15 Great Stocks with Great Yield

With markets rattling and whipsawing in a very volatile manner and the 10-year yield falling to post-WWII lows, investors may hunt for the safety of high-yielding dividend stocks. However, be warned, for some stocks, they only have high yields due to the fact that the stock price has been beaten down.

For example, the Wisdomtree Dividend ex-Financials Fund DTN include Frontier Communications FTR as its top holding, even though it is within 70 cents of its 52-week low.

Thus, investors should look at stocks that have yield and are trading near their 52-week highs, showing strong performance and a commitment to dividends; if companies don't increase the dividend, then the yield will fall, so companies that have high yields and are trading near highs are growing dividends to maintain that yield.

This is what investors should look for. So without further ado, here are 15 dividend-paying stocks to look at, excluding financials.

1) AT&T T: yield=5.14%, within .7% of 52-week high

2) Duke Energy DUK: yield=4.55%, within 2.29% of 52-week high

3) Kimberly Clark KMB: yield=3.72%, within 2.79% of 52-week high

4) Verizon VZ: yield=4.81%, within 3.51% of 52-week high

5) Altria Group MO: yield=5.09%, within 4.14% of 52-week high

6) Reynolds American RAI: yield=5.62%, within 7.55% of 52-week high

7) Abbott Labs ABT: yield=3.3%, within 7.81% of 52-week high

8) Eli Lilly LLY: yield=4.78%, within 12.32% of 52-week high

9) Home Depot HD: yield=2.35%, within 13.94% of 52-week high

10) First Energy FE: yield=4.7%, within 14.36% of 52-week high

11) Illinois Toolworks ITW: yield=2.56%, within 14.89% of 52-week high

12) PG&E Corp PCG: yield=4.16%, within 14.94% of 52-week high

13) Pfizer PFE: yield=3.99%, within 18.89% of 52-week high

14) Merck MRK: yield=4.47%, within 19.34% of 52-week high

15) Phillip Morris PM: yield=3.63%, within 20.23% of 52-week high

Note: percentage of 52-week calculated as (52-week high - current price)/(52-week high - 52-week low)