As we head into 2015 we thought it would be fun to take a look back at the top performing dividend-paying stocks from the year. We narrowed the list of candidates down by only including stocks that trade on the NYSE and Nasdaq exchanges. We then included stocks that yield 2% or more and a positive 5 year dividend growth rate.
There are 100 different dividend stocks that have risen 17% or more this year. To get the list down to just the top 30 performers we eliminated stocks with a negative free cash flow yield and a negative 3 year net income growth rate.
Personally I’m glad to see a few of my core holdings here on this list like Leggett & Platt, Cracker Barrell, JNJ and Pepsi. Wayside Technology is a stocks I have been following and of course I wish I had bought in earlier this year.
Hopefully you have more stocks on the top 30 list than I do!
| Name | Symbol | Industry | PE | Yield | 5yr Div Growth % | YTD Return % |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leggett & Platt Inc | LEG | Furnishings | 30.96 | 2.94 | 3.37 | 38.01 |
| 2 | UGI Corp | UGI | Utilities | 19.16 | 2.22 | 8.61 | 36.4 |
| 3 | Grupo Aeroportuario | OMAB | Air Services | 20.83 | 5.68 | 25.07 | 35.63 |
| 4 | Reynolds American | RAI | Tobacco | 21.74 | 4.17 | 7.85 | 33.93 |
| 5 | Altria Group Inc | MO | Tobacco | 22.78 | 3.95 | 1.84 | 33.19 |
| 6 | Wayside Technology | WSTG | Tech | 12.41 | 3.94 | 1.61 | 32.51 |
| 7 | New Jersey Resources | NJR | Utilities | 17.57 | 2.96 | 6.64 | 30.75 |
| 8 | American Electric | AEP | Utilities | 16.03 | 3.46 | 3.52 | 29.91 |
| 9 | Lorillard Inc | LO | Tobacco | 19.84 | 3.93 | 29.11 | 28.28 |
| 10 | Lockheed Martin Corp | LMT | Defense | 18.76 | 2.96 | 21.17 | 28.26 |
| 11 | HNI Corp | HNI | Equipment | 28.74 | 2.05 | 2.22 | 27.22 |
| 12 | Alliant Energy Corp | LNT | Utilities | 17.92 | 3.22 | 6.07 | 26.82 |
| 13 | Genuine Parts Co | GPC | Retail | 22.78 | 2.24 | 6.63 | 25.93 |
| 14 | Duke Energy Corp | DUK | Utilities | 18.76 | 3.81 | 2.74 | 24.39 |
| 15 | Northeast Utilities | NU | Utilities | 20.92 | 3.07 | 12.25 | 24.35 |
| 16 | Idacorp Inc | IDA | Utilities | 16.81 | 2.82 | 5.52 | 23.86 |
| 17 | Cracker Barrel | CBRL | Restaurants | 22.88 | 2.64 | 32.36 | 23.57 |
| 18 | American States Water | AWR | Utilities | 22.52 | 2.42 | 8.73 | 22.28 |
| 19 | Packaging Corp of Am | PKG | Packaging | 14.29 | 2.11 | 4.74 | 21.98 |
| 20 | Wells Fargo & Co | WFC | Banks | 13.16 | 2.51 | -2.42 | 21.26 |
| 21 | Quest Diagnostics Inc | DGX | Diagnostics | 18.12 | 2.03 | 30.26 | 20.86 |
| 22 | Consolidated Edison | ED | Utilities | 15.15 | 3.93 | 1.01 | 20.53 |
| 23 | Escalade Inc | ESCA | Leisure | 20.92 | 2.76 | 6.34 | 20.31 |
| 24 | MGE Energy Inc | MGEE | Utilities | 19.57 | 2.48 | 2.29 | 19.11 |
| 25 | Access National Corp | ANCX | Banks | 13.28 | 2.89 | 59.27 | 19.06 |
| 26 | RPM International Inc | RPM | Chemicals | 22.47 | 2.02 | 3.65 | 19.01 |
| 27 | Merck & Co Inc | MRK | Healthcare | 31.55 | 3.07 | 2.62 | 18.86 |
| 28 | Seagate Technology | STX | Tech | 14.27 | 2.86 | 43.97 | 17.29 |
| 29 | PepsiCo Inc | PEP | Beverages | 20.96 | 2.67 | 6.3 | 17.28 |
| 30 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | Healthcare | 17.3 | 2.64 | 7.61 | 17.03 |
Those of us that have been fortunate enough to own these stocks need to put in some time to determine if they are approaching an over valued state or if they should remain core holdings in 2015. I welcome your thoughts.
Great to see this list, and some very familiar names on there like JNJ, ED, etc. The only thing for me is that LEG, HNI, and MRK have highish PE ratios… do you have any ‘sell’ criteria for these situations? Because reinvesting through DRIPs etc. would cost a lost more at higher valuations, whereas you could find other, lower PE stocks to invest in… I have not quite worked out my ‘sell’ criteria yet, because I’m a big fan of DRIPing.