The Top Telecom Stocks in August

In the following video, Senior Technology Analyst Eric Bleeker looks at the top telecom performers in August. The giants of American telecom have had quite a year, with Sprint Nextel seeing more than 100% gains while AT&T is up over 20% and poor old Verizon has sen "only" 8% gains.

Yet, looking globally, many of the dividend highfliers of the past have been hammered, with companies like Spain's Telefonica and Isreal's Partner Communications down big. In addition, many rural American telecoms have been struggling across the past year. 

August saw a reversal of many of these trends, with Clearwire being the top telecom performer, while Partner Communications and rural telecom Frontier Communications also made the list. However, as Eric notes, it wasn't great news across the board. Frontier's peer Windstream saw its shares cut back in August after earnings. 

In the end, while many telecom stocks had a great August, the general theme of the industry is to not chase big dividends in isolation. There are still plenty of risks -- and not only across Europe -- and many of these companies will continue fading in relevance across the next decade. If you're buying into big telecom dividends, Eric notes that investors should make them only a part of a larger diversified portfolio. To see his full thoughts, watch the video.

If you're a telecom investor interested in finding more great dividend-payers on your quest for high-yielding stocks, The Motley Fool has compiled a special free report outlining our nine top dependable dividend-paying stocks. It's called  "Secure Your Future With 9 Rock-Solid Dividend Stocks." You can access your complimentary copy today at no cost! Just click here to discover the winners we've picked.