20 Highly Rated European Dividend Stocks

 | Jan 31, 2013 05:06AM ET

Europe’s roof is on fire due to the debt crises. That was one of the major headlines in the press over the past year. The fire still burns but the worst seems to be over.

Europe’s economy still has value. It’s also an export-driven region with a GDP of 13,076 billion, the second largest figure in the world. Certainly, the economy is weak, unemployment rates are at a high level of 11.8 percent and growth is slowing with a contracting GDP growth of -0.6 percent year over year.

But the currency market has turned, and is reaching the highest value since the debt crises. More and more money is coming back to Europe mainly because of the ECB's easing policy .

With that in mind, here are the best yielding investment opportunities with a current buy rating and a listing in the United States. 162 companies with headquarter in Europe are listed on an American Stock Exchange. 102 of them pay dividends and 57 have a current buy or better rating. In order to exclude the stocks with higher risk due to a narrow business model, I selected only stocks with a market capitalization over USD 10 billion. 41 stocks still remain.

The list shows that Europe still has competitive companies with a dominant market position such as Novo Nordisk, Anheuser Bush, Deutsche Bank and National Grid which are all leading players.

Sanofi (SNY) has a market capitalization of $129.70 billion. The company employs 113,719 people, generates revenue of $47.297 billion and has a net income of $6.562 billion. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $13.805 billion. The EBITDA margin is 29.19 percent (the operating margin is 16.18 percent and the net profit margin 13.87 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 15.41 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 27.46 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 10.42 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $3.05. Last fiscal year, the company paid $1.79 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 16.07, the P/S ratio is 2.74 and the P/B ratio is finally 1.70. The dividend yield amounts to 3.46 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 0.91.