Top-Yielding Stocks (You Might Actually Want to Buy)

The power of dividend investing is pretty well-known these days. Higher-yielding stocks tend to offer higher returns over time than low- or no-yield stocks, according to research from Jeremy Siegel and others. In fact, the 20 best-performing survivor stocks from the original S&P 500 in 1957 are all dividend payers.

What's more, reinvesting dividends acts as a "bear-market protector and return accelerator," according to Siegel. The extra shares purchased and accumulated at higher dividend yields during down periods act as a protector in falling markets, and these extra shares rising in value turn into a "return accelerator" when prices rise.

As the recent economic crisis illustrated all too well, however, you can't buy just any high-yielding stock. Dividends that are cut or suspended entirely can wreak havoc on a stock price -- and thus your portfolio.

Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to lessen your chances of buying one of these train wrecks. James Early, advisor of our Motley Fool Income Investor service, suggests looking at the payout ratio for starters. That's simply the percentage of a company's net income that is used to pay its dividend. Obviously, the higher the payout ratio, the tougher it is for a company to meet its dividend obligation. James looks for a payout ratio below 80% for safer companies, and a sub-60% or even 50% payout for companies you consider risky.

To further stack the odds on your side, you can limit your search to companies that have grown their dividend over the past three years or so. That eliminates the less stable or erratic dividend payers.

I constructed a screen to find some promising high-yield, low-risk companies for further research, and I'm presenting it to you weekly. I made sure the stocks met the following criteria:

1. Market cap > $1 billion
2. Payout ratio < 60%
3. Three-year dividend growth > 0%

Here are the top 10 highest yielders the screen produced:

Company	Market Cap (in millions)	Payout Ratio	3-Year Cumulative Dividend Growth	Dividend Yield
Alliance Resource Partners (Nasdaq: ARLP  )	$1,872	49.5%	46.5%	6.4%
Williams Partners (NYSE: WPZ  )	$11,753	48.1%	38.9%	5.9%
Mercury General	$2,362	34.9%	19.4%	5.5%
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY  )	$43,008	22.1%	13.4%	5.1%
Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC  )	$27,716	54.8%	25%	5%
Northwestern Corp. (NYSE: NWE  )	$1,020	56.7%	8.9%	4.8%
Unisource Energy (NYSE: UNS  )	$1,183	37.8%	47.4%	4.8%
Avista	$1,160	56.9%	53%	4.7%
DPL	$3,081	53.9%	15.2%	4.7%
American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP  )	$17,287	58.3%	7.9%	4.7%

Source: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's).

These stocks are great places to start your research but are not formal recommendations.

What this means
Siegel sums it up nicely in his book, The Future for Investors: "Bear markets are not only painful episodes that investors must endure, they are also an integral reason why investors who reinvest dividends experience sharply higher returns."

Whether bear or bull market, there's a reason the top-performing stocks over the decades are all dividend payers. If you're lacking that type of exposure in your portfolio, you should take the first steps now toward finding stable dividend payers designed to weather any market cycle.