5 Best Dividend Stocks To Buy Right Now

Investors pursuing yield can find plenty of reasons to invest in international equities. For one, foreign stocks generally pay higher dividend yields than U.S. stocks. This applies to emerging market stocks as well, as measured by the MSCI Emerging Market Index, even though most investors would be inclined to assume that growth-focused companies in emerging markets tend to reinvest a higher portion of their earnings into business opportunities than to return cash to investors. Indeed, dividend growth in the emerging markets, on average, has been more robust than in developed markets. According to ING, "in the last seven years, dividend growth rates have been significantly higher in emerging markets than in the United States". The chart here clearly illustrates that advantage on the examples of earnings and dividends per share growth of the S&P 500 and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index since the early 2003.

While investing in individual stocks is risky enough, investing in individual stocks in emerging markets can carry an even higher degree of risk. Investors pursuing emerging-market equity investments can buttress any potential drawdowns through investments in dividend-paying equities. Moreover, they can reduce the risk of exposure to single companies through broadly diversified emerging-market ETFs. Hence, dividend-paying emerging-market ETFs can be appealing investment instruments to attempt to capitalize on comparably higher income-earning potential of emerging market stocks, especially if expecting a more robust long-term earnings and dividend growth in emerging markets compared to the developed ones. Here is a list of five such ETFs that can serve as a basis for further research in the category of diversified dividend-paying emerging-market ETFs.

Top 10 Defensive Stocks To Invest In 2015: Verizon Communications Inc.(VZ)

Verizon Communications Inc. provides communication services. The company operates through two segments, Domestic Wireless and Wireline. The Domestic Wireless segment offers wireless voice and data services; and sells equipment in the United States. The Wireline segment provides voice, Internet access, broadband video and data, Internet protocol network, network access, long distance, and other services in the United States and internationally. The company serves consumer, business, and government customers, as well as carriers. As of December 31, 2010, its network covered a population of approximately 292 million and provided service to a customer base of approximately 94.1 million. The company was formerly known as Bell Atlantic Corporation and changed its name to Verizon Communications Inc. in June 2000. Verizon Communications Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Alex Planes]

  Investors love stocks that consistently beat the Street without getting ahead of their fundamentals and risking a meltdown. The best stocks offer sustainable market-beating gains, with robust and improving financial metrics that support strong price growth. Does Verizon (NYSE: VZ  ) fit the bill? Let's take a look at what its recent results tell us about its potential for future gains.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Buy Right Now: S&P GSCI(GD)

General Dynamics Corporation, an aerospace and defense company, provides business aviation; combat vehicles, weapons systems, and munitions; military and commercial shipbuilding; and communications and information technology products and services worldwide. Its Aerospace group designs, manufactures, and outfits various large and mid-cabin business-jet aircraft; provides maintenance, repair work, fixed-based operations, and aircraft management services; and performs aircraft completions for aircraft. The company?s Combat Systems group offers tracked and wheeled military vehicles, weapons systems, and munitions. Its product lines include wheeled combat and tactical vehicles; battle tanks and infantry vehicles; munitions and propellant; rockets and gun systems; and axle and drivetrain components and aftermarket parts. This group also manufactures and supplies engineered axles, suspensions, and brakes for heavy-load vehicles for military and commercial customers. The company Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  The biggest of these contracts, a sizable $179.9 million, one-year award with the potential to swell to $899.5 million if the four "option-year" extensions are exercised, is to be split among 13 separate firms:

  Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH  ) CACI (NYSE: CACI  ) Technologies Computer Sciences Corp (NYSE: CSC  ) General Dynamics (NYSE: GD  ) One Source Honeywell (NYSE: HON  ) Technology Solutions Engility Corp. Lockheed Martin Science Applications International Corp. URS Federal Services and four privately held firms.

  Under the awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ), cost-plus-fixed-fee, performance-based umbrella contract, all 13 firms will be able to compete to perform task orders for the U.S. Navy, providing "integrated cyber operations services" to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic.

• [By Rich Smith]

  So what's really going on over there in Washington today? Is defense spending stalled, or will it rise again? And what does this mean for ultra-low-P/E-bearing stocks like Boeing (NYSE: BA  ) , Lockheed Martin� (NYSE: LMT  ) , Northrop Grumman� (NYSE: NOC  ) , and General Dynamics� (NYSE: GD  ) .

• [By Rich Smith]

  Perhaps appropriately for an arms merchant, General Dynamics (NYSE: GD  ) stock is exploding this week, up nearly 8.8% since reporting earnings Wednesday morning -- and up about twice as much as the gains o fellow defense contractor Boeing (NYSE: BA  ) , which also reported Wednesday.

• [By Rich Smith]

  As the week wound down, General Dynamics (NYSE: GD  ) claimed a pair of contract wins from the Pentagon, worth more than $59 million combined.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Buy Right Now: Eaton Corporation(ETN)

Eaton Corporation operates as a power management company worldwide. It provides electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution, and control; hydraulics components, systems, and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics, and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain, and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy, and safety. The company also manufactures screw-in cartridge valves, custom-engineered hydraulic valves, and manifold systems; and electrical and electromechanical systems. In addition, it designs, manufactures, and distributes intake and exhaust valves for diesel and gasoline engines; supplies electrical components for commercial and residential building applications and industrial controls for industrial equipment applications; and manufactures human machine interfaces, programmable logic controllers, and input/output devices. Further, the company also operates a s a provider of customized enclosures, rack systems, and air-flow management systems to store, power, and secure mission-critical IT data center electronics; and manufacturer, distributor, and service provider of single-phase and three-phase uninterruptible power supply systems. Eaton Corporation was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  The biggest new holdings are Canadian Pacific Railway�and Allstate. Other new holdings of interest include Pinnacle Foods (NYSE: PF  ) and Eaton (NYSE: ETN  ) . Pinnacle Foods debuted via an IPO earlier this year, and soon after, initiated�a dividend, which yields about 2.8%. Its brands�include Birds Eye, Aunt Jemima, Hungry-Man, Van de Kamp's, Armour, Lender's, Mrs. Paul's, Vlasic, Log Cabin, Mrs. Butterworth, and Duncan Hines, among others. With the company carrying significant debt, it's reasonable that some worry about its interest in acquiring Unilever's�Wish-Bone salad dressing brand and Del Monte Foods' canned foods.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Buy Right Now: Spectra Energy Corp(SE)

Spectra Energy Corp, through its subsidiaries, engages in the ownership and operation of a portfolio of complementary natural gas-related energy assets in the United States and Canada. The company operates in four segments: U.S. Transmission, Distribution, Western Canada Transmission and Processing, and Field Services. The U.S. Transmission segment engages in the transportation and storage of natural gas for customers in various regions of the northeastern and southeastern United States and the Maritime Provinces in Canada. Its natural gas pipeline systems consist of approximately 19,000 miles of transmission pipelines; and storage capacity comprises 305 billion cubic feet in the United States and Canada. The Distribution segment engages in the natural gas storage, transmission, and distribution in Western Canada and the United States. This segment has approximately 37,600 miles of distribution main and service pipelines serving approximately 1.3 million residential, comme rcial, and industrial customers. The Western Canada Transmission and Processing segment provides natural gas transportation, and gas gathering and processing services; and provides services to natural gas producers to remove impurities from the raw gas stream including water, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and other substances. This segment serves local distribution companies, end-use industrial and commercial customers, marketers, and exploration and production companies. The Field Services segment gathers and processes natural gas, as well as fractionates, markets, and trades natural gas liquids. It engages in gathering raw natural gas through gathering systems located in nine natural gas producing regions consisting of the Mid-Continent, Rocky Mountain, east Texas-north Louisiana, Barnett Shale, Gulf Coast, South Texas, Central Texas, Antrim Shale, and Permian Basin. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Spectra Energy's (NYSE: SE  ) �1,717-mile Express-Platte System�is one of just three major pipeline systems moving crude oil from western�Canada�to U.S. refining markets in the Rockies area and the Midwest.

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Natural gas asset and infrastructure company Spectra Energy (SE) raised its quarterly dividend 9.8% to 33.5 cents per share, payable March 10 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 14.
  SE Stock Dividend Yield: 3.8%

• [By Tyler Crowe]

  In total, the current capacity for oil pipelines delivering all types of crude to the U.S. is about 3.4 million barrels per day. These pipelines are all operated by four companies.

  Pipeline Owner/Operator Capacity Destination Express-Platte Spectra Energy (NYSE: SE  ) � 280,000 bpd Wood River, Ill. Keystone TransCanada 590,000 bpd Cushing, Okla. Enbridge and Lakehead System Enbridge (NYSE: ENB  ) and Enbridge Energy Partners (NYSE: EEP  ) 2.5 million bpd Multiple, but 190,000 bpd to Cushing, Okla.

  For the existing Canada-U.S. pipelines, there is probably little to no effect whether the pipeline gets built or not. The capacity for these pipelines is already contracted out, and a majority of the oil from these pipelines goes to either the Midwest or Rocky Mountain regions.

• [By Tom Rojas var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); popups.forEach(func]

  Spectra Energy Corp.(SE) said its second-quarter profit fell 26%, reporting weaker-than-expected results as plant turnarounds dented revenue growth and increased costs.