3 Top Dividend Stocks to Buy Now

Talk about top or best dividend stocks, and chances are, high-yielding stocks will be the focus of the conversation. It's true that yield is a key deciding factor for dividend-seeking investors, but high yield doesn't necessarily make a great dividend stock. Prudent income investors should look beyond yields and pay greater attention to a company's cash flows trend, dividend growth prospects, and history among other things, before adding stocks to their portfolios. If cash flows and dividends aren't growing, a high-yield stock could even trap you.

For example, CenturyLink's (NYSE: CTL) dividend yield has now shot up to 16%, attracting value and income investors alike. Some investors are betting on the telecom's acquisition of Level 3 Communications to help it ride out the storm, but in the absence of any earnings growth visibility as of yet and a payout above 100%, CenturyLink's dividend looks as risky as it can get.

As a long-term dividend-minded investor, you might want to avoid CenturyLink right now. Instead, you should be looking for stocks in top-quality businesses with strong earnings growth potential that can pay you stable, and even higher, dividends year after year. Three such top dividend stocks that you can buy today are industrial conglomerate 3M (NYSE: MMM), alternative-asset manager Brookfield Asset Management's (NYSE: BAM) infrastructure arm Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE: BIP), and midstream oil and gas play Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD).

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Source: Fool.com