Highest Dividend Yield Stocks - Complete Rankings
Ranked on the forward yield: the annualized rate of the latest declared dividend divided by the current price.
Ex Date and Pay Date describe the most recently declared dividend, as the source reports them, so a row can carry a date still ahead of today or one already past and neither is stale.
What these columns measure
- Dividend Yield
- The latest declared dividend annualized by the company's payment frequency, divided by the current price. It states what that declaration is worth over a year at today's price rather than what the company has actually paid over the past one. The price is the denominator, so the figure moves when the price moves and nothing about the payment has to change for it to rise: a company whose shares have halved shows twice the yield on the same dividend, which is why the largest figures on this board are worth reading beside the price column. A "special" marker means the figure comes from a one-off payment and is unlikely to repeat; a "Last dividend" badge means nothing new has been declared since that date, so the payment may since have been reduced or discontinued while the yield still reflects it.
- Frequency
- How often the company has been paying. The yield is annualized on this cadence, so an irregular payer's yield is the least reliable figure on the board.
- Dividend
- The per-share amount of that most recently declared payment, as the source reports it.
- Ex Date
- The day the most recently declared dividend goes ex, after which a purchase no longer carries entitlement to it. A date still ahead means the payment is announced and has not gone ex yet; a date already past means that was the latest declaration.
- Pay Date
- The day that same declared dividend is paid. Both dates are exchange calendar days and read identically wherever you are.
- Why a company may be missing
- A forward yield is stated only when a twelve-month measure comes within a factor of 2 of it either way: the sum of what the company actually paid over the last twelve months, or a second data source's yield. A declaration the feed recorded wrongly, or a payout too variable to annualize, fails both, and the row is left off rather than shown with a figure nothing else supports. A company with neither twelve-month figure is listed on its declared figure alone.
- Why funds lead the list
- The highest yields belong mostly to closed-end funds, business development companies and mortgage REITs, whose distributions can include a return of the investor's own capital rather than earnings. A high yield here says what the payout is worth at today's price, not that the business behind it is healthy.
- Why a cell shows a dash
- A dash is a value the source did not supply, never a zero. Under Frequency it means no recognizable payment pattern for the symbol, which makes the annualization behind its yield an assumption rather than an observed cadence; under Country or Sector it means the value is not recorded for the company.
Swipe or scroll the table sideways for more columns.
Yields reflect each company's most recent declared dividend, annualized by its payment frequency and divided by the latest price. Companies whose dividend is only predicted, with no recent or scheduled payment, are excluded. Rows marked "Last dividend" have not declared a new dividend in over six months; the payment may have been reduced or discontinued.
How to read this ranking
Dividend Yield is the column the board is ordered by, and it is a forward yield: the most recently declared dividend annualized by the payment frequency shown beside it, divided by the latest price. A quarterly payer's declaration is therefore multiplied by four. That annualization is an assumption rather than a record, which is why Frequency sits next to the yield and why a row with no recognizable cadence shows a dash there instead of a number.
Dividend is the single declared payment per share the yield was built from; the annual total is that payment times the payment frequency. Ex Date is the day a buyer must already own the shares to receive that payment, and Pay Date is the day it lands. Both are reported for the most recently declared dividend rather than for a fixed point in the calendar, so a row shows a future date once the company announces its next payment and a past date while its latest declaration is the one already paid. Neither is stale. A row marked "Last dividend" has declared nothing new in over six months, which means its yield rests on a payment the company may have already stopped making.
Market Cap, Price, Country and Sector describe the company as it stands now. Price is also the yield's denominator, so a stock that has fallen hard carries a high yield on an unchanged payment, and that is the single most common reason a name reaches the top of this board.
When a High Yield Is a Warning
Yield is a ratio, and the fastest way to raise it is for the denominator to fall. A stock whose price has halved shows double the yield on the same unchanged payment, which is why the highest figures on any yield ranking are so often companies the market has already marked down rather than companies paying unusually well. Before treating a double-digit yield as income, check whether the price collapsed, whether the payout ratio exceeds what earnings support, and whether the latest declaration actually matches the frequency the yield was annualized from.
A second trap is a payment that is not really profit being distributed. Some funds and partnerships return capital to holders, which lands in an investor's account looking exactly like a dividend while reducing the value of what they still own. A one-off special payment does the same thing to the arithmetic: it inflates a trailing yield for twelve months and then disappears, which is why rows carrying one are marked here.
Not every high yield is a warning, though. Some structures are required to distribute most of their income, so a persistently high yield is normal for them rather than a symptom: business development companies, real estate investment trusts, and master limited partnerships all sit in that group. Our sector and industry labels come from a vendor classification that does not name these structures directly, so we do not turn that into a column; treat it as context to check on the company's own filings rather than as a fact this page asserts.
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What this ranking covers
- Universe
- Companies on NYSE, Nasdaq and NYSE American that declared a dividend in the past twelve months.
- Floors
- Market cap of at least $100 million.
- Exclusions
- Companies whose dividend is only predicted, with no recent or scheduled payment, and rows whose yield a second source contradicts.
- Measured on
- Forward yield: the latest declared dividend annualized by its payment frequency, divided by the latest price.
- Refreshed
- Rebuilt from the latest close, so a yield moves when the price moves even though the declaration behind it has not changed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q Which stocks have the highest dividend yields right now?
SSTK leads this ranking, followed by OXSQ and UWMC. The ranking uses the forward yield, and includes only companies with a recent or scheduled payment rather than a merely predicted one.
Q How is the dividend yield on this page calculated?
Forward yield takes the most recently declared dividend, annualizes it by the company's payment frequency, and divides by the current price. A quarterly payer's latest payment is therefore multiplied by four, a monthly payer's by twelve. That differs from a trailing yield, which sums what was actually paid over the last twelve months, and the two can diverge sharply for an irregular payer. A forward yield is listed only when the trailing sum, or a second data source's yield, comes within a factor of 2 of it; a row that fails both is left off the board, and a company with neither twelve-month figure is listed on its declared figure alone.
Q Why does payment frequency matter for a yield?
Because the annualization depends on it. A yield built from a quarterly payment assumes three more like it will follow, so a company whose cadence is irregular, or whose latest payment was a one-off special, produces a forward yield that may never be paid. The frequency column exists to make that assumption visible, and rows including a special payment in the trailing twelve months are marked.
Q Is the highest yield the best dividend stock?
Rarely. Yield is a ratio, so it rises when the price falls just as readily as when the payment rises, and the top of any yield ranking is populated by companies the market has already repriced downwards. A yield worth acting on is one the company's earnings can sustain, which is why the payout ratio matters more than the headline figure.
Q Why do some companies always show double-digit yields?
Certain structures are required to distribute most of their income to holders, so a persistently high yield is normal for them rather than a signal: business development companies, real estate investment trusts, and master limited partnerships are the common examples. Our classification data does not identify these structures directly, so this page does not label them; check the company's own filings to know which you are looking at.
Q What is a return of capital, and why does it matter here?
Some distributions are not profit being shared but the investor's own capital being returned, which arrives looking exactly like a dividend while reducing the value of the remaining holding. A yield computed from such a distribution overstates the income the business actually generates. This page cannot distinguish the two, so treat an unusually high yield as a question to investigate rather than an answer.