Dividend Stock News

Just use the Yahoo stock screener, and we have 2157 stocks to choose from.  The limitations of the screening mean that these are stocks that have a 1% or greater dividend yield.

FPB Financial Corp. Announces 2006 Second Quarter Earnings and Declares Dividends

Cleco Corporation Declares Regular Common and Preferred Dividends 

Motley Fool reports:

Dividend stocks are most likely to make real products and provide real services that create real cash flow. They then pay some of this real cash flow out to real shareholders in the form of real dollars. You can then choose to reinvest those real dollars into additional shares of real company stock, or take them down to the grocery store to buy a carton of eggs and make yourself a real omelet, or go on a vacation and get yourself a real sunburn.

• CIT Declares Dividends for Second Quarter 2006
• HomeBanc Corp. Announces Quarterly Dividends
• Merrill Lynch Declares Dividends on Preferred Stock

Fool.com highlights four stocks that recently raised their dividends:

Show me a company that is propping up its dividend and I’ll show you a company worth watching. It’s not about the extra money; it’s about a company confident enough in its future earnings potential to be a bit more generous today.

The stocks are:

• RI
• CMI
• AOS
• WAG

Stratton Monthly Dividend REIT (STMDX)

Stratton Monthly Dividend REIT Shares (SMDS) may be for investors who desire an investment that focuses on income and are investing for retirement or other long-term goals.

The Fund is managed to provide a high level of monthly income to its shareholders and therefore looks for companies that have strong dividend payouts. The Fund needs higher yielding securities to attempt to maintain its dividend payout. Real Estate Investment Trusts or REITs satisfy this income requirement, while also offering the potential for dividend growth and capital appreciation.

Initial Investment: $1000

Expense ratio: .95%

In 2003, the Bush adminstration lowered the tax rate on dividends.   I looked a little deeper into the bill:

Soon after, the Congress passed the a bill which included some of the cuts Bush requested and which he signed into law on May 28, 2003. Under the new law dividends are taxed at a 15% rate for most individual taxpayers. Dividends received by low income individuals are taxed at a 5% rate until December 31, 2007 and become fully untaxed in 2008. These provisions are set to expire on January 1, 2011.

Also, the bill explicitly encourages longer-term investing:

The lower rates apply to assets held for more than one year.

Some up, some down:

• Cummins increases dividend, sets share buyback
  
• Eaton Vance Closed-End Bank Loan Funds Declare Monthly Dividends
• Alliant Energy Corporation Declares Common Stock Dividends
• Ford halves dividends, cuts fees

More dividend stock news.

Blackrock Dividend Achievers Trust (BDV)

BlackRock Dividend Achievers Trust (the Trust) is a diversified closed-end management investment company. The Trust may invest substantially all, but not less than 80%, of its total assets in common stocks that are included in the Mergent, Inc.’s universe of Dividend Achievers. To qualify as a Dividend Achiever, an issuer must have raised its annual regular cash dividend, on a pre-tax basis, for at least each of the last 10 consecutive calendar years. The Trust invests in sectors, such as financial institutions, energy, consumer products, healthcare, telecommunications, real estate, conglomerates, basic materials, automotive, industrials and technology.

Expense ratio of .84% and is heavily weighted in financial and utility, so is sensitive to interest rate changes.

Here is a list:

• ING Global Equity Divid.&Premium Opp (IGD)
• iShares DVY
• SPDR Dividend
  
• PowerShares High Gr. Rate Div Achv
• PowerShares Intl. Dividend Achiev
  
• PowerShares High Yld. Dividend Acheivers
  
• SPDR Dividend (SDY)