That leaves you with very few choices, doesn't it?
I have found fewer than 30 US stocks that meet my own criteria (reasonable, well covered, and growing dividends with quality financials). Once I take valuation into account, the pool of possible candidates is even smaller (currently only 8 stocks out of the 30 are on my buy list).
I understand that some people would rather keep their stock picks private, but I would love to know what's on your list of acceptable stocks right now (acceptable from the long term income investor point of view that is).
I hadthis
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f44/stock-of-the-week-51566-2.html thread on the Individual stocks about my selection criterea and there must be something good about it because I see that Value Line is now selling a stock of the month selection with a commentary from analysis of the value line world with virtually the identical criterea I outlined in the thread. (consistent dividends Value Line Financial Strength rating of B+ or greater timeliness of 3 or greater better than average safety) They are charging $799 per year for this service, I almost fell out of my kitchen chair when they sent me their "inaugural offer"!
In any case of those stocks selected on the thread only one CFR - would I have sold as it fell to a 4 in timeliness last year with the industry rank it was in fally quickly as well. All of the other stocks picked have continued to do well and all have raised there dividend since I posted. Those are:
VFC - VF Corp
MMM - 3 M
CFR - Cullen Frost (sell as finance area untimely by Value LIne)
NST - NSTAR - currently potentially being sold
MCD - Mc Donalds
ABT - Abbot Labs
KMP - Kinder Morgan Partnership
Other stocks I would like are
PNY - currently at 4% dividend increased it's dividend for a long time and would be a solid holding in any long term portfolio
KO - I still love Coke, solid company
PEP - I split the percentage ownership with Pepsi, slightly crazy CEO, solid products slightly better dividend
Ross Stores - dividend growing very fast I like it in combination with:
MO: High risk good dividend at a 50/50 with Ross stores you have a 3.75 yield on growing dividends
YUM - Continues to roll
VVC - Vectron 5.3% dividend ( I would use this as a replacement for NST)
BDX - Becton Dickinson 2.07 % dividend when combined with VVC you get a 3.6% dividend.
So a portfolio with PNY KO/PEP MO YUM VVC BDX VFC MMM MCD ABT KMP is relatively diversified and I think a reasonable return for dividends.
Overall finding stocks worthy with over a 2% yield is more difficult to do than in most years in the past, but there are many good dividend stocks with dividends between 1 and 2% however, this is not historically a very good value.