10 Super-Safe Dividend Stocks to Buy Now
Safe dividend stocks are like the equity investment world's version of having your cake and eating it, too: Not only do investors get a nice dividend payout every quarter, but they also participate in the stock's gains. If the stock price slides, the dividend is there to cushion the blow. But how, exactly, does one determine whether a dividend is truly safe? One place we like to look on occasion is the DIVCON system from investment firm Reality Shares, which analyzes stocks that pay a dividend among the largest U.S. companies. These are not your conventional choices; they weren't picked just for their dividend yield. Rather, these are the safest dividend stocks, rated highest for both potential future cash payouts and share price increases. DIVCON (which stands for "dividend condition") uses seven factors to assess a company's dividend health: dividend growth forecast, levered free cash flow, earnings growth, five-year dividend history, buybacks, financial str...