If there's not a great degree of confidence in its future, then it may not matter a great deal that Altria's payout ratio is around 80% and that the dividend looks sustainable today. If things are likely to get worse for the company in the future, the dividend may still not prove to be safe.

Money is fungible — it doesn’t matter whether you receive it as income or capital appreciation. A company’s value shouldn’t depend on whether it pays a dividend. However, behavioral finance researchers have found that many investors perceive dividends as more stable and predictable than capital gains. Tax issues are another important consideration.

Is the $2,000 stimulus check real? Here's what to know and how Supreme Court decision could impact Trump's tariff dividend payment status or refund

As its name implies, a high-yield dividend is one that pays an above-average yield, which is the ratio of a stock's dividend to its price. What makes the phrase something of a moving target is a simple question -- what constitutes "average"? Certain ...

No matter how much investors hope it will happen, volatility in the stock market isn’t going away, and market swings of a few percentage points in a single day, which used to be incredibly rare, may become more common,

Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index ETF takes a fairly simple approach to buying dividend stocks. The exchange-traded fund offers some material benefits to income investors. Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index ETF has some notable negatives to consider.

With $13.3 billion in debt and a 12.3% forward dividend yield, LyondellBasell's dividend sustainability and financial flexibility are increasingly questionable. Learn more on LYB stock here.