This article is part of our Rising Star Portfolio series.
As I explained in a recent article, I look for dividends as a way to play stocks. Ideally, I'm looking for the dividend as a catalyst to fuel stock price growth. So with that, here are three dividend stocks I'm following and that you can follow, too, using our free Watchlist service.
1. Frontier Communications
I've highlighted Frontier as one of the best dividend stocks for 2011, as the company consolidates operations that it acquired from Verizon
- Add Frontier to your Watchlist.
2. Vodafone
Investors in Telefonica
- Add Vodafone to your Watchlist.
3. Seaspan
As I detailed in my recent Rising Star buy recommendation, Seaspan has a key catalyst to its share price: its progressive dividend policy that promises to rapidly ramp the company's payout. The company recently bumped up its dividend by 50%, and I think we have plenty more such increase on the horizon. This owner and operator of containerships should benefit from the normalization of trade between the U.S. and Asia. In the next year, it will finish the build-out of its fleet of ships, and then we should really see cash flow soar. That cash flow should translate into a steadily growing dividend.
- Add Seaspan to your Watchlist.
So add the three dividend stocks above to your watchlist, and take a look at 13 other dividend stocks in a free report from the Motley Fool called "13 High-Yielding Stocks to Buy Today." Hundreds of thousands have requested access to this special free report and now you can access it today at no cost. To get instant access to the names of these 13 high yielders, simply click here -- it's free.
Interested in these stocks or have another stock to share? Join me on my discussion board and follow me on Twitter (@TMFRoyal).
This article is part of our Rising Star Portfolio series, where we give some of our most promising stock analysts cold, hard cash to manage on the Fool's behalf. We'd like you to track our performance and benefit from these real-money, real-time free stock picks. See all of our Rising Star analysts (and their portfolios) here.