3 High-Yield Dividend Stocks You Don't Have to Babysit

With the S&P 500 once again in negative territory for the year, companies of all sizes have seen their share prices decline. When a stock that pays a strong dividend goes down, it has the happy effect of pushing its dividend yield even higher, which can create a nice buying opportunity for long-term investors who want to add income to their portfolio. However, just because a stock's yield gets pushed higher doesn't mean that it's an automatic buy, as some equities that come with high yield also come with higher-than-average risk and hence require constant monitoring. In our never-ending quest to help investors demystify the markets, we asked three of our Motley Fool contributors to share their suggestions of high-yielding stocks that they think don't require constant attention. Read on to see which stocks they think fit that description to a T.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) is one of my favorite names among high-yield dividend stocks because the drugmaker has strong positive free-cash flows, a reasonable cash payout ratio, a solid balance sheet, and several exciting growth platforms. Finding high yielding dividend stocks that don't require a lot of investor attention can be tricky. Focus too much on high dividend yields and you might get stuck owning shares in a company whose business is risky. Alternatively, pick a company with a low dividend yield and your annual payout could be tiny. In order to avoid falling into either of these two traps, investors have to strike a Goldilocks-like balance between risk and yield, and one company that appears to me to do that is Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK). One high-yielding dividend stock that I like right now is pharma giant AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV). Although the company reported solid earnings, its stock has trailed the market by more than 8% since the start of the year, which could make right now a good time to pick up a few shares of this steady grower.

Source: Motley Fool

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