Southern Company went ex-dividend on May 18 with a dividend of 60 cents per share, which was up by 3.4% compared to its last payout of 58 cents per share. Southern’s current yield of 5.44% is hovering near its 5-year high of 5.6%.
On a 5-year basis, SO’s stock has behaved like a well-established dividend-paying company’s stock. It hasn’t gone down or up. On June 3, 2013, the price was $40.12, while today, June 4, 2018, the price is $44. During these 5 years, the stock has, on average, yielded close to 4.5% annually. Yields can go up due to an increase in dividend or a decrease in stock price. In SO’s case, the former seems to be the case that has driven the yield up. Investors who are looking to improve their yield on cost or simply get into Southern can look at this spike in yield as a time to get in.
Other stocks that moved up last week were Eli Lilly, Bank of Nova Scotia and Caterpillar. While Eli Lilly and Bank of Nova Scotia went up by one place each, Caterpillar went up by two to round off a rather subdued week for the Most Watched Stocks List. Compared to the massive jumps in Medtronic and General Mills that were being seen over the past couple of weeks, this week was rather timid.
Our Most Watched Stocks List is a user-generated, interest-based ranking of dividend-paying stocks, giving you a real-time snapshot of buying interest in the market. Generated by our Premium members’ watchlists, it’s aggregated and ranked by the most watched criteria.
The list has been designed to help income investors navigate the top dividend stocks being tracked by one of the world’s most advanced investing communities.
