The two safest, highest paying dividend stocks on the market today…

It was early in the morning and my alarm began to pound in repetitive fashion. I quickly rolled over to press the snooze button to end the madness, but the sunlight slowly crept through a nearby window and caused me to squint. The day had officially begun and yet I still felt tired. I thought to myself: If only I could sleep for just a few more minutes.

Somehow I managed to gather up enough energy to pull myself out of bed. After a relaxing hot shower, I stepped outside the bathroom door and stumbled over to the remote control that was lying lifeless on my coffee table. I was expecting to hear something on the television about the weather or traffic conditions, but the mood quickly turned grim.

In a dismal tone the reporter said, “Asian markets pull back severely overnight, pushing many investors here in the U.S into a panic. Market analysts expect heavy selling in early trading – sparking what could be the end of the bubble.”

I’ve had enough, but my nervous curiosity was drawn to every word. My face had turned pale with fear. It’s the end of the party and now it’s time to make difficult decisions. I began to ask:

· Was I prepared for a bear market?
· How do I protect my kid’s college fund and retirement nest egg?
· Is my portfolio allocation properly adjusted?

In a déjà vu like way I suddenly found myself back in bed. The only difference is now I find myself coming out of a nightmarish state in a nauseating sweat. Could a dream so realistic be true? I quickly scrambled over to look at my watch, which read November 29, 2007. It was then that I realized — there’s still time to act.

Don’t let this happen to you…

In choppy market waters it’s always a good thing to have some residual income earning investments ready to pick up the slack. Eventually, the global economy will slow down and experience its first growing pains. Sooner or later, investors will run for the exits. This doesn’t mean that they will get out of investments altogether. Instead, they will seek out safer alternatives.

In a harsh economic environment it may be beneficial to begin thinking about high-yield dividend stocks. Dividend stocks are boring – I realize this. But if your hard earned money is on the line, I’ll take boring over excitement any day. For the time being, these investor friendly vehicles are taxed at only 15%.

Although you probably won’t become rich investing in dividend stocks alone, I can assure you that the right picks could yield an average of 10% or more annually. Just because you invest in dividend plays doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t also expect significant price appreciation as well.

It is common knowledge that stocks that pay dividends tend to fall far less than those that do not pay out anything. Why is this? Well, dividends are hard to fake. An investor who receives his or her check in the mail knows that the company has revenues and that there is value in holding on to the stock.

Advertise here.

Another reason why dividend paying stocks hold up better is that because of their income generating nature, an investor experiencing difficult times during a bust period is more likely to hang onto a security that produces some type of consistent cash flow to help make ends meet.

The investment ideas I am about to disclose do just that. They reward you with a dividend for holding the stock and have the potential starting today to bring you higher price movement in the years ahead. In my opinion, that’s a win-win scenario.

I’ve devised a screen for finding promising returns that will also help you sleep well at night. Here are some of my stringent parameters:

· Current annual dividend yield between 5-10%
· Return on equity greater than 10%
· Average daily volume last quarter greater than 80,000
· Market capitalization greater than $500,000,000
· Revenue growth year-over-year greater than 10%
· Current price-to-earnings ratio less than that of the industry average
· Net profit margin greater than 0
· Next year’s growth rate as high as possible

Instead of providing you with a “top ten” list, I’ve taken this process one step further utilizing technical analysis to find stocks that could start making moves on day one.
Without further ado, these are a small sample of stocks that make the grade:

Open Jt. Stock Co-Vimpel Commun (VIP:NYSE)

· Current annual dividend yield: 5.02%
· Return on equity: 29.80%
· Average daily volume last quarter: 1,434,865
· Market capitalization: $33,293,730,000
· Revenue growth year-over-year: 55.80%
· Current P/E ratio of 30.20 is less than that of the industry average at 42.40
· Net profit margin greater than 18.67%
· Next year’s growth rate: 73.25%

Alliancebernstein Holding Lp (AB:NYSE)

· Current annual dividend yield: 6.24%
· Return on equity: 25.39%
· Average daily volume last quarter: 169,304
· Market capitalization: $6,667,367,000
· Revenue growth year-over-year: 21.40%
· Current P/E ratio of 16.90 is less than that of the industry average at 19.70
· Net profit margin greater than 29.01%
· Next year’s growth rate: 16.42%
These are just a few investment ideas that would make great additions to any conservative investor’s portfolio. For the adventurous type looking for high returns, I’m showing readers solid gains in my service Volume Spike Alert.

In VSA, I’ve formulated a powerful buy and sell signal strategy, which targets sleeping stocks currently experiencing big volume breakouts. It’s a great way to get in early before the rest of the investment crowd comes around. Check out the link below…

Stephen Oakes
Editor, Volume Spike Alert
www.volumespikealert.com