The ins and outs of … high-yield danger signs

Article Excerpt

High dividend yields are very attractive to investors, especially right now—but they need to be cautious. Interest rates have moved up lately, but investors still earn low returns on their fixed-return investments. This leads some to buy high-yield stocks indiscriminately, without looking too closely to see if a yield is high because investors wonder how long the company can keep paying its current dividend. When a high-yield stock cuts its dividend, the stock’s price generally drops. This may be a temporary setback. Or, it may be the first concrete appearance of the potential risk that the high yield hinted at. Remember, the formula for dividend yield is dividend/stock price. The yield went up because the stock price (the bottom number in the fraction) went down. The stock price went down because investors collectively saw a long-term risk in the stock. If the dividend cut is the first concrete sign of the risk that investors foresaw, it can set off a cascade of factors…