7. Siemens AG (SI)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.67%

8. Muench Rueckvers (OTC: MURGY)
Current Dividend Yield: 4.66%

9. Deutsche Post AG (OTC: DPSTF)
Current Dividend Yield: No Regular Dividends

10. Deustche Boerse (OTC: DBOEY)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.70%

To download the ETF factsheet, click here.

More on this topic (What's this?) Read more on Investing in Germany at Wikinvest

Dividend Gems - ADRs !!!

Stocks that pay dividends are always a better bet than those that don’t. There are thousands of dividend paying ADRs. The trick is to find stocks that have a higher “Payout Ratio” and payment consistency over many years.

“Payout Ratio” just means the percentage of profits a firm pays out as dividends to shareholders. For eg - if a company XYZ Inc makes $100M in profits and its dividend payout ratio is 50%, then the company pays out $50M in dividends to its shareholders. XYZ Inc will be better than a company that pays out only 40%.

Dividends in general are an indicator of a firm’s profitability. It is something that cannot be faked and is real cash coming out of profits. So if a firm does not make profits it cannot pay a dividend. For eg - XYZ cannot borrow $50M and pay it out as dividends if its business went bad and the firm makes $0 in profits.

Higher payout ratio indicates that the company believes that there is not enough growth opportunities to re-deploy the profit and hence it makes sense to distribute the cash to stockholders who may use it as they wish. Higher payout ratio also indicates that the company is making more profits than a firm with a lesser ratio.

The following list shows a few ADR stocks that have high payout ratio. Most of them are banks as they tend to have higher yields.

S.No. Company Ticker Country Payout Ratio
1 Fortum No ADR yet Finland 50 to 60%
2 Verbund OEZVY Austria 40%
3 Royal Bank of Canada RY Canada 40 to 50%
4 Bank of Novo Scotia BNS Canada 33 to 44%
5 EON AG EONGY Germany 50%
6 TD Bank TD Canada 35 to 45%
7 Bank of Montreal BMO Canada 45 to 55%
8 Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM Canada 33.4%; Goal 40 to 50%
9 Danske Bank DNSKY Denmark 30 to 50%
10 Swede Bank SWDBY Sweden 40%
11 Erste Bank EBKDY Austria No fixed ratio - But to increase dividend by 10% each year if targets achieved.
12 Allied Irish Bank AIB Ireland 41%
13 Societe Generale SCGLY France 42%

Note: More stocks will be added to this table periodically

More on this topic (What's this?)
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Twelve Dividend Stocks Increasing Dividends
Read more on Dividends at Wikinvest