Dividend stocks US DOW

Stocks of the Dow

Now that we've explained why a company might offer shareholders a high dividend yield, let's take a closer look at the yields of some blue chip stocks.  We used a stock screener to pull a list of companies that are members of the Dow Jones Industrials that are paying dividends in excess of 3.50% (November 2012).

Stock Symbol	Company Name	Dividend Yield
VZ	Verizon Communications	6.40%
T	AT&T Inc.	6.20%
PFE	Pfizer Inc.	4.50%
MRK	Merck & Company	4.30%
DD	E.I. du Pont	4.00%
CVX	Chevron Corporation	3.80%
JNJ	Johnson & Johnson	3.80%

If we look at the smaller set of the Dow Jones Utilities, those stocks paying dividends in excess of 3.50% include:

Stock Symbol	Company Name	Dividend Yield
EXC	Exelon Corporation	6.95%
FE	FirstEnergy Corp.	5.18%
DUK	Duke Energy Corp	4.79%
PEG	Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.	4.72%
SO	The Southern Company	4.50%
AEP	American Electric Power Co., Inc.	4.45%
PCG	PG&E Corporation	4.44%
ED	Consolidated Edison, Inc.	4.34%
D	Dominion Resources, Inc.	4.13%
CNP	CenterPoint Energy, Inc.	4.10%
WMB	Williams Companies, Inc.	3.99%
NI	NiSource Inc.	3.94%
NEE	NextEra Energy, Inc.	3.51%

Analyzing the above information reveals that seven of the thirty stocks (23.3%) in the Dow Jones industrials were paying dividends of 3.50% or higher.  Of the 15 stocks in the Utility Index, thirteen of these (86.7%) were paying dividends in excess of 3.50%.  The theory behind utilities paying relatively high dividends holds true in the data.

Dividends and Taxes

Changes to tax code make the payment of dividends to investors even more attractive.  That's because qualified dividends are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary dividends as explained below.  This has resulted in even higher payouts from companies already providing investors with good yields.

Read it from here. 

http://www.money-zine.com/investing/stocks/dividend-paying-stocks/