How To Find The Stock Market Dividend Stars At Investors.com

The stock market came under even more pressure Thursday as oil prices and bond yields rose again. The relentless selling in the gold group continued, while leaders in the mining sector like Southern Copper (SCCO), Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) and Alcoa (AA) also fell hard.

With the Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 below their 200-day moving averages and IBD’s stock market exposure currently at 0% to 20%, a healthy cash position with limited exposure makes sense. But money has been flowing into the utility sector, which has been working its way higher through IBD’s 33 sector rankings. Through Wednesday, it was up about 7.5% year-to-date compared with the S&P 500’s decline of around 3%.

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Investors consider the utility sector a safe haven during periods of economic uncertainty. That’s because utilities are known for paying regular, above-average dividends. And income-focused investors like reliable cash flow during uneven markets.

Stock Market Dividend Leader

It’s easy to follow top-performing dividend-paying stocks with the The Income Investor feature at Investors.com. It can be accessed via the Research tab at the top of the homepage. Look in the third column at the bottom. The page is an archive of Income Investor stories from IBD Weekly, and it’s a great research tool. Last week, Plains All American Pipeline (PAA) was featured.

The stock, with a nifty dividend yield of nearly 8% as of Thursday, is a member of the red-hot oil and gas sector and just cleared a yearlong consolidation. Tight trading near highs since the breakout could yield an alternate entry soon. A pullback and bounce off the 10-week moving average would also do it. Last month, Plains boosted its quarterly dividend by 10% to 41.75 cents a share.

About a month before Plains was featured, real estate investment trust Getty Realty (GTY) appeared. The company pays a quarterly dividend of 48 cents a share, giving it an robust dividend yield of 5.8%. The small cap continues to sit near the top of a giant cup base with a 33.84 buy point.

The IBD Big Cap 20 is also home to some dividend payers, but don’t expect to find the high yielders found from time to time in The Income Investor. The Big Cap 20 screen is located in the Stock Lists tab, also at the top of the homepage.

In Thursday’s Big Cap 20 screen, Williams Cos. (WMB) offered the highest yield at 2.8%. The integrated oil and gas company broke out a base during the week ended Jan. 23 (1) and went on a hardy run. The stock continues to trade tightly near highs and recently completed a three-weeks-tight pattern with an add-on entry of 76.87.

_Follow Ken Shreve on X @IBD_KShreve _for more stock market analysis and insight.

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