Finding the Best Dividend Stocks

Dividend investors often prioritize a stock’s yield above all other factors. While it’s certainly important, it’s also important to examine five other key factors -- payout ratios, earnings growth, free cash flow growth, valuations, and historical dividend hikes.
A stock’s payout ratio is the percentage of a company’s earnings which are allocated to dividend payments. The lower this percentage is, the more room a company has to grow its dividend. If the payout remains above 100% for some quarters, the dividend is likely unsustainable.
Lastly, some stocks have high yields but don’t raise their dividends annually. A company doesn’t need to be a ’dividend aristocrat’ that has raised its payout for over 25 years, but a strong record of dividend hikes indicates that it’s dedicated to rewarding long-term, buy-and-hold investors with a consistent cut of its profits.
If you’re looking for solid income from dividends, look no further. The Motley Fool’s top dividend analyst, who leads our dividend stock newsletter, Income Investor, just picked what he believes are the best income stocks in the market right now.
These dividend cash cows could be the latest in a long string of market-beating stocks Income Investor has picked over the years.

The thing about investment is that you can only recieve as much as you put in. Take for instance farming, you cannot plant two seeds on 100acres of land and expect the whole land to be full of plants at harvest time. You will recieve yield based on what you planted. It's the same thing with investment in stocks or otherwise, how much you recieve, is dependent on how much you put in, in terms of time and money. For instance if you hold $100 of shares, instead of receiving cash dividends and spending them, you can choose the option of dividend stocks. This means that you are being paid in form of additional shares rather than cash payments. And the more shares you are holding, the more profits you are getting, especially if it's a consistently growing company.