Below are the 18 companies on our U.S. Dividend Watch List that are within 11% of their respective 52-week lows. Stocks that appear on our watch lists are not recommendations to buy. Instead, they are the starting point for doing your research and determining the best company to buy. Ideally, a stock that is purchased from this list is done after a considerable decline in the price and rigorous due diligence.
| Symbol | Name | Price | % Yr Low | P/E | EPS (ttm) | Dividend | Yield | Payout Ratio |
| CATO | Cato Corp. | 24.42 | 2.99% | 11.20 | 2.18 | 0.20 | 0.82% | 9% |
| FDS | FactSet Research Sys. | 90.81 | 4.52% | 21.42 | 4.24 | 1.24 | 1.37% | 29% |
| CTWS | Conn. Water Ser. | 28.44 | 6.56% | 18.59 | 1.53 | 0.97 | 3.41% | 63% |
| EXPD | Expeditors International | 36.54 | 6.84% | 23.27 | 1.57 | 0.56 | 1.53% | 36% |
| BCR | CR Bard | 100.62 | 7.40% | 16.33 | 6.16 | 0.80 | 0.80% | 13% |
| NWN | Northwest Natural Gas | 44.06 | 7.44% | 19.85 | 2.22 | 1.82 | 4.13% | 82% |
| MSFT | Microsoft Corporation | 28.25 | 7.58% | 15.52 | 1.82 | 0.92 | 3.26% | 51% |
| SBSI | Southside Bancshares | 21.28 | 7.58% | 10.64 | 2.00 | 0.80 | 3.76% | 40% |
| MYE | Myers Industries | 14.11 | 7.79% | 16.03 | 0.88 | 0.36 | 2.55% | 41% |
| JW-A | John Wiley & Sons | 38.63 | 8.45% | 12.71 | 3.04 | 0.80 | 2.07% | 26% |
| AROW | Arrow Financial Corp. | 24.55 | 8.64% | 13.27 | 1.85 | 1.00 | 4.07% | 54% |
| DBD | Diebold | 29.99 | 8.70% | 24.38 | 1.23 | 1.15 | 3.83% | 93% |
| SYBT | S.Y. BanCorp. | 22.68 | 8.72% | 12.26 | 1.85 | 0.80 | 3.53% | 43% |
| FRS | Frisch's Restaurants, Inc | 17.95 | 8.81% | 20.17 | 0.89 | 0.64 | 3.56% | 72% |
| SO | Southern Company | 45.66 | 9.37% | 17.10 | 2.67 | 1.96 | 4.29% | 73% |
| WEYS | Weyco Group | 24.18 | 9.86% | 13.98 | 1.73 | 0.68 | 2.81% | 39% |
| TDS | TDS | 21.11 | 9.95% | 28.15 | 0.75 | 0.51 | 2.42% | 68% |
| ED | Consolidated Edison | 59.09 | 10.18% | 15.31 | 3.86 | 2.46 | 4.16% | 64% |
| 18 Companies | ||||||||
Watch List Review
We spoke about Cato Corp. (CATO) in last week's review and nothing of material has changed so please refer to our comments from then (found here).
FactSet Research (FDS) provides information technology services and analytics to investment community. The stock has had a wide trading range over the past year and made several appearances on our watch list only to leave its post in the weeks that followed. This $4B company has a strong balance sheet. FDS trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) of 21 isn’t low by any measure however, that may be justified by the return-on-assets (ROA) of 35% and its debt free balance sheet. A comparison of FactSet with its peers is in this article (found here).
Another company of interest to us is Myers Industries (MYE). This company first appeared on our watch list on February 15, 2013 (found here). This small-cap ($470M) company engages in manufacture and sale of polymer products. Their 2012 sales came in at $790M which is 68% above its market cap. Though sales are high, so is their cost structure. Gross margin cames in at 27% for 2012, 26% for 2011, and 22% for 2010. Rising margins may be the reason why the board approved a dividend increase of +12.5% (from $0.08 to $0.09) this past month.
Top Five Watch List Performance Review
In our ongoing review of the NLO Dividend Watch List, we have taken the top five stocks on our list from March 23, 2012 and have check their performance one year later. The top five companies on that list can be seen in the table below.
| Symbol | Name | 2012 Price | 2013 Price | % change |
| TR | Tootsie Roll Industries Inc | 22.75 | 29.74 | 30.73% |
| CHRW | C.H. Robinson Worldwide | 64.42 | 58.10 | -9.81% |
| CLX | Clorox | 67.99 | 86.46 | 27.17% |
| ATO | Atmos Energy Corp. | 30.80 | 41.74 | 35.52% |
| CWT | California Water Service | 18.23 | 19.69 | 8.01% |
| Average | 18.32% | |||
| DJI | Dow Jones Industrial | 13,080.73 | 14,512.03 | 10.94% |
| SPX | S&P 500 | 1,397.11 | 1,556.89 | 11.44% |
Disclaimer
On our current list, we excluded companies that have no earnings. Stocks that appear on our watch lists are not recommendations to buy. Instead, they are the starting point for doing your research and determining the best company to buy. Ideally, a stock that is purchased from this list is done after a considerable decline in the price and extensive due diligence. Our view is to embrace the worse case scenario prior to investing. It is important to place these companies on your own watch list so that when the opportunity arises, you can purchase them with a greater margin of safety. It is our expectation that, at the most, only 1/3 of the companies that are part of our list will outperform the market over a one-year period.