TIP OF THE WEEK - How to easily spot a high dividend impostor

How to spot a high dividend impostor

Jason Brizic

Jan. 21, 2011

Last week's tip of the week covered the use of Google Finance's stock screener to find high dividend stocks.  Sometimes the companies that the stock screener outputs to you haven't paid a quarterly dividend in several quarters.   I have found that one of the easiest ways to determine if a company has paid a dividend every quarter in the last five years is to enter its ticker into Google Finance and adjust the price chart to 5 years time.

Google Finance's default chart views include dividends and their amounts.  You are only a click away from seeing a quick dividend history.  Google Finance has an easy to use charts that I use to find high dividend stocks.  Go to: 

http://www.google.com/finance/

I have two examples for you so you can see what I am writing about:

Tele Norte Leste Participacoes SA (ADR) 

(Public, NYSE:TNE)

Upon first glance this stock appears to have a dividend yield above 20 percent.  But when you examine its dividend record on the 5 year chart you see no consistent pattern.

TNE has a very spotty dividend record.  Enter TNE into Google Fiance and adjust the chart to 5 years.

Altria Group, Inc. 

(Public, NYSE:MO)

This tobacco stocks 5 year chart demonstrates what a consistent dividend payer looks like.  You can be certain that its 6.3 percent dividend is coming quarter after quarter.

For more tips, go here:

 http://www.myhighdividendstocks.com/category/tip-of-the-week