Dividend

Readers looking for the 100 "highest" paying dividend stocks will be disappointed since the the stocks reviewed in this book are not necessarily the 100 "highest" paying stocks, but are 100 stocks that pay "best" dividends. Best is defined as either increasing the dividend payments regularly or paying above average dividends and not being a highly volitle stock. Some stocks pay high dividends but are extremely risky and those stocks are excluded. Other stocks pay solid but low dividends, yet they made it into the book because the authors believe that over time they will provide a good overall return ( dividends + stock appreciation ). The book is divided into two categories: 1) stocks that don't pay a high dividend but have rapidly and regularly increased their dividends, and 2) stocks that have above average yields and safe dividends. Both sections are sorted alphabetically, which can be somewhat frustrating when trying to find the highest paying dividends in either section. Also note that the book was published in 1997 and has not been updated to include 1998 information. Since some stocks have merged or otherwise changed stock symbols and dividend payouts may have changed this year, an updated version would have been more helpful. Still, the authors succeed in giving the readers a good base to work from by including the usual Standard & Poor's stock research. Once you have selected a group of stocks to investigate it is not too hard to gather the updated information and decide if the stock should still be considered one of the 100 "best" dividend paying stocks. This book is a good buy for someone who is investing for long-term appreciation as well as income.

Anthony Spare and Paul Ciotti make a logical, but uninspired, case for making Relative Dividend Yield part of one's equity valuation and also one's buy/sell decisions. The book is clearly written and offers ample graphs to substantiate the notion of buying equities when dividend yields are high, and selling them once they are low.

Actually, the graphs may be too ample...readers of this rather expensive 248-page book will quickly learn that the text is a bit long on charts showing individual equity dividend yields relative to stock indexes over time, and a bit short on specifics concerning the avoidance of issues whose yields are high for good reason.

That's the book's essential deficiency: the authors devote a mere twelve overly general pages to "Pitfalls and Preventative Measures" (Chapter 6). Also, since investors will likely have a difficult time constructing the kinds of charts the Relative Dividend Yield methodology requires, it would have been helpful to offer tips on a cost-effective means to make this methodology applicable in real-time. The authors do, however, provide graphs with prior relative dividend yield histories, with room to continue plotting these yields, on several "blue chip" dividend-paying equities.