michael from pickr

Ten Top Value Traps with Unreasonably High Dividends

as for whether a company can pay the yield....you guys are looking at yield the wrong way. yield is a just a measurement tool, say you have a $100 stock price and it has 100 outstanding shares. each share gets $1.00 (1% yield)
the company pays out for the quarter $100.00
the share price falls to $10, the outstanding share count is still 100, the company still pays $1.00 (10% yield).
the company still pays out for the quarter $100.00

for the investor with a buy n hold mentality, he still gets his $1 divy/share but it cost him more, than someone just getting on board who only has to pay $10 for that $1.00 divy
yield is a measurement for the investors not for the performance of the company.
the announcement of what the divy will be is based on earnings "per share", and profits,
let's look at BAC and their divy, reason it keeps getting cut, they keep buying up/merging with these other companies, so the outstanding share balance has been rising...hence more shares less divy to go around.

Ten Top Value Traps with Unreasonably High Dividends

i had HPT but jumped out when i found the cash on hand getting low, they got a great way of making money and the truck stop deal is like taking candy from a baby...but they gave the truckstop company leeway not to pay right away....so that could be a slight problem.

as for NAT.....obviously there are plenty of us in here who follow NAT, and if the wrier of this column can help me get more NAT at cheaper prices, i'm for it. but fellas remember not to fall in love with your stocks. NAT is already undervalued in my opinion. if it was trading near it's true value it wouldn't of made the high dividend list.