Dividend stocks turning heads

With a host of U.S. financials recently announcing dividend hikes, dividend stocks are attracting attention once again. Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor's, tells BNN in the past three months alone, dividend investors have received a “7-percent pay raise.”

“As an instrument, as long as you’re willing to be into the equity markets, I think the dividend payers give you a much better edge because you’re getting money for holding the stock, not just waiting to sell it at some point down the road,” he says.

Silverblatt says dividends will continue to rise in the coming months and years, as companies are making well over twice of what they are paying out.

“Companies are only paying out about a third of what they’re making—typically it’s 54 percent.”