The accompanying table includes 47 U.S.-listed companies with market caps over $10B and dividend yields over 5%, excluding all companies from the following sectors or industry groups: finance, insurance, consumer cyclical products, retailers, and basic materials in favor of healthcare, consumer staples such as tobacco, telecom services, energy, and utilities. Also, the following dividend ETFs are included in the table as a comparison:
1.) iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend (DVY)
2.) WisdomTree Dividend Top 100 (DTN)
3.) SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY)
4.) PowerShares High Yield Dividend Achievers (PEY)
5.) Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (VIG)
6.) PowerShares International Dividend Achievers (PID)
7.) PowerShares Dividend Achievers (PFM)
Some of favorite stocks on the list which I have wrote about previously include Altria Group (MO) and Pfizer (PFE) with dividend yields near 8% each. Also, AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) are attractive from the telecom services space with yields of about 6% each, with many foreign telcos yielding even more such as Swisscom (SCMWY), Telstra (TLSYY), France Telecom (FTE), Deutsche Telekom (DT).
Several values also appear in the beaten up energy sector, such as Sasol (SSL), British Petroleum (BP), PetroChina (PTR), and Repsol YPF (REP). Gas pipeline operator Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) was the best performing stock and only company to post a gain over the past year, followed by two utilities – Progress Energy (PGN) and Duke Energy (DUK).
For more things defensive, check out the ETF Innovators [ETFI] Highly Defensive PerformIdex of 40 companies based in the U.S., Canada, and Europe with market caps over $10B, which are the leaders by market cap in their defensive industry groups and have outpaced the overall market and existing defensive ETFs over the past year.
$20.39 (11/19/08)
