A dividend stock refers to a company that is known to regularly reward their shareholders with a fraction of their profits on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or sometimes even a yearly basis.
Dividend paying companies provide a steady stream of income to shareholders, and many still offer the potential for stock price appreciation. Stability and income generation has always remained a top priority for many investors.
Given ongoing economic uncertainty, investors hunt for dividend-paying stocks that are undervalued, as only companies that have quality fundamentals and a robust foundation have the financial stability to maintain their dividends during questionable economic periods.
Another great aspect of adding dividend stocks to one’s portfolio is the ability to reinvest any dividends paid out by a company, using them to buy more shares (sometimes called ‘DRIP’), and taking advantage of compounding returns.
Best Dividend Stocks April 2024
Company Name | Stock Symbol | Dividend Yield | P/E Ratio | Dividend CAGR |
---|---|---|---|---|
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. | NXST | 4% | 16.2x | 29.2% |
The Wendy’s Company | WEN | 5.4% | 18.5x | 24.1% |
Arch Resources, Inc. | ARCH | 6.0% | 6.0x | 46.1% |
Carter’s, Inc. | CRI | 4.2% | 12.2x | 10.8% |
TEGNA Inc. | TGNA | 3.2% | 5.3x | 10.2% |
Lakeland Financial Corp | LKFN | 3.2% | 16.5x | 12.1% |
Why We Picked These Dividend Stocks
The dividend stocks that have been screened and included in the list below show solid, consistent dividend prospects, strong fundamentals, long profit histories and strong credit ratings. We want to show investors that the best dividend stocks available for trading often still have room to run, while also hedging against too much volatility and generating additional compoundable (when reinvested) income.
The numbered list of such top dividend companies are displayed below:
- Market Cap: $5.34 billion
- Previous Close Price: $163.16
- Fair Value: $217.57
- Fair Value Upside: 29.9%
The leading diversified media company was incorporated in June 1996 as Nexstar Broadcasting Group, and is currently the largest television station owner in the United States.
It runs a total of more than 200 owned or partner television stations across 117 U.S. markets, reaching 220 million people. Nexstar also acquired the political news website ‘The Hill’ in August 2021, for $130 million USD.
- Market Cap: $3.82 billion
- Previous Close Price: $18.7
- Fair Value: $19.8
- Fair Value Upside: 7.4%
The fast food company is the third largest hamburger chain in the United States, founded by Dave Thomas in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969. At present, The Wendy’s Company operates more than 7,000 restaurants worldwide.
The company has given out a total of nearly 80 dividends since 2000, with the most recent dividend of $0.25 per equity share and an ex-dividend date of February 29, 2024, payable on March 15.
- Market Cap: $2.88 billion
- Previous Close Price: $156.88
- Fair Value: $211.76
- Fair Value Upside: 34.2%
Formerly known as Arch Coal, Arch Resources is a coal mining and processing company. It is a leading producer of metallurgical products, with the flagship Leer mine consistently ranking among the lowest cost metallurgical mines in the United States.
The company operates 32 active mines and stands as the second-largest coal supplier in the U.S. Even though the company’s shares have dipped slightly by 5% so far this year (2024), they have skyrocketed 135% over a five year period.
- Market Cap: $2.63 billion
- Previous Close Price: $73.09
- Fair Value: $80.1
- Fair Value Upside: 11.6%
Carter’s, Inc. is the largest branded marketer of apparel and related products in the U.S. and Canada, catering exclusively to babies and young children. Founded in 1865 by William Carter, the company’s products are sold through approximately 1,000 Carter-operated stores.
A total of 15 InvestingPro technical models cover the stock’s future performance, with the highest fair value set as $95.28/share, indicating a potential fair value upside of 33% from Carter’s current market price (CMP).
- Market Cap: $2.36 billion
- Previous Close Price: $13.6
- Fair Value: $20.51
- Fair Value Upside: 53.3%
Tegna Inc is a media company, ranking among the most geographically diverse broadcasters in the U.S., with 64 television stations across 51 markets. It is the largest owner of top 4 network affiliates in the top 25 markets among independent station groups.
The company has been recognized as the ‘Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality’ by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation for the sixth consecutive year, with a score of 100 on the Corporate Equality Index. For investors looking for ESG-friendly options, this stock may fit the bill.
- Market Cap: $1.51 billion
- Previous Close Price: $59.28
- Fair Value: $20.51
- Fair Value Upside: 53.3%
Lakeland Financial Corp is a bank holding company for Lake City Bank, providing banking products and services in the US. It offers commercial and consumer banking, trust and wealth management, brokerage, and treasury management commercial services.
The past year has seen this stock price increase by 5.9%, with a massive 51.49% increase over the last 5 years.
How to Find The Best Dividend Stocks
To start, we focused only on those U.S. stocks that have a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion as well as a significant market share, while presenting stable financial conditions for continuing the growth of their dividend payouts regardless of ongoing macro conditions.
In order to guarantee that we are not buying stocks that are already extremely expensive, a fair value assessment filter was added in the InvestingPro screener, which shows only those stocks that have growth potential going forward, thereby avoiding risks of a sudden, big drop in share price.
Further, a filter for dividend compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5 years has also been incorporated in our stock screening criteria, which curates a list of only those companies that are consistently growing their payout ratios at 10% or more.
Here are the steps to finding top U.S.-based dividend stocks easily using Investing Pro:
- Click on the Screener tool.
- Select ‘Dividend Yield’ as a filter parameter on the Screener page, and set the threshold value to greater than 3%.
- Add a P/E Ratio filter and set the range between 0 and 30x.
- Add a further four metrics: Market Cap, Shareholder Yield, Fair Value Upside and Dividend CAGR (5y), setting their range to desired values. You can also follow our stock selection metrics as shown in the screenshot below.
- For U.S.-centric stocks, select ‘United States’ under the ‘Trading Region’ tab drop-down, and make sure to check (select) the ‘Primary Trading Item’ option.
- You can then see the list of all the companies falling in the desired screener filters’ range arranged in a descending order.