Short Sellers Make Big Changes in High-Yield Dividend Stocks

Short sellers are continuing to keep their bets against many of the top defensive high-yield dividend stocks. Increased volatility in June and rising interest rates are obviously making short sellers get aggressive in some cases and lower their bets in other cases. The latest short interest covers the June 28 settlement date, and we have compared this to the June 14 settlement date. We also have added color if appropriate.

As we have said before, it takes much more conviction to short sell a stock that has a very high dividend. On top of having to pay a broker loan-call rate to borrow the stock, the dividend payouts have to be paid and the ex-dividend dates play into the equation as well. The top dividend stocks we are tracking in the short interest are as follows: Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), American Electric Power Co. Inc. (NYSE: AEP), Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK), General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: KMP), Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK), Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ).

Source: 24/7 Wall St.

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