With above-average dividend yielding stocks lagging the broader market this year, more conservative growth and income investors are in a position to add these stocks to their portfolios. Not only do they present a good value now, they are also better suited to handle the current volatile markets.
While there were there was no deletions, Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. (NYSE: MMC) is the newest member of the Dividend Rulers team. The company is comprised of two business segments: a leading insurance brokerage and a collection of consulting businesses focusing on human resource management and management consulting. Marsh & McLennan has increased its dividend by 5% to 6% annually over the past decade and by a faster 10% rate over the past three years. Management has committed to “double digit dividend growth” going forward.
Marsh & McLennan investors are paid a solid 2.4% dividend. The Thomson/First Call consensus price target for the stock is $61.17. The stock closed Tuesday at $54.26.
We also screened for the current highest yielding members of the portfolio. Here are the four highest yielding stocks in the portfolio now.
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Dominion Resources
Many of the Wall Street firms that we cover are becoming more positive on utilities again after this year’s underperformance. Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE: D) is one of the nation’s largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 24,600 megawatts of generation and 6,455 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation’s largest natural gas storage systems, with 928 billion cubic feet of storage capacity, and serves utility and retail energy customers in 13 states.
Dominion investors are paid a solid 3.77% dividend. The UBS price target for the stock is $79. The consensus target is at $79. The stock closed Tuesday at $68.72.
Intel
This stock could be poised for a very solid last half of the year. Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) is one of the technology companies that is regarded as having among the highest shareholder cash returns, at approximately 8%, but has lagged high-growth specialty chip stocks. The iconic chip giant had a stellar 2014 on the tailwind from continued personal computer sales, but this year has been a far different story. That is why a new product introduction and a new focus at Intel beyond the PC world is positive for the company going forward. Many experts are very positive on the new 3D XPoint chip, which could be primarily for In-Memory compute in servers and its launch should coincide with Intel’s Purley platform launch in 2016.
Intel investors are paid a solid 3.4% dividend. UBS has a $36.50 price target and the consensus price objective is $33.20. Shares closed Tuesday at $29.50.
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Invesco
This company is a financial services leader that has strong positions in both equity exchange traded funds (ETFs) and actively managed equity and debt mutual funds. Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ) looks to be very well-positioned to capitalize on inflows into both segments, as well as higher asset prices as many on Wall Street see a continuation of the six-year bull market.
Invesco PowerShares is the boutique investment management firm that manages a family of ETFs. The company has been part of Invesco, which markets the PowerShares product, since 2006. The incredible growth and popularity of the product is why many on Wall Street remain so bullish on the stock. Many analysts see the company as one that is best positioned to compete for share given mix, product offerings and attractive relative performance.
Invesco investors are paid a 3.38% dividend. The UBS price target is $45 and the consensus target is $44.75. The shares closed Tuesday at $32.92.
Occidental Petroleum
This company is a top energy stock that comes in as the highest yielding stock in the Dividend Rulers portfolio. Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) announced last year it will continue to grow dividends and expects to begin buying back more shares this year and beyond, a double plus for shareholders. Analysts feel that the company still faces the rebounding oil price correction with the strongest balance sheet in the sector, with net cash at year-end 2014 estimated at around $1.7 billion, and a whopping $11 per share of cash available for buy backs. With chemicals and other products helping to blunt the drop in oil, Occidental is well positioned to continue to ride out the storm.
This is also another company that is taking advantage of huge cost savings. In fact, capital expenditures are expected to fall from $1.7 billion to $1.0 billion by the end of the year.
Occidental shareholders are paid an outstanding 4.32% dividend. The consensus price target is $81.52. The stock closed on Tuesday at $69.50.
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With the potential for the Federal Reserve to make very small increase in the fed funds rate when they start to lift rates, these top dividend stock make good sense for conservative accounts going forward.
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