If you're thinking of purchasing a dividend stock, it's often a good idea to get in before its ex-dividend date to make sure you maximize your income.
You have to buy a stock before its ex-dividend date to receive the upcoming quarterly dividend.
Of the S&P 500 companies, 16 with dividend yields of at least 2.5 percent go ex-dividend between now and May 13, according to Bespoke Investment Group,
USA Today reports.
They include:
- Utility Entergy, with a yield of 4.25 percent, which goes ex-dividend May 12;
- Pharmaceutical titan AbbVie, with a yield of 3.49 percent, which goes ex-dividend April 13;
- Semiconductor giant Intel, with a yield of 3.07 percent, which goes ex-dividend May 5; and
- Clorox, with a yield of 2.68 percent, which goes ex-dividend April 20.
Of course, don't just buy a stock because it is soon going ex-dividend. Make sure it has strong fundamentals and that you are buying at what seems to be a fair price.
Oil stocks made a big push last month on to Morningstar's list of the 10 dividend stocks most widely held by the firm's top ranked money managers. It calls those managers the "ultimate stock pickers."
And what can they teach us?
"What looks to be shaping into a potential trade for some income-seeking investors is the appearance of a handful of oil-related stocks — ConocoPhillips, Occidental Petroleum, National Oilwell Varco and Exxon Mobil — on our list," writes
Morningstar senior stock analyst Greggory Warren.
"No doubt, this is in response to the impact that the dramatic drop in oil prices has had on the price of oil company stocks the last couple of quarters, as the yields on these firms' shares have risen enough to supplant other names on the list."
Oil prices have plunged 52 percent since late June. ConocoPhillips sports a dividend yield of 4.44 percent and Exxon Mobil of 3.22 percent.
Among the stocks exiting the list from six months ago are Vodafone Group, Pfizer, Roche and Eli Lilly.
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