Best Dividend Contenders For 2013

 | Dec 08, 2012 05:24AM ET

Everybody loves dividends and dividend growth. In addition, everybody wants to buy high dividend stocks with growth potential . But making money with stocks is more than buying cheap stocks and selling them at a higher price. You need to be aware of your risks and your trading limits.

I love stocks with rising sales and earnings that raise their distributions to shareholders every year. For me as investor, it is a great way to boost my dividend income without hard work. That’s the main reason why I am looking for buy opportunities among the best dividend paying stocks worldwide. I screened my Dividend Contenders database for cheap stocks with interesting valuation figures.

Dividend Contenders are “middle level” dividend growth stocks. They are stock that have raised their dividend payments over a period of more than 10 consecutive years but less than 25 years. For the time being, 180 Contenders are available.

I selected only those with a market capitalization over USD 2 billion, a forward P/E ratio of less than 15 as well as double-digit expected earnings per share growth. In addition, the company should have shown a past sales growth of more than 10 percent yearly and an operating margin of over 10 percent. Thirteen wonderful dividend growth stocks fulfilled these criteria of which eleven are currently rated with a buy or strong buy.

People's United Financial (PBCT) has a market capitalization of $4.22 billion. The company employs 4,788 people, generates revenue of $1.052 billion and has a net income of $198.80 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $402.60 million. The EBITDA margin is percent (the operating margin is 24.01 percent and the net profit margin 16.15 percent).

Financial Analysis: The total debt represents 2.48 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 13.09 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 3.78 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $0.66. Last fiscal year, the company paid $0.63 in the form of dividends to shareholders.

Market Valuation: Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 18.26, the P/S ratio is 3.43 and the P/B ratio is finally 0.81. The dividend yield amounts to 5.27 percent and the beta ratio has a value of 0.32.