The Safest S&P 500 High-Yield Dividend Stocks

High Yield stocks are interesting because they pay a huge amount of cash to shareholders' pockets. If a company has yield over five percent and it pays out that money for a decade, you will have received your invested amount back by more than a half in cash. The only point one must consider is the stability of the dividend payments.

I screened all S&P 500 high yields by the lowest beta ratio. The beta ratio is a statistical ratio which measures the dependence of the stock in relation to the whole capital market. If the ratio is below one, the company has a lower risk than the market. From all nineteen S&P 500 high yield stocks, there are fifteen with a beta ratio of less than one but only six are currently recommended to buy. Thirty percent of the results come from the domestic telecom services industry.

AT&T (NYSE:T) has a market capitalization of $188.06 billion. The company employs 256,420 people, generates revenues of $126,723.00 million and has a net income of $4,184.00 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $27,595.00 million. Because of these figures, the EBITDA margin is 21.78 percent (operating margin 7.27 percent and the net profit margin finally 3.30 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt representing 23.95 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 61.36 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 3.63 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $0.66. Last fiscal year, the company paid $1.73 in form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 47.99, P/S ratio 1.43 and P/B ratio 1.72. Dividend Yield: 5.75 percent. The beta ratio is 0.60.






Reynolds American (NYSE:RAI) has a market capitalization of $22.68 billion. The company employs 5,400 people, generates revenues of $8,541.00 million and has a net income of $1,406.00 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $2,537.00 million. Because of these figures, the EBITDA margin is 29.70 percent (operating margin 28.09 percent and the net profit margin finally 16.46 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt representing 22.54 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 58.60 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 22.04 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $2.40. Last fiscal year, the company paid $2.15 in form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 16.51, P/S ratio 2.79 and P/B ratio 3.85. Dividend Yield: 5.37 percent. The beta ratio is 0.56.






Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) has a market capitalization of $112.22 billion. The company employs 191,800 people, generates revenues of $110,875.00 million and has a net income of $10,198.00 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $29,376.00 million. Because of these figures, the EBITDA margin is 26.49 percent (operating margin 11.62 percent and the net profit margin finally 9.20 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt representing 23.93 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 153.33 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 6.45 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $0.93. Last fiscal year, the company paid $1.98 in form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 42.43, P/S ratio 0.99 and P/B ratio 3.04. Dividend Yield: 5.19 percent. The beta ratio is 0.55.






Altria Group (NYSE: MO) has a market capitalization of $64.55 billion. The company employs 9,900 people, generates revenues of $23,800.00 million and has a net income of $3,393.00 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $6,321.00 million. Because of these figures, the EBITDA margin is 26.56 percent (operating margin 25.50 percent and the net profit margin finally 14.26 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt representing 37.04 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 371.98 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 76.13 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $1.64. Last fiscal year, the company paid $1.58 in form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 19.36, P/S ratio 2.72 and P/B ratio 17.64. Dividend Yield: 5.16 percent. The beta ratio is 0.40.





Take a closer look at the full table of the safest S&P 500 high yield stocks. The average price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio) amounts to 27.15 and forward P/E ratio is 15.17. The dividend yield has a value of 6.00 percent. Price to book ratio is 2.85 and price to sales ratio 1.83. The operating margin amounts to 17.35 percent. The average stock has a beta ratio of 0.60.

Here is the full table with some fundamentals (TTM):


Related stock ticker symbols:
PBCT, PPL, MO, POM, ETR, VZ, EXC, RAI, AEE, T, FTR, CTL, WIN, TEG, HCN