It is understandable that dividend investors often start their search for investment candidates by looking at dividend yield. But just picking the highest-yielding stocks isn't likely to be a winning strategy over the long term. You need to do more digging.

A look at the three highest-yielding stocks in the S 500 index, Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA), Altria Group (NYSE: MO), and Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), helps explain why.

If there's one thing that no dividend investor wants to see it's likely to be a dividend cut. But that's exactly what Walgreens did at the start of 2024, taking its quarterly payment from $0.48 per share to $0.25. That's a nearly 50% reduction in the payment, something that a company wouldn't do without a very good reason.

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Source Fool.com