Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now

Pengrowth Energy (NYSE: PGH  ) will release its quarterly report on Thursday, and with shares having climbed recently, investors seem to be expecting good things from the company. Yet Pengrowth earnings expectations don't appear to be behind the jump in the stock lately, with some one-time events drawing the bulk of investor attention instead.

As a former Canadian royalty trust, Pengrowth had to transform itself into a corporation to comply with tax law changes. Despite being a generous source of dividends, the stock has seen its price perform very badly over the past couple of years. What's behind the company's weak results? Let's take an early look at what's been happening with Pengrowth Energy over the past quarter and what we're likely to see in its quarterly report.

Stats on Pengrowth Energy

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.03

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: People's United Financial Inc.(PBCT)

People?s United Financial, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for People?s United Bank that provides commercial banking, retail and business banking, and wealth management services to individual, corporate, and municipal customers. Its Commercial Banking segment provides commercial and industrial lending, commercial real estate lending, and commercial deposit gathering services, as well as equipment financing, cash management, correspondent banking, and municipal banking services. The company?s Retail and Business Banking segment offers consumer and business deposit gathering services; consumer lending products, including residential mortgage, home equity, and indirect auto lending; business lending; and merchant services. Its Wealth Management segment provides trust services, corporate trust, brokerage, financial advisory services, investment management services, and life insurance and other insurance services, as well as private banking services. The company also offers online and telephone banking, and investment trading services, and automated teller machine (ATM) services. As of March 31, 2011, it operated a network of approximately 341 branches, including full-service supermarket branches, investment and brokerage offices, and commercial banking offices, as well as approximately 518 automated teller machines in Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1842 and is headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Dividends4Life]

  Linked here is a detailed quantitative analysis of People's United Financial Inc. (PBCT). Below are some highlights from the above linked analysis:

• [By John Maxfield]

  While it's not obvious from the chart, you can separate these institutions into three different buckets. The first bucket concerns the most widely discussed too-big-to-fail banks: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. Then comes the unofficial too-big-to-fail lenders (those with assets in excess of $50 billion and thus subject to the Federal Reserve's more stringent stress test process). This group contains U.S. Bank (NYSE: USB  ) , PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC  ) , and BB&T Bank (NYSE: BBT  ) , among others. And the final group encompasses lesser-known banks like First Niagara Financial (NASDAQ: FNFG  ) and People's United Financial (NASDAQ: PBCT  ) with between $20 billion and $50 billion in assets.

• [By Dividends4Life]

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Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Eaton Corporation(ETN)

Eaton Corporation operates as a power management company worldwide. It provides electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution, and control; hydraulics components, systems, and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulics, and pneumatic systems for commercial and military use; and truck and automotive drivetrain, and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy, and safety. The company also manufactures screw-in cartridge valves, custom-engineered hydraulic valves, and manifold systems; and electrical and electromechanical systems. In addition, it designs, manufactures, and distributes intake and exhaust valves for diesel and gasoline engines; supplies electrical components for commercial and residential building applications and industrial controls for industrial equipment applications; and manufactures human machine interfaces, programmable logic controllers, and input/output devices. Further, the company also operates a s a provider of customized enclosures, rack systems, and air-flow management systems to store, power, and secure mission-critical IT data center electronics; and manufacturer, distributor, and service provider of single-phase and three-phase uninterruptible power supply systems. Eaton Corporation was founded in 1916 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  In the mid-cap growth portfolio, Argus is recommending that investors add Eaton Corp. PLC (NYSE: ETN) at $66.00 for some 2.6% of the portfolio. It is selling 100% of its position in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NASDAQ: GT) at $18.75. Since inclusion in July 2012, Goodyear shares appreciated 69%. Argus said of Eaton”

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  The Motley Fool named Cummins the best company in America based on its focus on engine solutions that balance the needs of its customers against the good of society. Cummins has made a viable business model out of developing high-performance engines that nevertheless provide fuel efficiency and reliability while producing less pollution. Just last month, Cummins announced a deal with Eaton (NYSE: ETN  ) to produce a heavy-truck powertrain package to improve fuel economy by 3% to 6%.

Best Casino Companies To Watch In Right Now: Xcel Energy Inc.(XEL)

Xcel Energy Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the generation, purchase, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity to residential, commercial, and industrial customers, as well as to public authorities in the United States. The company generates electricity using coal, nuclear, natural gas, hydro, wood, diesel, and wind energy. It also engages in the purchase, transportation, distribution, and sale of natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. The company serves customers in portions of Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. As of December 31, 2010, it provided electricity services to 3,391,611 customers; and natural gas services to 1,893,250 customers. Xcel Energy, through its joint venture interests in WYCO Development LLC, develops and leases natural gas pipeline, storage, and compression facilities. The company was founded in 1909 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Rich Smith]

  Schadenfreude's in season
  Not everyone's opposed to the law, necessarily. For example, Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL  ) is already working to expand its portfolio of wind-generated power in the state, and two years ago, it put into operation a 19-megawatt solar farm in cooperation with SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR  ) . As a so-called "investor-owned utility," Xcel is already subject to a target of 30% renewables use by 2020 -- so a law making its rural rivals hit a 20% target probably didn't upset Xcel all that much.

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: CenturyLink Inc.(CTL)

CenturyLink, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated communications company. The company provides a range of communications services, including voice, Internet, data, and video services in the continental United States. Its services include local exchange and long distance voice telephone services, as well as enhanced voice services, such as call forwarding, caller identification, conference calling, voicemail, selective call ringing, and call waiting; wholesale local network access services; and data services, including high-speed Internet access services, data transmission services over special circuits and private lines, and switched digital television services, as well as special access and private line services. The company also offers fiber transport, competitive local exchange carrier, security monitoring, and other communications, as well as professional and business information services. In addition, it provides other related services, such as leasing, selling, installing, and maintaining customer premise telecommunications equipment and wiring; payphone services; and network database services, as well as participates in the publication of local telephone directories. Further, the company offers printing, direct mail services, and cable television services; and wireless broadband Internet access services and satellite television services. As of December 31, 2010, it operated approximately 6.5 million telephone access lines. CenturyLink, Inc was founded in 1968 and is based in Monroe, Louisiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ong Kang Wei]

  For example, Digital Realty (DLR) is the undoubted leader in the data storage industry, with a market cap of $8.3B. Its other three competitors, DuPont Fabros (DFT), CoreSite Realty (COR) and CyrusOne (CONE), have market caps of $1.5B, $930M and $430M respectively. In addition, with the level of complexity involving Digital's business making it immensely difficult for companies to operate data centre facilities, the company is in a good position for future growth. The company also has a wide network of 595 tenants (significantly more than other competitors), including CenturyLink (CTL), AT&T and Morgan Stanley (MS). This further secures its long term business prospects and also its dominance over its competitors.

• [By Sue Chang and Polya Lesova]

  CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) �shares rose 3%. The stock is one of the top net payout yield stocks so far in October, according to Seeking Alpha.

• [By Selena Maranjian]

  Finally, Citadel's biggest closed positions included NetApp�and Newell Rubbermaid. Other closed positions of interest include CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL  ) and Corning (NYSE: GLW  ) . Telecom company CenturyLink has recently been yielding 6.1%, but that reflects a recent dividend cut of about 25% as the company focuses more on share buybacks. It landed a hefty Pentagon contract in April, with a possible 10-year value of $750 million, and has been moving into promising arenas such as cloud computing. The company has substantial debt, topping $19 billion, but also significant free cash flow, near $3 billion annually. Its debt load is lower than some peers, too.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  On Wednesday, CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL  ) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they'll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise.�

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Tyco International Ltd.(Switzerland)

Tyco International Ltd. provides security products and services, fire protection and detection products and services, valves and controls, and other industrial products worldwide. The company?s Tyco Security Solutions segment designs, sells, installs, services, and monitors electronic security, productivity, and lifestyle enhancement systems for residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental customers. This segment also designs, manufactures, and sells security products, including intrusion, security, access control, electronic article surveillance, and video management systems. Its Tyco Fire Protection segment designs, manufactures, sells, installs, and services fire detection and fire suppression systems, and building and life safety products for commercial, industrial, and governmental customers. The company?s Tyco Flow Control segment designs, manufactures, sells, and services valves, pipes, fittings, valve automation, and heat tracing products for general proce ss, energy, and mining markets, as well as the water and wastewater markets. Tyco International Ltd. was founded in 1960 and is based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.

Best Dividend Companies To Watch In Right Now: Colgate-Palmolive Company(CL)

Colgate-Palmolive Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets consumer products worldwide. It offers oral care products, including toothpaste, toothbrushes, and mouth rinses, as well as dental floss and pharmaceutical products for dentists and other oral health professionals; personal care products, such as liquid hand soap, shower gels, bar soaps, deodorants, antiperspirants, shampoos, and conditioners; and home care products comprising laundry and dishwashing detergents, fabric conditioners, household cleaners, bleaches, dishwashing liquids, and oil soaps. The company offers its oral, personal, and home care products under the Colgate Total, Colgate Max Fresh, Colgate 360 Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Eric Volkman]

  It's one of the steadiest dividend payers on the market, and it's continuing to fly level. Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) has declared a fresh quarterly common stock dividend, which is to be $0.34 per share, paid on August 15 to shareholders of record as of July 23. That amount matches the firm's previous distribution; this was paid in May. Prior to that, Colgate-Palmolive handed out $0.31 per share.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  One concern, though, is how the company handled news of Venezuela's currency devaluation. Clorox (NYSE: CLX  ) and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) also felt the pinch, with Clorox taking about a $0.05 to $0.10 per-share earnings hit and Colgate losing about $0.50 per share. But they also addressed the potential devaluation more proactively than P&G did. Clorox actually�anticipated�the devaluation in its February earnings report, projecting the potential hit if a devaluation took place. Colgate didn't provide specific guidance in advance but clearly saw it as an issue, delivering on a promise to give prompt guidance revisions after the devaluation occurred.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Investors have always been interested in stocks that pay dividends, but lately, low interest rates on bonds and other fixed-income investments have made solid dividend payers even more valuable. Among the most promising dividend stocks in the market is Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL  ) , and one big reason is that it is one of the few exclusive companies to make the list of Dividend Aristocrats. In order to become a member of this elite group, a company must have raised its dividend payouts to shareholders every single year for at least a quarter-century. Only a few dozen stocks manage to make the cut, and those that do tend to stay there for a long time.