The Best Yielding Stocks from the S&P 500

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Apr 04, 2012
The S&P 500 index is a popular used tool by investors. Professionals like big insurance player or pension funds allocate their portfolio weighting on indices like the Dow Jones Index and Standard & Poor’s 500. The S&P 500 is a free-float capitalization-weighted index published since 1957 by Standard & Poor's, a division of McGraw-Hill Companies.


I screened the index with its 500 companies by the best dividend yields. The index has eighteen high yields and the highest yield amounts to 9.32 percent, paid by Frontier Communications (FTR, Financial). Frontier has a great sales growth performance of the recent years but earnings growth suffered.


Here are my favorite stocks:


1. Reynolds American (RAI, Financial) has a market capitalization of $23.90 billion. The company employs 5,400 people, generates revenues of $8,541.00 million and has a net income of $1,406.00 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $2,537.00 million. Because of these figures, the EBITDA margin is 29.70 percent (operating margin 28.09 percent and the net profit margin finally 16.46 percent).


The total debt representing 22.54 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 58.60 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 22.04 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $2.40. Last fiscal year, the company paid $2.15 in form of dividends to shareholders.


Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 17.27, P/S ratio 2.78 and P/B ratio 3.83. Dividend Yield: 5.39 percent. The beta ratio is 0.57.


2. Altria Group (MO, Financial) has a market capitalization of $63.60 billion. The company employs 9,900 people, generates revenues of $23,800.00 million and has a net income of $3,393.00 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $6,321.00 million. Because of these figures, the EBITDA margin is 26.56 percent (operating margin 25.50 percent and the net profit margin finally 14.26 percent).


The total debt representing 37.04 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 371.98 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 76.13 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $1.64. Last fiscal year, the company paid $1.58 in form of dividends to shareholders.


Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 18.98, P/S ratio 2.68 and P/B ratio 17.31. Dividend Yield: 5.26 percent. The beta ratio is 0.41.


3. Exelon Corporation (EXC, Financial) has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion. The company employs 19,267 people, generates revenues of $18,924.00 million and has a net income of $2,495.00 million. The firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounts to $5,815.00 million. Because of these figures, the EBITDA margin is 30.73 percent (operating margin 23.67 percent and the net profit margin finally 13.18 percent).


The total debt representing 24.49 percent of the company’s assets and the total debt in relation to the equity amounts to 93.79 percent. Due to the financial situation, a return on equity of 17.86 percent was realized. Twelve trailing months earnings per share reached a value of $3.75. Last fiscal year, the company paid $2.10 in form of dividends to shareholders.


Here are the price ratios of the company: The P/E ratio is 10.38, P/S ratio 1.76 and P/B ratio 1.81. Dividend Yield: 5.36 percent. The beta ratio is 0.55.


Take a closer look at the full table of high yield stocks from the S&P 500. The average P/E ratio amounts to 26.8 and forward P/E ratio is 13.61. The dividend yield has a value of 6.25 percent. Price to book ratio is 2.84 and price to sales ratio 1.87. The operating margin amounts to 15.09 percent.


Related stock ticker symbols:

FTR, WIN, PBI, RRD, CTL, SVU, POM, T, HCN, RAI, EXC, MO, GCI, VZ, PPL, TEG, HCP, TE


Additional Yield Lists:

- Yields of the Dow Jones

- NASDAQ 100

- Yields Dividend Aristocrats