4 Interesting Foreign Dividend Stocks

Yesterday I did a stock screen for income stocks. The major requirements were dividend greater than 5%, dividend growth rate of greater than 5%, and market cap less than $5 billion. Besides the usual crowd of REITs, utilities and banks, a few interesting companies showed up. These are foreign stocks trading as ADRs in the over-the-counter [OTC] pink sheets. Finding any further information about some of these companies proved challenging, but I was able to dig up a little. Several of these piqued my interest and need further research. I thought I would share them here, and if you have any interest, do your own digging. Here is a little about the stocks I found:

• Boral Ltd. (BOALF.PK), info - Australian building materials company. Growth is good in home country, U.S. arm has fallen on hard times, flattening overall profit growth. Market cap: $3.36 billion. Current yield: 4.9%.

• Rentokil Initial (RTOKY.PK), info - United Kingdom-based business service company. Rentokil’s subsidiaries provide services like pest control, cleaning, plant care and parcel delivery to business is countries in Europe, the Far East and Australia. Market cap: $3.44 billion. Current yield: 7.5%.

• Lend Lease Corp. (LLESY.PK), info - Australia based provider of real estate services. This company provides real estate construction and investment management in Australia, Asia Pacific and Europe. Market cap: $4.38 billion. Current yield: 5.8%.

• Foschini (FHNIY.PK) info - South African holding company of several retail companies. The companies offer clothing, sports apparel, cosmetics and jewelry to the South Africa middle class market. Market cap: $1.13 billion. Current yield: 6.7%.

Notes: All of the above stocks are sponsored ADRs. Market cap provided by Trade King stock screener. Current yield based on dividends paid in the last year.

These companies have all shown very nice dividend growth over the last few years. They all pay dividends twice a year, usually with a significant difference between the two payouts. It appears these companies do not follow the U.S. practice of steady dividends, instead calculating the dividend on actual profitability.

Before investing, I would definitely need to do some more homework. First, what are the tax withholding consequences? Next, the effects of changes in currency exchange rates. These appear to be very thinly traded, so they look like buy and hold propositions. Also, pricing info differs at various sources, so I would want to make sure my bid price is accurate.

If you are looking for some undiscovered, high yielding stocks I hope I have provided a few of interest.

Disclosure: I currently do not have a position in any securities discussed.