Our Dividend Stock Rating System

Dividend.com was founded to provide long-term and income-seeking investors with in-depth investment research. Much of our dividend stock research is compiled in our proprietary rating system, which is comprised of five distinct factors:

• Relative Strength,
• Overall Yield Attractiveness,
• Dividend Reliability,
• Dividend Uptrend, and
• Earnings Growth.

Each dividend-paying stock receives a rating of one to five stars for each of these influential factors. Read more about our rating criteria below.

1. Relative Strength

The relative strength of a dividend stock indicates whether the stock is uptrending or not. One major determining factor in this rating is whether the stock is trading above its 50- and 200-day moving averages.

2. Overall Yield Attractiveness

This rating reflects our personal opinion about a stock's ability to continue to make its current dividend payout. High dividend yields (usually over 10%) should be considered extremely risky, while low dividend yields (1% or less) are simply not very beneficial to long-term investors.

3. Dividend Reliability

A stock's dividend reliability is determined by the number of years the company has been paying dividends. The longer a company has been reliably paying dividends, the higher its rating.

4. Dividend Uptrend

A stock's Dividend Uptrend rating is dependent on the company's history of regularly increasing its stock dividends.

5. Earnings Growth

A stock's Earnings Growth rating indicates a company's projected earnings for the next four quarters.