Best High Dividend Companies To Invest In 2014

A recent article on Benzinga detailed how to use sniper tactics to buy stocks when the dividend yields are higher.

The method involved setting a dividend yield as the target, and then buying at that price. From that, the stock has a lower price and a higher dividend yield.

There are many blue chip stocks with high dividends and high betas such as BP PLC (NYSE: BP), the major oil firm, and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) -- the world's largest heavy equipment maker and a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Another one to consider is Cohen & Steers Inc (NYSE: CNS), an asset manager based in New York City.

10 Best Biotech Stocks To Own Right Now: SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY)

SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (the Fund) seeks to replicate the price and yield of the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index (the Index). The Index is designed to measure the performance of 50 highest dividend yielding S&P Composite 1500 constituents that have followed a managed-dividends policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 25 years. These stocks have both capital growth and dividend income characteristics.

The Fund utilizes a passive or indexing approach and attempts to approximate the investment performance of its benchmark index, by investing in a portfolio of stocks intended to replicate the Index. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. acts as the Adviser of the Fund.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Maxfield]

  Plenty of investment products are specifically designed to reward lazy investors -- think passive exchange-traded funds such as the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEMKT: SPY  ) or its higher-yielding counterpart, the SPDR S&P Dividend (NYSEMKT: SDY  ) . Alternatively, absent blind luck, few individual stocks will do the same.

• [By Todd Rosenbluth, Senior Director, S&P Capital IQ]

  The SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (SDY) is the largest of the four. It owns companies that have increased dividends every year for at least 20 years. Its portfolio has 83 individual stocks with a median market capitalization of $13 billion.

• [By Namitha Jagadeesh]

  Experian (EXPN) lost 2.8 percent for the biggest decline on the FTSE 100 Index after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended selling the credit-reference company�� shares. Speedy Hire Plc (SDY) tumbled the most since January 2009 after the construction-equipment leasing company reported accounting irregularities and its chief executive officer resigned. Barclays Plc (BARC) advanced 2.3 percent, pushing a gauge of banks higher.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  So if two single people each earned $200,000, they wouldn't be subject to the Obamacare tax at all. But if they got married, then $150,000 of their total income of $400,000 would get taxed, with an additional tax liability of $1,350. Similar situations with investment income could lead to a much larger marriage penalty, as the investment tax rate is more than quadruple the rate for wages.�Investors in dividend-oriented ETFs Vanguard High Dividend Yield (NYSEMKT: VYM  ) , SPDR S&P Dividend (NYSEMKT: SDY  ) , and iShares DJ Select Dividend (NYSEMKT: DVY  ) should therefore take care to consider tax-favored investment vehicles for their investments.

Best High Dividend Companies To Invest In 2014: Acxiom Corporation(ACXM)

Acxiom Corporation provides marketing technology and services that enable marketers to manage audience, personalize consumer experiences, and create customer relationships. It operates in two segments, Information Services and Information Products. The Information Services segment offers customer data integration, multichannel marketing services, infrastructure management services, and consulting services. This segment also develops, sells, and delivers industry-tailored solutions, including the design and creation of marketing databases and data warehouses; data integration and customer-recognition systems; marketing applications; list processing; and information technology services. The Information Products segment develops and sells various data products, including segmentation products and domestic fraud and risk mitigation products, as well as online advertising products. This segment provides InfoBase-Xa, a customer-centric foundation for various marketing needs with a collection of the United States consumer information available in one source; PersonicXa, a household segmentation and visualization system; and Acxiom Relevance-Xa, an online advertising network that lets marketers reach the consumers interested in their particular product or service. The company serves clients in financial services, insurance, information services, direct marketing, media, retail, consumer packaged goods, technology, automotive, healthcare, travel, and telecommunications industries. It offers its products and services in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. The company was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Tom Taulli]

  A key to Facebook�� monetization success has been the company�� aggressive investments in ad technologies. For example, by leveraging third-party data sources — such as from Datalogix, Acxiom (ACXM) and Alliance Data Systems (ADS) — it has been able to provide analytics on the performance of ad campaigns. On the Q4 earnings call, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said the average return on News Feed ads was an incredible 8x.

• [By Sally Jones]

  
  Acxiom Corporation (ACXM): Reduced

  Up 47% over 12 months, Acxiom Corporation has a market cap of $1.84 billion; its shares were traded at around $24.98 with a P/E ratio of 33.40 and a P/B of 3.00.

Best High Dividend Companies To Invest In 2014: Penford Corporation(PENX)

Penford Corporation engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of specialty natural-based ingredient systems for food and industrial ingredient applications primarily in the United States. It develops and manufactures ingredients with starch as a base. The starch products are manufactured primarily from corn and potatoes, and are used as binders and coatings in paper and food production, as well as an ingredient in fuel. The company?s Industrial Ingredients segment provides specialty starches to the paper and packaging industries in ethylated, oxidized, and cationic forms. Its ethylated and oxidized starches are used in coatings and as binders, providing printability to fine white, magazine, and catalog paper; and cationic and other liquid starches are used in the paper forming process in paper production, providing the bonding of paper fibers and other ingredients. This segment also produces and sells fuel grade ethanol. The company?s Food Ingredients segmen t offers specialty starches and dextrins to the food manufacturing and food service industries. Its specialty starches are used in coatings for various products, such as French fries sold in restaurants, as well as used as moisture binders in a range of foods, including canned products, sauces, whole and processed meats, dry powdered mixes, and other food and bakery products. Penford Corporation sells its products through a direct sales force, as well as through distributor agreements to manufacturers and processors. The company was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Murray Close, Warner Bros./AP From a major banking institution kicking off the new earnings season to the most-anticipated theme park debut of the year staging its grand opening, here are some things that will help shape the week that lies ahead on Wall Street. Monday -- Food for Thought The market's going to get off to a slow start on the news front. That's not a surprise given that it was closed Friday for Independence Day. One company that will be in the news on Monday is food and industrial products maker Penford (PENX). Penford's wide range of products include food ingredients, pet and animal products, sustainable bioproducts, starches for paper and packaging products and biofuels. Analysts see Penford earning 21 cents a share, but keep in mind that it has come up short against Wall Street expectations in each of the three previous quarters. Tuesday -- Harry Potter Central Florida will be a bit busier than usual on Tuesday when Comcast's (CMCSK) Universal Orlando has its grand opening of the new Diagon Alley expansion to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It's been a rough start. July 8 wasn't the opening date that the park originally wanted, judging by the fact that it had "The Tonight Show" and "Today" run weeklong tie-ins a few weeks ago. Conveniently for Comcast, it owns both the Universal theme parks and NBC. However, with the expansion's indoor coaster proving unreliable -- and even Universal pass holders being denied early access to attractions outside of the new Hogwarts Express train ride -- it could be an interesting debut. The crowds should be huge, the expectations lofty. Wednesday -- Mopping Up WD-40 (WDFC) reports on Wednesday afternoon. This is the company behind the multi-use lubricant. It also offers industrial cleaners, toilet sanitizers and other compounds. WD-40 didn't work out for its shareholders last time out. It posted better than expected 9 percent growth in revenue, but earnings fell just short of expectations. WD-4

Best High Dividend Companies To Invest In 2014: Zions Bancorporation(ZION)

Zions Bancorporation, a multi bank holding company, provides various banking and related products and services in the United States. The company offers community banking services, including small and medium-sized business and corporate banking; commercial and residential development, construction, and term lending; retail banking; treasury cash management and related products and services; residential mortgage; trust and wealth management; and investment activities. It also provides personal banking services to individuals, including home mortgages, bankcard, installment loans, home equity lines of credit, checking accounts, savings accounts, time certificates, safe deposit facilities, direct deposits, and automated teller machine access. In addition, the company offers small business administration lending services; secondary market agricultural real estate mortgage loans; municipal finance advisory and underwriting services; and wealth management and online brokerage ser vices. As of December 31, 2010, Zions Bancorporation offered its banking services through 495 branches in Utah, California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and New Mexico. The company was founded in 1873 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  What a difference a day makes. After plunging yesterday, stocks gained today as investors came to terms with the Federal Reserve’s revised schedule for higher rates, sending shares of Invesco (IVZ), Zions Bancorporation (ZION), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Charles Schwab (SCHW) soaring.

Best High Dividend Companies To Invest In 2014: Broadcom Corporation(BRCM)

Broadcom Corporation designs and develops semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. It provides a portfolio of system-on-a-chip (SoC) and software solutions for the manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices, which enable the delivery of voice, video, data, and multimedia content to the home, office, and mobile environment. Its broadband communications products include cable modem SoCs; femtocell SoCs; MPEG/AVC/VC-1 encoders and transcoders; xDSL, passive optical network, and cable modem customer premises equipment and central office solutions; powerline networking SoCs; digital cable, direct broadcast satellite, terrestrial, and Internet protocol (IP) set-top box integrated receiver demodulators; high definition television and standard definition TV SoCs; and Blu-ray disc SoCs. The company?s mobile and wireless products comprise Wi-Fi and Bluetooth SoCs, wireless connectivity com bo chips, global positioning system SoCs, multimedia processors, applications processors, power management units, VoIP SoCs, mobile TV SoCs, and near field communications tags. Its infrastructure and networking products include Ethernet copper transceivers, Ethernet controllers and switches, backplane and optical front-end physical layer devices, security processors and adapters, and broadband processors. The company markets and sells its products through direct sales force, distributors, and manufacturers? representatives in the United States, as well as through regional offices, and a network of independent distributors and representatives in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 squeaked out new highs today, while the Nasdaq Composite and small caps dropped, following stronger-than-forecast manufacturing data out of China and a U.S. manufacturing survey that had to be corrected twice. Caterpillar (CAT) and Broadcom�(BRCM) gained, while Express Scripts (ESRX) and Puma Biotechnology (PBYI) tumbled.

• [By kcpl]

  However, there are several companies looking to benefit from the evolution of the Internet. The devices need to have connectivity radios, sensors, and controllers built into them to communicate with each other. These type of solutions are provided by the likes of Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) and Broadcom (BRCM).

Best High Dividend Companies To Invest In 2014: Vistaprint NV (VPRT)

Vistaprint N.V., incorporated on June 5, 2009, is an online provider of coordinated portfolios of customized marketing products and services to micro businesses worldwide. The Company offers a range of brand identity and promotional products, marketing services and digital solutions. While the Company focuses on micro business marketing products and services, consumers also purchases its products, such as invitations and announcements, greeting cards, photo books and calendars. Customers visiting the Company's Websites can select the type of product they wish to design from its range of available products and services for the business and home and family markets, including paper based, non-paper based, and digital and marketing services. Paper based products include brochures, business cards, data sheets, desk and wall calendars, envelopes, flyers, folded business cards, folded cards, holiday cards, and invitations and announcements. Its non-paper based products include banners, bottle openers, calculators, car door magnets, decals, drink koozies, embroidered apparel, hats, iphone cases, key chains, lawn signs, letter openers and luggage tags. Its digital and marketing services include blogs, custom Facebook pages, design tools and content, e-mail marketing services and logos.

When a product type has been selected, the customer can initiate the design process by using the Company's predefined industry styles and theme categories, by entering one or more keywords in its image search tool, or by uploading the customer's own design. If the customer chooses to do a keyword search, the Company's automated design logic will, in real time, create and display to the customer a variety of product templates containing images related to the customer's keyword. When the customer chooses a particular template for personalization, the Company's user-friendly, browser-based application enables the customer to quickly and easily perform a wide range of design and editing functions on the selected design,! for example, cropping images or entirely replacing images with other images or uploading customer images or logos.

Once customers choose a pre-designed template or upload their own content for a product, they can instantly see what their design looks like on a range of other Vistaprint products and related services, including signage, Websites and e-mail marketing, business identity, direct mail services, apparel and promotional gifts. Customers who need help with their design or ordering process are able to reach the Company's customer service agents through phone, e-mail, and chat. The Company has six customer service facilities: Montego Bay, Jamaica; Berlin, Germany; the Hague, the Netherlands; Tunis, Tunisia; Sydney, Australia; and Mumbai, India. These centers provide phone, email and chat support for customers who speak English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Turkish, Japanese and Hindi. Using the Company's design software applications, combined with voice over Internet protocol telephone transmission technology and call center management tools, its agents and designers provide customer service. Customers purchasing products check out either through a standard e-commerce self-service shopping basket or by providing their order and payment information through telephone to one of the Company's service agents.

The Company's design creation technologies enable customers, by themselves or together with the assistance of the Company's design support staff, to design and create marketing materials from their homes or offices. The Company's document model architecture and technology employs Internet-compatible data structures to define, process and store product designs as a set of separately searchable, combinable and modifiable component elements. The Company's auto-matching design software generates customized product designs in real-time based on key-word searches. VistaStudio is the Company's product ! design an! d editing software suite, which is downloaded to its customer's computer from its server and runs in the customer's browser. This browser-based software provides real-time client-side editing capabilities. A range of layouts, color schemes and fonts are provided and a selection of photographs and illustrations are available for use by customers in product design. Customers can also upload their own images and logos for incorporation into their product designs. The Company's Internet-based, remote, real-time, co-creativity and project management application and database enables customers and the Company's design agents to design a product across the Internet in real-time, while engaging in voice communication.

Albumprinter Downloadable and Online Editors enable the creation of a range of photo products, such as calendars, canvas prints, and greeting cards through an intuitive user interface. These editors allow the Company's customers the choice of creating their personalized products on their own computer or utilizing their preferred browser and enable functionality, such as auto generated layouts, creation of content, and font selection. Features available to the Company's customers include adding personal images, maps, electronic payment processing, downloadable files and contact forms. Pagemodo offers small businesses to create a professional looking custom Facebook page. Pagemodo allows customers to select from a range of templates to create custom tabs for their Fanpage, including welcome tabs, lead capture tabs and video tabs. Pagemodo also offers a template driven cover image designer, which lets customers create cover images for their Facebook pages through a simple click and edit interface.

The Company's pre-production and production technologies process and aggregate customer orders, prepare orders for high-quality production and manage production, addressing and shipment of these orders. DrawDocs is the Company's automated pre-printing press technology that prepares ! customer ! documents received over the Internet for high-resolution printing. The Company's VistaBridge technology allows the Company to store and process. The Company's aggregation software scans these pending jobs and analyzes a range of production characteristics, including quantity, type and format of raw material, color versus black and white, single or double-sided print, delivery date, shipping location, type of production system being used and type of product. For printed products, the VistaBridge software then automatically aggregates orders with similar production characteristics from multiple customers into a single document image that is transferred to either a digital press or to an automated plating system that produces offset printing plates. Viper is the Company's workflow and production management software for tracking and managing its global production facilities on a networked basis. Viper monitors and manages bar-code driven production batch and order management, pick and pack operations, and addressing and shipping of orders.

The Company uses its marketing technologies to generate and display additional products incorporating the customer's initial designs, facilitating the cross-sale of related products and services. VistaMatch Software generates and displays one or more additional customized product designs based upon a customer's existing design. Design elements and customer information are automatically transferred to the additional design.

Automated Cross-Sell and Up-Sell technology permits the Company to show a customer, while the customer is in the process of purchasing a product, marketing offers for one or more additional or related products. Localization/Language Map is the Company's content management system that permits all of its localized Websites, and the changes to those Websites, to be managed by the same software engine. Text and image components of the Company's Web pages are separated, translated and stored in its managed content database.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Udovich]

  Printing and the various forms of marketing communications that need to be printed (like business cards and stationary) are fundamental to the needs of every business, meaning the recent share surge of small cap Standard Register Co (NYSE: SR) after it announced an acquisition along with its long-term performance against better known peers like RR Donnelley & Sons Co (NASDAQ: RRD) and VistaPrint Limited (NASDAQ: VPRT) is worth taking a closer look at. After all, Standard Register is up 363.2% since the start of the year verses a return of 113.4% for RR Donnelley & Sons Co and�75.9% for VistaPrint Limited.

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Vistaprint (VPRT) provides online customized marketing products and services. This stock closed up 5.2% to $55.01 in Friday's trading session.

  Friday's Volume: 1.16 million
  
  Three-Month Average Volume: 250,767
  
  Volume % Change: 396%

  Shares of VPRT jumped higher on Friday after the company reported a profit topping Wall Street expectations and beat the revenue expectation.

  From a technical perspective, VPRT broke out here above some near-term overhead resistance at $53.16 with heavy upside volume. This stock has been uptrending strong for the last four months, with shares moving higher from its low of $36.51 to its intraday high on Friday of $55.25. During that uptrend, shares of VPRT have been consistently making higher lows and higher highs, which is bullish technical price action. That move has now pushed shares of VRPT within range of triggering a major breakout trade. That trade will hit if VRPT manages to take out $55.25 to its three-year high at $56.25.

  Traders should now look for long-biased trades in VPRT as long as it's trending above $53.16 or above $52 and then once it sustains a move or close above those breakout levels with volume that hits near or above 250,767 shares. If that breakout hits soon, then VRPT will set up to enter new 52-week- and three-year-high territory, which is bullish technical price action. Some possible upside targets off that breakout are $60 to $65.

• [By Geoff Gannon] f="http://www.gurufocus.com/news/161732/glenn-greenbergs-new-buys-growth-stocks-for-value-investors">your article on Glenn Greenberg.

  I didn't realize that you also look at this type of company.

  Looking through some investor presentations, I�� not really convinced that they can maintain current growth rates of 20%.

  Their production facilities are all based in high cost developed nations.

  Why could this not be copied in Asia?

  I just don't see the moat.

  Current valuation assumes double digit performance for several years, one small dip and the stock dives, no margin of safety here...

  Regards,

  Rijk

  You bring up an interesting point about cost. But I�� not sure how much a small price differential matters to customers in this kind of business. I would have to look into that. Any logistical problems would lose you a customer. Also, that assumes the lowest labor costs lead to the lowest production costs ��I�� not sure that�� true in the printing industry.

  I��e had business cards printed. And screwed up (not by Vistaprint). As long as the price was reasonable, I would��e gone with ��he best�� And I would��e had no way to know who ��he best��was other than the most recognized name. Actually, I remember that being the problem when I needed some business cards, company stationary, etc., printed. I had to visit a couple websites. Look at them. Try to guess which was the best. Or at least decent. It was like getting a plumber or something. I had very little ability to separate the good guys from the bad guys. I wasn�� spending time thinking about price ��many printers had prices that seemed awfully similar to me. Instead I was just overwhelmed how frustratingly identical all the choices were.

  I had no way to make an informed decision.

  I can certainly imagine ways of saving money. But I really doubt labor is a good place to try to find those savings. Small orders to small custome

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  Vistaprint N.V. (NASDAQ: VPRT) was started with an Underweight rating and a $48 price target (versus $54.21 close) at Barclays.

  Friday’s analyst upgrades had many more names than the downgrades.