Capital Preserve's  Instablog

AstraZeneca (AZN) like many foreign stocks gets little attention from investors who focus on, and write about dividend stocks.  This aversion seems to stem from a couple of primary sources.  First, foreign dividend payers do not typically pay dividends on a quarterly basis and the dividend is often linked directly to profit levels so that consistent growth is less likely due to short-term earnings fluctuations.  Another factor seems to be that many reporting services and stock screening tools simply do not handle foreign dividends correctly.  Many such information sources will take the last dividend paid and multiply it by four to come up with an annual dividend figure that is inaccurate when evaluating stocks that pay dividends on an annual or semi-annual basis. Add to this the associated exchange rate risk inherent in investing in foreign securities and you have a level of income uncertainty that often causes dividend investors to shun foreign stocks.