5 Best Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014

The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats is the most recognized list of dividend stocks. The Dividend Aristocrats index is designed to measure the performance of S&P 500 constituents that have followed a policy of consistently increasing dividends every year for at least 25 consecutive years.

Dividend Aristocrats exhibit the following characteristics:

- They are a member of the S&P 500.
- The index is equally weighted with constituents re-weighted quarterly.
- List is reviewed and updated annually in December.

Make no mistake, Dividend Aristocrats are the blue-blood of dividend growth stocks. When building your core portfolio, this list is where you want to start your evaluation. If you want dividend growth, these stocks have been there, and done that - for decades.

This week, I screened my dividend growth stocks database for Dividend Aristocrats with a yield greater than 3% and have increased their dividends for at least 35 consecutive years. The results are presented below:

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014: Capital Bank Corporation(CBKN)

Capital Bank Corporation operates as the holding company for Capital Bank that provides general commercial banking products and services in North Carolina. Its deposit products include checking, savings, negotiable order of withdrawal, money market, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company?s loan products portfolio comprises loans for real estate, construction, businesses, agriculture, personal use, home improvement, and automobiles, as well as equity lines of credit, mortgage loans, credit loans, consumer loans, and credit cards. It also offers safe deposit boxes, bank money orders, Internet banking services, traveler?s checks, and notary services, as well as electronic funds transfer services, including wire transfers and remote deposit capture. In addition, the company provides automated teller machine access to its customers; and a line of uninsured investment products and services. It operates 32 branch offices in North Carol ina, including 5 in Raleigh, 4 in Asheville, 4 in Fayetteville, 3 in Burlington, 3 in Sanford, 2 in Cary, and 1 each in Clayton, Graham, Hickory, Holly Springs, Mebane, Morrisville, Oxford, Pittsboro, Siler City, Wake Forest, and Zebulon. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capital Bank Corporation is a subsidiary of North American Financial Holdings, Inc.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014: Cedar Shopping Centers Inc (CDR)

Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc., real estate investment trust, engages in the ownership, operation, development and redevelopment of supermarket-anchored community shopping centers and drug store-anchored convenience centers in the United States. As of December 31, 2007, it owned 118 properties, aggregating approximately 12.0 million square feet of gross leasable area primarily in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, and New York. Cedar Shopping has elected to be treated as a REIT for federal income tax purposes and would not be subject to federal income tax, if it distributes at least 90% of its REIT taxable income to its stockholders. The company was founded in 1984 and is based in Port Washington, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Bill Smith]

  Valuation
  Lastly, because of the negative perception the entire industry has received, prices in this sector have been absolutely pummeled. ESI now trades at the lower end of all of its historical valuation bands: P/E, P/B, and P/S.
  
  Bullish Points
  Guru ownership and avg price: ESI owned by Hussman ($76.15), Weitz ($75.32), and Greenblatt ($73.29)Over 35% of shares are short, potential short squeezeStock buyback plan: ESI reduced outstanding shares by 19% yoy at the end of the 4th quarter. They repurchased 370K shares in 3Q11.The business model is scalable; the incremental cost to educate each additional student is low, leading to high marginsESI acquired Daniel Webster College, giving them a regional accreditation which they can use to broaden their reach in online classes
  Bearish Points
  High costs of education, in general, rightly or wrongly attract government intervention and could squeeze margins over time. Total student debt surpassed credit card balances, and sits at $1 Trillion as of the end of 2011.Subject to compliance with Dept of Education's 90/10 rules, which states a college can't collect more than 90% of revenue from students participating in federal loan programs.Cohort Default Rate (CDR): for-profit colleges must monitor the federal loan default rates of students who graduate or leave the school. If a school's CDR exceeds 25% for 3 consecutive years, or 40% in any one year, its students won't be eligible for federal financial aid.ESI competes on quality of product which is measured by graduation rates and ability to secure employment. For 2010, 70% of ESI graduates got employment in positions using skills taught in their program of study within 1 year. As of Oct 2011, this rate was 600 bp higher. The average annual salary reported by employed 2011 grads was $32K, compared to $32.4K for 2010 grads.With an improving economy, there's a potential ESI would see declining new student enrollmentsOver 35% of shares are short
  Summary

10 Best Growth Stocks For 2014: DTE Energy Company(DTE)

DTE Energy Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an electric and natural gas utility company in Michigan. It also involves in non-utility operations. The company?s Energy Utility segment engages in the generation, purchase, distribution, and sale of electricity in southeastern Michigan. It generates electricity from various fuels, including coal, as well as from nuclear and hydro facilitates. As of December 31, 2010, this segment owned and operated approximately 674 distribution substations and approximately 412,100 line transformers; and supplied electricity to 2.1 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers in southeastern Michigan. The company?s Gas Utility segment engages in the purchase, storage, transmission, distribution, and sale of natural gas in Michigan. As of December 31, 2010, this segment?s distribution system included approximately 19,000 miles of distribution mains, 1,036,000 service lines, and 1,319,000 active meters. It also o wned approximately 2,000 miles of transmission lines that deliver natural gas; and supplied natural gas to approximately 1.2 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers throughout Michigan, as well as to approximately 17,000 customers in Adrian, Michigan. The company?s non-utility operations include natural gas pipelines and storage; unconventional gas exploration, development, and production; power and industrial projects, and coal transportation and marketing; and energy marketing and trading operations. Its customers include electric utilities, merchant power producers, integrated steel mills, and industrial companies. DTE Energy Company was founded in 1995 and is based in Detroit, Michigan.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jonathan Morgan]

  Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) slipped 1.4 percent to 9.21 euros. Europe�� second-largest telephone company traded without the right to a dividend today.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014: Johnson & Johnson(JNJ)

Johnson & Johnson engages in the research and development, manufacture, and sale of various products in the health care field worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Consumer, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Devices and Diagnostics. The Consumer segment provides products used in baby care, skin care, oral care, wound care, and women?s health care fields, as well as nutritional, over-the-counter pharmaceutical products, and wellness and prevention platforms under the brands of JOHNSON?S, AVEENO, CLEAN & CLEAR, JOHNSON?S Adult, NEUTROGENA, RoC, LUBRIDERM, DABAO, LISTERINE, REACH, BAND-AID, CAREFREE, STAYFREE, SPLENDA, TYLENOL, SUDAFED, ZYRTEC, MOTRIN IB, and PEPCID AC. The Pharmaceutical segment offers products in various therapeutic areas, such as anti-infective, antipsychotic, contraceptive, dermatology, gastrointestinal, hematology, immunology, neurology, oncology, pain management, and virology. Its principal products include REMICADE for the treatment of immune me diated inflammatory diseases; STELARA for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis; SIMPONI, a treatment for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis; VELCADE for the treatment of multiple myeloma; PREZISTA and INTELENCE for treating HIV/AIDS patients; NUCYNTA for moderate to severe acute pain; INVEGA SUSTENNAtm for the acute and maintenance treatment of schizophrenia in adults; RISPERDAL CONSTA for the management of bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia; and PROCRIT to stimulate red blood cell production. The Medical Devices and Diagnostics segment primarily offers circulatory disease management products; orthopaedic joint reconstruction, spinal care, and sports medicine products; surgical care, aesthetics, and women?s health products; blood glucose monitoring and insulin delivery products; professional diagnostic products; and disposable contact lenses. The company was founded in 1886 and is based in Ne w Brunswick, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Luke Jacobi]

  Earnings took full swing today with Citigroup (NYSE: C), Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), and Coca Cola (NYSE: KO)�reporting earnings this morning. Johnson & Johnson was the only of this group to beat analyst estimates, shares were up 0.42 percent heading into the close.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014: ConAgra Foods Inc.(CAG)

ConAgra Foods, Inc. operates as a food company primarily in North America. It operates in two segments, Consumer Foods and Commercial Foods. The Consumer Foods segment provides branded, private label, and customized food products, which are sold in various retail and foodservice channels. It offers products in various categories, such as meals, entrees, condiments, sides, snacks, and desserts in frozen, refrigerated, and shelf-stable temperature classes. This segment?s principal brands include Alexia, ACT II, Banquet, Blue Bonnet, Chef Boyardee, DAVID, Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Hebrew National, Hunt?s, Marie Callender?s, Orville Redenbacher?s, PAM, Peter Pan, Reddi-wip, Slim Jim, Snack Pack, Swiss Miss, Van Camp?s, and Wesson. The Commercial Foods segment provides commercially branded foods and ingredients that are sold to foodservice, food manufacturing, and industrial customers. Its primary products consist of specialty potato products, milled grain ingredients, a ran ge of vegetable products, seasonings, blends, and flavors. This segment sells products under brands, such as ConAgra Mills, Lamb Weston, and Spicetec Flavors & Seasonings. The company was founded in 1919 and is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jake L'Ecuyer]

  Top Headline
  ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG) reported a 42% drop in its fiscal first-quarter earnings.

  ConAgra's quarterly profit fell to $144.3 million, or $0.34 per share, from $250.1 million, or $0.61 per share, in the year-ago period. Its earnings from continuing operations came in at $0.33 per share. Excluding one-time items, its earnings declined to $0.37 from $0.44 per share.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  But Mondelez has suffered some headwinds. In its most recent earnings report last month, Mondelez reported weakness in its coffee segment, forcing it to cut prices in Europe in order to stay competitive. Moreover, Hershey (NYSE: HSY  ) has stepped up its presence in the lucrative emerging market regions, where Mondelez has enjoyed substantial revenue growth. In addition, the rise of private-label offerings from ConAgra (NYSE: CAG  ) as it works with grocery store chains to offer competing products to those Mondelez offers has hit the global snack company especially hard, given its many premium-priced snack offerings that especially lend themselves to private-label knockoffs.

• [By Rich Smith]

  A few weeks back, I made the argument for why General Mills (NYSE: GIS  ) stock offers investors a pretty compelling bargain -- based on the stock's valuation, and relative to a couple of its larger rivals. Whether you value the stock on its GAAP earnings, its actual free cash flow ("cash profit"), or even on the size of its dividend yield, General Mills stock is cheaper, and pays you better, than do the stocks of either Kellogg (NYSE: K  ) or ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG  ) .

• [By Michael Flannelly]

  JP Morgan analysts believe that consensus earnings estimates on ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG) have downside risk. As such, the analysts downgraded the packaged food manufacturer on Tuesday.

  The analysts downgraded CAG from “Overweight” to “Neutral” and see shares reaching $33. This price target suggests a slight upside to the stock’s Monday closing price of $32.09.

  ConAgra shares were down 20 cents, or 0.69%, during early morning trading on Tuesday. The stock is up 8.27% year-to-date.