Dividend investing guides

Plain-English explanations of the checks behind the Dividend Score Safety and Strength Scores. For every weight and threshold, see the methodology.

• How to tell if a dividend is safe

  A plain-English checklist for judging dividend safety — payout ratios, free cash flow, debt, earnings stability and the red flags that come before most dividend cuts.

• What is a good dividend payout ratio?

  What a healthy dividend payout ratio looks like, why the free-cash-flow payout ratio matters more than the earnings one, and the levels that signal a dividend under strain.

• What is a dividend yield trap?

  Why an unusually high dividend yield is often a warning, not a bargain — and how to tell a yield trap from a stock that is simply out of favor, using coverage, losses and the stock's own yield history.

• Free cash flow payout ratio: how to read it

  How the free-cash-flow payout ratio works, why a 4-year average beats a single year, and how operating cash flow separates a heavy-investment year from a dividend that cash no longer covers.