Dividend stock investors enjoy getting cash back from their investments on a regular basis. Yet the worst news that a Dividend investor can receive is that a company has chosen to reduce or eliminate its payout. That's because the news often comes with a double hit: Not only do you lose your Dividend payment, but the stock price often reacts negatively, as well.

That's what happened with longtime dividend stock Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA) in early January. The drugstore chain came into 2023 with a streak of 47 straight years of increased dividends, and technically, it made that streak 48 years by paying more in total dividends last year than it had in 2022. However, that streak came to an abrupt halt when Walgreens slashed its dividend by 48% to $0.25 per share, falling just short of the 50-year mark that would've qualified the company as a dividend King.

Walgreens showed some of the warning signs that would've alerted shareholders to a potential problem. Here are four key things that every dividend stock investor should keep an eye out for.

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Source Fool.com