Sustainable Dividend
Screener.
A high yield can mean a strong business paying out real cash, or a falling share price and a dividend about to be cut. Six checks built from free cash flow, debt, interest cover and revenue trend tell the two apart. Filter every dividend payer below.
Scoring the dividend payers…
The six checks, exactly as computed
- Cash-flow payout ratio: dividend per share ÷ free cash flow per share. Over 100% means the company is paying out more cash than it actually generates. The core check: cash, not accounting earnings.
- Negative free cash flow: paying any dividend while free cash flow per share is zero or negative. The payout can only be coming from debt or cash reserves.
- Earnings payout risky: the same flag already computed by the Dividend & Income Screener (payout over 100% of TTM net income, REIT-aware so REITs aren't flagged against FFO-style economics).
- High leverage: debt/equity over 2.0 and over 1.5× its own sector's median. Sector-relative, same pattern as the Mean Reversion Screener's Falling Knife check, so a REIT or utility isn't flagged just for carrying sector-normal debt.
- Weak interest coverage: TTM interest coverage under 3× and under 0.7× its sector's median.
- Declining revenue: TTM revenue growth under -5% year over year. A shrinking business paying a rich yield is the classic yield-trap pattern: price falls faster than the dividend gets cut, mechanically inflating the yield.
Sustainable = real dividend payers with 0 or 1 of the 6 flags. Yield traps = payers with 3 or more flags. Stocks with exactly 2 flags sit in a genuine gray area, not swept into either bucket. A separate note (shown but not counted toward the flag total) marks a yield running more than 2× its own sector's average, a real statistical outlier worth a second look, not proof of anything by itself.
What this can't do
- US-listed stocks only. It covers the same tracked US universe as the rest of this site. Non-US names, such as the Oslo-listed shipping and energy payers that started this project, can't be tracked: the free data sources block those exchanges.
- It can't see one-off special dividends. Telling a special payout from a regular one needs payment-by-payment history, which sits behind paid data tiers. So the screen checks the conditions a cash-backed dividend should clear instead: is the payout covered by free cash flow, is the balance sheet loaded with debt, is interest cover thin, is revenue shrinking.
- Passing is not a promise. A stock that clears every check isn't guaranteed safe, and one that fails several isn't guaranteed to cut. The reasoning is inspectable, not a hidden "AI" verdict.
On Oct 23, 2026, 365 of the 404 dividend payers this site tracks pass its six sustainability checks. The highest yield among them is Western Union (WU) at 15.5%, with 60% of its free cash flow paid out.
Sustainable
High Yield.
Real dividend payers whose payout actually clears the cash-flow and balance-sheet checks. Not a promise the yield holds, but a real, inspectable starting point for research. Click any row for the full stock card.
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Yield Traps
to Avoid.
A high number here isn't a bargain; it's usually the market pricing in a dividend cut, or a payout the business can no longer really afford. Each row shows exactly which checks failed. A cluster of these warnings across many sectors at once often shows up first as widening credit spreads. See the Crash Indicator for that broader picture.
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Dividend Reinvestment
(DRIP) Calculator.
Projects three parallel outcomes from the same real starting numbers: reinvesting every dividend (DRIP), taking dividends as cash instead, and a theoretical tax-free DRIP that shows exactly how much of your compounding taxes quietly erode. Quarterly compounding, a full year-by-year table, and every assumption is one you set, not one this site predicts for you. New to the inputs? Read the dividend calculator guide.
Set this to whatever you'll actually pay: a US qualified-dividend rate, your own country's rate if you invest from abroad, or 0% for a tax-advantaged account. This site doesn't guess your rate.
Portfolio value over time
Year-by-year breakdown
| Year | Share price | Shares (DRIP) | Dividend income (pre-tax) | Tax paid | Value (DRIP) | Value (cash, no DRIP) | Tax erosion to date |
|---|
Quarterly compounding: each quarter's dividend per share (this year's annual rate ÷ 4) is paid on shares held, taxed at your rate, and (in the DRIP scenario) the after-tax cash buys more shares at that quarter's price - dividend growth and price growth both compound annually. The "cash, no DRIP" scenario holds the same starting shares plus any contributions, collecting each after-tax dividend as uninvested cash instead of buying more shares. The tax-free line reruns the identical DRIP with 0% tax, purely to isolate the erosion effect - not a real, tax-exempt scenario. Extra contributions, when set, are applied identically across all three lines so they never affect the DRIP-vs-cash comparison. Educational tool only, not tax or investment advice - actual dividend tax treatment depends on your account type, country, and holding period.
Which stocks have the highest sustainable dividend yields?
On Oct 23, 2026, 365 of the 404 dividend payers this site tracks pass its six sustainability checks. The highest yield among them is Western Union (WU) at 15.5%, with 60% of its free cash flow paid out. 13 of the 404 payers look like yield traps: Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE), a 9.3% yield with 2854% of free cash flow paid out, TransDigm Group (TDG), a 8.6% yield with 266% of free cash flow paid out, Healthpeak Properties (DOC), a 6.2% yield with 814% of free cash flow paid out, Clorox (CLX), a 5.8% yield with 102% of free cash flow paid out, BXP (BXP), a 5.6% yield with 430% of free cash flow paid out, Crown Castle (CCI), a 5.5% yield with 77% of free cash flow paid out, International Paper (IP), a 5.5% yield with 177% of free cash flow paid out, AES (AES), a 4.7% yield with 190% of free cash flow paid out, Kimco Realty (KIM), a 4.6% yield with 106% of free cash flow paid out, Smurfit WestRock (SW), a 4.2% yield with 64% of free cash flow paid out, Camden Property Trust (CPT), a 3.3% yield with 182% of free cash flow paid out, Iron Mountain (IRM), a 3.1% yield with 1393% of free cash flow paid out and International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), a 1.7% yield with 75% of free cash flow paid out.
| Stock | Sector | Dividend yield | Dividend per share | Free cash flow paid out | Debt to equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WUWestern Union Co | Financial Services | 15.53% | $0.95 | 60% | 2.95 |
| CAGConagra Brands Inc | Food Products | 9.51% | $1.40 | 65% | 1.21 |
| VICIVICI Properties Inc | Real Estate | 7.24% | $1.76 | 94% | 0.61 |
| GISGeneral Mills Inc | Food Products | 7.13% | $2.46 | 83% | 1.83 |
| VZVerizon Communications Inc | Telecommunication | 6.43% | $2.78 | 55% | 1.59 |
| KHCKraft Heinz Co | Food Products | 6.40% | $1.60 | 50% | 0.53 |
| EIXEdison International | Utilities | 6.34% | $3.60 | 220% | 2.42 |
| UPSUnited Parcel Service Inc | Logistics & Transportation | 6.30% | $6.37 | 99% | 1.63 |
| PGRProgressive Corp | Insurance | 6.12% | $13.96 | 51% | 0.24 |
| CMCSAComcast Corp | Telecommunication | 5.96% | $1.34 | 27% | 1.01 |
The screener above filters all 365 by yield, payout and sector. The six checks (cash-flow payout, negative free cash flow, earnings payout, leverage, interest coverage and revenue trend) are explained in the glossary.
Trailing-twelve-month dividends and free cash flow from Finnhub, refreshed weekly. Educational content only, not investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
What is a sustainable dividend?
A dividend the company's cash flow can keep paying. This screener runs six checks on every dividend payer: cash-flow payout, negative free cash flow, earnings payout, leverage, interest coverage and revenue trend. A payer with 0 or 1 flags is rated sustainable; with 3 or more it is rated a likely yield trap.
What payout ratio is too high?
Above 100% the company paid out more than it earned, or more than its free cash flow if you use the cash version, so the dividend is being funded by debt or reserves. REITs are the exception: they are measured against funds from operations instead.
How often is the list updated?
Weekly. Dividends are trailing twelve months and free cash flow comes from Finnhub; every figure carries the date of the refresh.
About this dividend screener
A high dividend yield is not the same as a safe dividend. This sustainable dividend screener runs six checks on every dividend stock we track (payout ratio against free cash flow, negative free cash flow, earnings payout, leverage, interest coverage and revenue trend) to separate dependable income from yield traps. It also includes a DRIP (dividend reinvestment) calculator to project how reinvested dividends compound. New to the maths? The dividend calculator guide walks through the yield formula and the DRIP calculator step by step, and the glossary defines each check. For cash returned through buybacks as well, see Shareholder Yield. The checks are written out on how this site checks dividend safety. See how to find safe high-dividend stocks.
Educational content only, not investment advice. A dividend yield, however it's screened, is a snapshot of the past - not a guarantee a company keeps paying, growing, or even holding its current price. Always verify a company's own filings and recent dividend announcements before acting on anything shown here. See Editorial Standards and Disclosures for more.