What are the best dividen paying stocks in the US and Canadian markets?
Ski
This is a loaded question…but I’ll give it a try
Canadian oil trusts give good dividends, sometimes 9-10%…but they are not always stable.
In the US, right now, MRK has a 5% div, as does MO…and they are stable as a rock IMHO…even despite MRK’s recent troubles
I hope you don’t want to just go for the highest dividend because some may be high because of some kind of trouble they’re in.
Go for the stable plays…a lot of tabacco stocks give good dividends, MO , UST, BAT…and they pay out so much because people don’t like their line of business and they need an attractive reason for buying
works for me, I own MO and
Try these stocks for better dividends… avg about 9.5% pa.
acg
ncz
pty
phk
Kenneth
Why not look into Canadian income trusts? There are now well over 200 that trade in Toronto and in the next few months some of the larger ones will be included on the TSX index.
There are many kinds that you can buy including oil and gas trusts (look at symbols AY.UN which pays 16.24%, NAE.UN which pays 13.5%, TKE.UN which pays 13.27% or VKR.UN which pays 13.48%). There are around 20 other oil and gas trusts with some paying only 2.5% (like Canadian Oil Sands COS.UN) to Navigo Energy (paying 16.8%). But do not simply look at the yield. There are many things to consider such as RLI (reserve life index), payout ratios (some payout close to 100% such as Navigo, while other pay out only 40% such as Harvest Energy).
Besides oil and gas trusts which some may consider to be risky, you could also look at some Canadian REITS such as Riocan which own many commercial business shopping centers (REI.UN), Canadian Hotel Income Properties (HOT.UN), Borealis Retail (BRE.UN). Most of these have had huge run-ups in price over the last few months and now yield between 6-8%. There are about 15 other REITS listed and their business include Hotels, Residentials apartments, commercial properties, shopping malls, etc.
Thirdly you may want to look at business trusts. Some of them are common names that we all know in Canada such as the Brick (BRK.UN), The Keg (KEG.UN), the company that runs KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (QSR.UN), and some pipe and power services such as Trinidad Energy (TDG.UN or Peak Energy Services (PES.UN).
A last option is that if you do not feel comfortable enough to invest in individual income trusts, you may want to look at buying funds of trusts. These are basically trusts that buy many trusts (sort of like the mutual fund option). So if you look at some like (EIT.UN or SDT.UN or CTD.UN) you will see that they each own perhaps around 50-100 different trusts. That way should something go wrong with a trust, the impact will be less felt by the fund. The nice thing about them too is that they have long histories and that they have maintained their payouts over several years and most still yield near or around 10%.
Sometimes things do go very wrong with income trusts. For example I own shares in a trust called Hothouse Growers Income Fund which as you might guess sells vegetables. A few months ago they suspended the distribution entirely and the share price lost 50% and has barely recovered. If you own a fund of trusts you would not really feel the impact. But diversification is the key.
The best place to try and get info is from www.globeinvestor.com . You can go to the top and look for filter. From there you will see three columns, and look for the middle one that says “Security”. Open that box and look for the word “units” and then press “go” . From there you will exactly 347 trusts listed and from there you can see such things are dividend yield.
Again I must emphasize that yield is not everything when it comes to trusts. Some payout huge yields but are not growth stocks. Some only pay out 8% but the share price doubles every year. So many things need to be considered.
I am semi retired and living off income trusts income. If you start young, the power of compounding high yields can be quite incredible. I still do work part time as a financial advisor and used to work for TD as an analyst in that capacity. If anyone is in need of professional advice please feel free to inbox me for more information.
So here we are 4 years later and everything has changed.
What are the best dividend paying shocks out there now?
By best, I mean best value.
Low in price with a great future.
Make me rich, baby.
haha, make you rich…that is what growth stocks are for, at least when they are not making you poor 
. I would be careful of buying any stocks for dividends until the credit crunch is over. Just because a stock is paying a dividend today doesn’t mean it will be paying one tomorrow.
Personally I would be looking for companies with strong cash flow and decent debt levels that don’t have to refinance any long term debt in at least the next year. Cash flow is the most important number these days. It is easy to fudge net income but cash flow usually shows the truth of the company. I would also be worried about currency fluctuations after the credit crunch is over. How many trillions can the US gov’t print before the currency weakens?
Bruce