5 Best Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014

Ex-dividend dates are very important to dividend investors, since you must purchase a stock prior to its ex-dividend date in order to receive its upcoming dividend payout. For more information, check out Everything Investors Need to Know About Ex-Dividend Dates.

Below we highlight six�big-name stocks going ex-dividend Monday, May 19.

1.�Walgreen Company

Walgreen Company (WAG)�offers a dividend yield of 1.85%�based on Thursday’s�closing price of $68.11�and the company�� quarterly dividend payout of 31.5 cents. The stock is up�20.27%�year-to-date. Dividend.com currently rates WAG�as “Neutral”�with a DARS��rating of 3.4�stars out of 5 stars.

Top Information Technology Stocks To Watch For 2015: First Financial Northwest Inc.(FFNW)

First Financial Northwest, Inc. operates as the holding company for First Savings Bank Northwest that provides community-based savings bank services in Washington. Its deposit products include noninterest bearing accounts, NOW accounts, money market deposit accounts, statement savings accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company?s loan products portfolio comprises one-to-four family residential loans, multifamily loans, commercial real estate loans, construction/land development loans, and business loans, as well as consumer loans, including home equity loans, personal lines of credit, second mortgage loans, and savings account loans. First Financial Northwest, Inc., through another subsidiary, First Financial Diversified, Inc., offers escrow services. The company primarily serves customers in the King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Kitsap counties of Washington through a full-service banking office in Renton, Washington. First Financial Northwest, Inc. was founded in 1923 and is based in Renton, Washington.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jim Royal]

  One of my favorite reasons to reinvest in stocks I already own is when an uncertain, but favorable catalyst occurs, but the stock does little. So my Special Situations portfolio is adding $1,000 to each of the following three stocks: Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB  ) , Bridgepoint Education (NYSE: BPI  ) , and First Financial Northwest (NASDAQ: FFNW  ) . Read on to see why.

• [By Jim Royal]

  The special situation
  For those of you following my Special Situations portfolio, Investors Bancorp is in a spot similar to First Financial Northwest (NASDAQ: FFNW  ) and TFS Financial (NASDAQ: TFSL  ) , both of which are featured substantially in the portfolio. While Investors Bancorp is still only a partially demutualized thrift (like TFS Financial today), it will soon become a fully public institution, like First Financial.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014: Xcel Energy Inc.(XEL)

Xcel Energy Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity to residential, commercial, and industrial customers, as well as to public authorities in the United States. The company generates electricity using coal, nuclear, natural gas, hydro, wood, diesel, and wind energy. It also engages in the purchase, transportation, distribution, and sale of natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company serves customers in portions of Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. As of December 31, 2010, it provided electricity services to 3,391,611 customers; and natural gas services to 1,893,250 customers. Xcel Energy, through its joint venture interests in WYCO Development LLC, develops and leases natural gas pipeline, storage, and compression facilities. The company was founded in 1909 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Schadenfreude's in season
  Not everyone's opposed to the law, necessarily. For example, Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL  ) is already working to expand its portfolio of wind-generated power in the state, and two years ago, it put into operation a 19-megawatt solar farm in cooperation with SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR  ) . As a so-called "investor-owned utility," Xcel is already subject to a target of 30% renewables use by 2020 -- so a law making its rural rivals hit a 20% target probably didn't upset Xcel all that much.

• [By David Dittman]

  Answer: I like Northeast Utilities (NYSE: NU), Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners LP (TSX: BEP-U, NYSE: BEP), Pembina Pipeline Corp (TSX: PPL, NYSE: PBA), Xcel Energy Inc (NYSE: XEL) and NiSource Inc (NYSE: NI).

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014: Northeast Utilities(NU)

Northeast Utilities, a public utility holding company, provides electric and natural gas energy delivery services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts. The company engages in the purchase, delivery, and sale of electricity; and owns and operates approximately 1,200 megawatts of primarily fossil-fueled electricity generation assets. As of December 31, 2010, it served approximately 1.2 million customers in 149 cities and towns in Connecticut; 497,000 retail customers in 211 cities and towns in New Hampshire; and 206,000 retail customers in 59 cities and towns in western Massachusetts. The company also operates a natural gas distribution system in Connecticut and serves approximately 206,000 customers in 71 cities and towns. It offers gas supply to commercial and industrial customers; and to residential customers for heating, hot water, and cooking needs, as well as provides gas transportation services t o commercial and industrial customers. In addition, the company offers electric transmission services. Northeast Utilities was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By David Dittman]

  Northeast Utilities (NU) is New England's largest utility system, serving more than 1.7 million electricity customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

• [By David Dittman]

  Answer: Growth: Magna International, Ag Growth International Inc (TSX: AFN, OTC: AGGZF), NextEra Energy Inc (NYSE: NEE), Aqua America Inc (NYSE: WTR) and, at these levels, Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX). I like Verizon too.
  
  Income: Brookfield Renewable Energy, Northeast Utilities (NYSE: NU), Enterprise Products Partners LP (NYSE: EPD), Plains All American Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE: PAA), Pembina Pipeline.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Own For 2014: Telefonica SA(TEF)

Telefonica, S.A. provides fixed and mobile telephony services primarily in Spain, rest of Europe, and Latin America. Its fixed telecommunication services include PSTN lines; ISDN accesses; public telephone; local, domestic, and international long distance and fixed-to-mobile communications; corporate communications; video telephony; supplementary and business-oriented value-added services; network services; leasing and sale of handset equipment; and telephony information services. The company?s Internet and broadband multimedia services comprise Internet service provider service; portal and network services; retail and wholesale broadband access; narrowband switched access to Internet; naked ADSL, a broadband connection; residential-oriented value-added services; companies-oriented value-added services; television services, such as IPTV, cable television, and satellite television; and Fiber to the Home, a service for high speed Internet access and digital video recording. Its data and business-solutions services principally include leased lines; virtual private network services; fiber optics services; the provision of hosting and application; outsourcing and consultancy services; desktop services; and system integration and professional services. The company?s wholesale services for telecommunication operators primarily comprise domestic interconnection services; international wholesale services; leased lines for other operators? network deployment; local loop leasing under the unbundled local loop regulation framework; and bit stream services. It also offers various mobile and related services and products that include mobile voice services, value added services, mobile data and Internet services, wholesale services, corporate services, roaming, fixed wireless, and trunking and paging services. The company has a strategic alliance with China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited. Telefonica, S.A. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spai n.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  With dividend stocks, however, you have no guarantee that there's no assurance that you'll receive a dividend. For instance, Spanish telecom company Telefonica (NYSE: TEF  ) chose last year not to pay its planned dividend for 2012, saying it would restore half the payout later this year. Even stalwart blue-chips General Electric (NYSE: GE  ) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE  ) had to reduce their dividends dramatically during the financial crisis, and even now, they haven't risen back to their pre-crisis levels.