The ins and outs of… spotting high-yield dangers

Article Excerpt

High dividend yields are very attractive to income seeking investors—right now and always. But you still need to be cautious. Despite recent rate hikes, interest rates are still relatively low, and investors still earn relatively low returns on fixed-return investments. This leads some income-seeking investors to buy high-yield stocks indiscriminately, without looking too closely to see if a yield is simply high because investors worry the company will soon be unable to keep paying its current dividend. When a high-yield stock cuts its dividend, the stock’s price generally drops. This may be temporary—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 as the stock price (the fraction’s bottom number) 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…