Stock screeners for dividends are screening tools that help you find dividend-yielding stocks. They’re helpful for scanning for stocks that pay dividends, if that’s part of your investing strategy.
Researching dividend stocks usually entails a lot of fundamental analysis and looking for stocks with great long-term growth potential. You probably know of some big-name dividend stocks already. Using a dividend stock screener can help you find some more unexpected dividend stocks to invest in!
Which are the best dividend stock screeners available today, and why do you need them? Let’s dive in!
What are Dividend Stocks?
Dividend stocks are stocks that pay out part of the company’s earnings to their holders. These payouts are called dividends. They can either be distributed as cash or in the form of additional shares.
Established companies with predictable profits are the ones that usually pay dividends. That means companies in sectors like oil and gas, healthcare, utilities, and other large sectors.
One of the main appeals of dividends is, of course, the payments. You earn income simply by holding stock. But you should also keep in mind that dividend stocks pressure you into holding while waiting for dividend payments.
Plus, dividend stocks siphon some of their value from the price into dividend payments, which makes them worse for trading.
I don’t focus on investing for dividends — I’m more of a trader. But some of you might invest to get dividends, which is fine. What’s important is figuring out the strategy that works for you.
How to Evaluate Dividend Stocks?
You evaluate dividend stocks by doing your due diligence. Most dividend stocks have strong fundamentals and good long-term profit potential.
Most dividend growth investors like looking at a company’s fundamentals to determine which stocks to buy. But you can also look at chart patterns.
Chart patterns can give you valuable clues to future price action…
If you’re a trader like me, that’s what you’re looking for!
Once you spot promising dividend stocks, put them on your watchlist to keep track of their performance. You should also keep tabs on the news to spot new catalysts.
What is a Stock Screener for Dividends?
A stock screener for dividends is a tool that helps you find dividend stocks. It identifies dividend-yielding stocks that match your preferred criteria, filtering the thousands of possibilities to a prime handful of tickers you can really drill down on.
Looking to learn more about stock screeners? Check out my guide to the basics of stock screeners.
Importance of Using a Dividend Stock Screener
Using a dividend stock screener can help you find dividend-yielding stocks that match your strategy.
Learning to use a dividend stock screener will also help you find and invest in dividend stocks with high potential yields you wouldn’t find otherwise.
Why Do You Need a Stock Screener for Dividend Stocks?
You need a stock screener for dividend stocks to filter for the stocks you want to trade or invest in. Filtering the stocks you want to trade or invest in helps you cut down on the flow of information. Instead of drinking water from a firehose, you’re drinking from a tap you can easily control.
A stock screener also gives you very fine control over your stock searches. This means you’ll only find tickers that fit your preferences to a T.
Different stock screeners cater to different trading strategies. Check out my list of the best stock screeners for growth stocks and the best fundamental stock screeners. You can also read my list of the best overall stock screeners.
Advantages of Stock Screener by Dividend Yield
The greatest advantage of a stock screener by dividend yield is that you have lots of control over what to screen for. You can input any search criteria to refine the results and ensure you only get the stocks you’re looking for.
Your stock screener can also save your custom preferences. That means you don’t have to rebuild the filter every day — just boot it up and run the scan every time you need it.
How We Evaluated These Best Stock Screeners for Dividend
There are lots of stock screeners out there — but not all of them are right for dividend stocks. You gotta separate the wheat from the chaff first.
Here are two criteria to use when looking for dividend stock screeners:
- Pricing: Almost all of the best dividend stock screeners are paid products. Find a screener that suits your budget but still fulfills your needs.
- Customizability: A stock screener lives and dies by its indicators. Find a stock screener that you can customize according to your requirements.
I’ve got more criteria I use aside from the above two. Here’s a complete guide to my best stock screener criteria to help refine your search.
You can also add more dividend stock screener criteria to tailor your search according to your needs.
Best Dividend Stock Screeners for 2024
Here are my picks for the best dividend stock screeners:
- StocksToTrade — Best Dividend Stock Screener in Development
- Plus500 — Best Dividend Stock Screener for International Traders
- Seeking Alpha — Best Stock Screener for Dividend Ratings
- Benzinga Pro — Best Dividend Stock Screener for In-Depth Sector Information
- Zacks Investment Research — Best Dividend Stock Screener for Stock Picks
Understand — you’re not getting married to any one stock screener. Try them all and stick with the ones that work best for you.
1. StocksToTrade — Best Dividend Stock Screener in Development
My first dividend stock screener pick is StocksToTrade.
Full disclosure — StocksToTrade doesn’t have a dividend screener yet, since it’s a trader-first screener. But it’s coming in a future update, so hang tight.
Why does StocksToTrade make this list? I put StocksToTrade here because it’s MY favorite stock screener…
That’s because it’s an insanely customizable, super powerful stock screener. It’s really easy to use the included trader-built screens, or you can choose from loads of criteria to build your own screens.
Once you’ve got a watchlist together, its charting and news scanner features are beyond compare.
Another thing I like about StocksToTrade: the Oracle algorithmic chart analysis tool. It’s a cool piece of technology that gives you actionable trade signals for the day’s most tradable stocks. You can get a taste of Oracle now by signing up for NO-COST Oracle trade alerts!
Take StocksToTrade for a spin — sign up for a 14-day StocksToTrade trial for just $7!
2. Plus500 — Best Dividend Stock Screener for International Markets
My second dividend stock screener pick is Plus500.
Plus500 is great if you want to trade in markets outside the U.S. It lets you trade and invest in stocks from Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, the U.K., and more. It doesn’t just give you access to stocks either. You can also trade crypto, ETFs, forex, and more.
Plus500 offers various research features like daily articles, webinars, and market commentary. You can also check out which assets are currently popular through its Trader’s Trends module.
There’s one caveat to Plus500, though. It’s primarily a contract-for-difference (CFD) broker, and trading CFDs is illegal in America. If you’re an American trader or investor, your selection is limited to what’s available on its Plus500 Invest platform.
3. Seeking Alpha — Best Stock Screener for Dividend Ratings
My third dividend stock screener pick is Seeking Alpha.
Seeking Alpha’s stock screener rates each of its stock picks with letter grades to give you at-a-glance information about the company’s dividend situation. It measures things like the company’s dividend safety, yield, and consistency — giving you at-a-glance information within seconds before you delve deeper into reports and other research.
In addition to dividend ratings, you also get overall letter grades with columns containing ratings from Seeking Alpha’s contributors, Wall Street analysts, and its Quant model. Investing in these stocks doesn’t guarantee you’ll get lots of dividends, but this rating system can give you data-supported ideas for investments you can research further.
4. Benzinga Pro — Best Dividend Stock Screener for In-Depth Sector Information
My fourth dividend stock screener pick is Benzinga Pro.
Benzinga is a great screener for doing sector and industry research. It doesn’t just give you filters to the major sectors like technology and energy; you also get to dive deeper and filter within sub-sectors. This helps further refine your search if you plan on investing in dividend stocks from specific businesses.
Benzinga’s stock screener is a relatively new addition, so it might not be as robust as other screeners. But it’s still powerful enough for you to use pre-built filters based on tried-and-true strategies or come up with your own filters.
5. Zacks Investment Research — Best Dividend Stock Screener for Stock Picks
My fifth dividend stock screener pick is Zacks.
This stock screener comes with the Zacks Rank system, which shows you which stocks to buy and which stocks to sell. Similar to Seeking Alpha’s recommendations, trading or investing in these stocks won’t necessarily give you lots of dividends. However, you can dive deeper into the stocks to see whether they fit your strategy.
Zacks’ Premium screener is also a robust, customizable tool that gives you pre-made screens. If none of them fit your needs, you can always make custom screens to find the dividend stocks you want to invest in.
Final Thoughts
A dividend stock screener can help you find dividend-yielding stocks that fit your trading or investing strategy. A good dividend stock screener picks stocks from thousands of choices and gives you a handful you can research further.
There’s no “perfect” dividend stock screener that works for everyone. Everybody’s got different needs and requirements — which is why you should try multiple options and pick the screener that’s best for you.
Here’s an additional screener recommendation for you: millionaire trader Matt Monaco’s Alpha Scanner. His software engineering background helped him become a millionaire trader, and now he’s brought back those skills to build a screener that’s based on his profitable trading style.
Matt’s Alpha Scanner is chock full of trading alerts, live mentoring, and more. Can his Alpha Scanner give you your trading edge? Here’s how you find out…
Sign up for the next Alpha Scanner LIVE broadcast to learn more!