Dividend Stock Screener: Find The Best Dividend Paying Stocks To Buy And Hold (For The Long Term) In 2024 (2024)

Dividend stocks have a reputation among the investing public as safe, reliable, and yes, boring investments.

The famous dividend aristocrats list - a list of companies in the S&P 500 with 25+ years of consecutive dividend increases, are generally considered stable, safe companies.

However, just because a company is generating dividends, doesn't necessarily make it a safe investment.

In this article, you will learn:

• Why high dividend yield is not necessarily good
• How to avoid dividend traps
• What to look for in long-term dividend stocks

Before we dive into finding the best dividend paying stocks for the long term, let's step back and examine why some companies offer higher dividends than others in the first place.

A high dividend yield may be a reflection of a company's mature status.

Some large, established businesses may find it difficult to identify enough growth investments to efficiently deploy their profits. In such a case, management often returns profits to shareholders in the form of dividends.

A good example of this would be telecommunications and utility companies.

In other instances, the business structure of a company itself may require the company to distribute the majority of their cash flow to investors for tax purposes, as is the case with REITs (real estate investment trusts). REITs were created in the 1960s as a tax-efficient vehicle to fund the growth of American real estate. These entities are not required to pay federal income tax, provided they payout 90%+ of their income as dividends.

Unfortunately, boosting dividend yields can also be a way for management to pacify frustrated investors when the stock isn't performing. As you can imagine, this almost never works out well - the temporary yield boost can make the stock look tempting at first, but as profits drop and the struggling company's financial woes deepen, these unsustainable payouts eventually get cut. This can be a dangerous trap for dividend investors seeking yield.

To avoid these so-called "dividend traps", it's important to understand the overall health of a company, and also how dividends fit into management's overall corporate strategy.

Investors nearing retirement are attracted to high dividend stocks because of the generous passive income they can provide.

The highest paying dividend stocks can offer a yield greater than 4% a year, and some high dividend paying stocks even yield more than 10% a year.

However, not all high yield dividend stocks are safe. The best dividend stocks to buy and hold not only pay a high dividend yield (anything above 4% can be considered high), but also show indicators of dividend stability, dividend growth, and a sustainable earnings stream that can support their dividend payouts.

Furthermore, it's important to consider dividend yield in conjunction with a stock's overall value. After all, dividends are just a percentage of a company's profits being paid out to owners (shareholders) - when you use a dividend screener to screen companies based solely on dividend yield, you'll see that many of these companies are not necessarily top performers in the long term.

The best dividend paying stocks for the long term pay a stable, steady dividend built on a foundation of healthy earnings and a strong balance sheet.

One of the key factors in determining whether a company can sustain their dividend payout is whether the company is generating sufficient earnings. The dividend payout ratio is a metric that tracks the percentage of a company's earnings being paid out as a dividend.

It is a key metric to watch if you're looking for the best long term dividend stocks, since it is a sign that the dividend paying company has the necessary profits to support future dividend payments.

Here at WallStreetZen, we run an automated due diligence check that fails when a company pays out more than 90% of its earnings as a dividend. However, conservative dividend investors may want to see a dividend payout ratio in the 50% range, meaning the company only pays out half of its earnings as a dividend.

The dividend payout ratio you'd want to target really depends on your risk tolerance and personal goal as an investor. A retiree who is entirely dependent on their dividends for living expenses may want to target a more conservative payout ratio, while for a younger investor who only has a chunk of their portfolio set aside for dividend stocks, a 90% payout ratio may be a good benchmark.

While past performance does not always equal future performance, a company that has a long history of stable dividend payouts is generally a better dividend stock for a long-term buy and hold than one that has gone up and down over time.

Here at WallStreetZen, we run an automated due diligence check that checks how many times a company's stock has dropped over the past 10 years. If it has dropped at any point, it fails the check.

Some other important risk factors to consider when evaluating a dividend stock for the long-term are the amount of debt on the balance sheet, the leverage inherent in the business model, the size of the company, and the valuation multiple.

At WallStreetZen, we run due diligence checks that analyze a company's financials and valuation, you can learn more about our process for automating fundamental analysis checks here.

Finally, dividend investors should also be wary of overconcentration in their portfolio.

Because certain sectors such as utilities, energy trusts and REITs tend to produce companies with high yield dividends, a dividend investor's portfolio can become overweighted in these sectors over time if they focus solely on finding the best dividend paying stocks to buy and hold, without considering other factors.

It's important for dividend investors to maintain a balanced portfolio that focuses on dividend growth and yield, but also continue to pay attention to traditional investing priorities such as diversification.

While building your dividend portfolio, keep in mind these 4 important factors that will affect the volatility of your holdings:

1. number of holdings
2. correlation between holdings (industry diversification)
3. leverage that each holding has (higher leverage means more volatility)
4. market cap of each holding (smaller companies tend to be more volatile)

Like with any investment, it should go without saying that you shouldn't invest in anything you don't understand.

If a dividend stock has a high yield but you don't understand the business, keep in mind Warren Buffett's mental model of staying within one's circle of competence.

Keeping this maxim in mind will serve you well in your search for the best dividend paying stocks to buy and hold - for the long term.