5 Best Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014

Dividend checks continue to get fatter in corporate America, as more companies jack up their distribution rates.

Readers of the Income Investor newsletter can certainly appreciate that kind of thinking. Let's take a closer look at some of the companies that inched their payouts higher these past few days.

We can start with International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT  ) .�The leading provider of gaming machines and systems for the casino industry is giving its investors more slot machine money.

It's been more than four years since IGT abruptly slashed its quarterly dividend to $0.06 a share as the gaming industry reacted to the global recession. That's where the payout remained until late last year, when IGT bumped it up to $0.07 a share. That became $0.08 a share three months ago, and it's now up to $0.09 a share now. We're still a far cry from IGT's 2008 quarterly rate of $0.145, but there's nothing too shabby about three dividend increases in the past seven months.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014: Telefonica SA(TEF)

Telefonica, S.A. provides fixed and mobile telephony services primarily in Spain, rest of Europe, and Latin America. Its fixed telecommunication services include PSTN lines; ISDN accesses; public telephone; local, domestic, and international long distance and fixed-to-mobile communications; corporate communications; video telephony; supplementary and business-oriented value-added services; network services; leasing and sale of handset equipment; and telephony information services. The company?s Internet and broadband multimedia services comprise Internet service provider service; portal and network services; retail and wholesale broadband access; narrowband switched access to Internet; naked ADSL, a broadband connection; residential-oriented value-added services; companies-oriented value-added services; television services, such as IPTV, cable television, and satellite television; and Fiber to the Home, a service for high speed Internet access and digital video recording. Its data and business-solutions services principally include leased lines; virtual private network services; fiber optics services; the provision of hosting and application; outsourcing and consultancy services; desktop services; and system integration and professional services. The company?s wholesale services for telecommunication operators primarily comprise domestic interconnection services; international wholesale services; leased lines for other operators? network deployment; local loop leasing under the unbundled local loop regulation framework; and bit stream services. It also offers various mobile and related services and products that include mobile voice services, value added services, mobile data and Internet services, wholesale services, corporate services, roaming, fixed wireless, and trunking and paging services. The company has a strategic alliance with China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited. Telefonica, S.A. was founded in 1924 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spai n.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Conrad]

  Telefonica (TEF) is acting within the foreign telecom services industry. The company has a market capitalization of $89.2 billion, generates revenues in an amount of $85.4 billion and a net income of $13.0 billion. It follows P/E ratio is 6.8 and forward price to earnings ratio 8.1, Price/Sales 1.0 and Price/Book ratio 3.1. Dividend Yield: 10.1 percent. The return on equity amounts to 48.1 percent.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014: Sysco Corporation(SYY)

Sysco Corporation, through its subsidiaries, distributes food and related products primarily to the foodservice or food-away-from-home industry in North America and Europe. The company offers a line of frozen foods, such as meats, fully prepared entrees, fruits, vegetables, and desserts; a line of canned and dry foods; fresh meats, custom-cut fresh steaks, other meat, seafood, and poultry; dairy products; beverage products; imported specialties; and fresh produce. It also supplies various non-food items, including paper products, such as disposable napkins, plates, and cups; tableware, which include china and silverware; cookware comprising pots, pans, and utensils; restaurant and kitchen equipment and supplies; and cleaning supplies. In addition, the company offers personal care guest amenities, equipment, housekeeping supplies, room accessories, and textiles to the lodging industry. It serves restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes, schools and colleges, hotels and mote ls, lodging establishments, and other foodservice customers. Sysco Corporation was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Richard Young]

  America’s largest foodservice company is Sysco (NYSE:SYY), which operates out of 180 locations nationwide. Sysco serves around 400,000 customers including hospitals, schools, restaurants and hotels. My relative strength chart for Sysco shows a positive trend developing. Buy.

5 Best Safest Stocks To Own For 2014: Cedar Shopping Centers Inc (CDR)

Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc., real estate investment trust, engages in the ownership, operation, development and redevelopment of supermarket-anchored community shopping centers and drug store-anchored convenience centers in the United States. As of December 31, 2007, it owned 118 properties, aggregating approximately 12.0 million square feet of gross leasable area primarily in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Ohio, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, and New York. Cedar Shopping has elected to be treated as a REIT for federal income tax purposes and would not be subject to federal income tax, if it distributes at least 90% of its REIT taxable income to its stockholders. The company was founded in 1984 and is based in Port Washington, New York.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014: Qualstar Corporation(QBAK)

Qualstar Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and sells automated magnetic tape libraries used to store, retrieve, and manage electronic data primarily in network computing environments worldwide. Its tape libraries consists of cartridge tape drives, tape cartridges, and robotics to move the cartridges from their storage locations to the tape drives under software control. The tape libraries also provide data storage solutions for organizations requiring backup, recovery, and archival storage of critical electronic information. The company also offers ancillary products related to its tape libraries, such as tape media, tape magazines, cables, bar code labels, and fiber channel adapters. In addition, it designs, develops, and sells switching power supplies that are used to convert alternate current line voltage to direct current voltages for use in electronic equipment, such as telecommunications equipment, servers, routers, switches, lighting, and gaming devices. Qualstar Corporation sells its tape drive products primarily to value added resellers and original equipment manufacturers, as well as switching power supplies primarily to original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers, and distributors. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Simi Valley, California.

5 Best Dividend Stocks To Watch For 2014: ITT Industries Inc.(ITT)

ITT Corporation designs, manufactures, and sells a range of engineered products, and provides related services worldwide. Its Defense & Information Solutions segment develops tactical communications equipment, electronic warfare and force protection equipment, radar systems, integrated structures equipment, and imaging and sensor equipment, including night vision goggles, as well as weather, location, surveillance, and other related technologies for military and government agencies. It also provides services comprising air traffic management, information and cyber solutions, large-scale systems engineering, and integration and defense technologies; satellite-based imaging payloads for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance solutions; and high-resolution commercial imaging systems with earth and space science applications, climate and environmental monitoring sensors and systems, and GPS navigation and software applications designed for image and data processing and dissemination. The company?s Fluid Technology segment provides water transport and wastewater treatment systems, pumps and related technologies, and other water and fluid control products with municipal, residential, commercial, and industrial applications. Its Motion & Flow Control segment manufactures shock absorbers and brake friction materials for the transportation industry; switch applications for the industrial and aerospace industries; electrical connectors used in telecommunications, computers, aerospace, medical, and industrial applications; and a range of pumps and tailored products for marine, food and beverage, and general industrial markets. The company was formerly known as ITT Industries, Inc. and changed its name to ITT Corporation in July 2006. ITT Corporation was founded in 1920 and is based in White Plains, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By McWillams]

  The shares closed at $41.46, up $0.61, or 1.49%, on the day. Its market capitalization is $7.68 billion. About the company: ITT Corporation designs and manufactures a variety of engineered products. The Company produces pumps, systems, and services to measure and control water and other fluids. ITT also supplies military defense systems, including night vision devices, secure communication systems, and avionics, in addition to providing electrical interconnects, and data storage and PC cards.