The stock market has always been unpredictable, but unprecedented world events have made the market even more unpredictable during the last few years. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented government stimulus, simultaneous wars in Ukraine and Israel, and stubbornly high inflation, the idea of a normal market environment has all but disappeared.
The only thing that we can do is look at historical averages to see where today’s market fits in the grand scheme of things. The DOW is still trading over 35,000 and S&P 500 companies are trading at nearly 25 times their annual earnings, well above the historical average of 15 times earnings.
At the same time, we find ourselves in a rapidly changing interest rate environment. Fixed income investments have increased in yield in the last few years, but it’s hard to predict how long the Federal Reserve will keep rates elevated for. S&P 500 stocks continue to yield under 2% and some investors think it's too challenging to find safe and affordable securities that pay 4%, 5%, and even 6% yields.
Searching for yield isn't easy in an environment where historically high asset prices and stimulus from the Fed have driven down yields. This doesn't leave many options for investors looking for retirement income or a decent dividend yield on their stocks, but there are a handful of cheap dividend stocks to buy that are still yielding 3%-6%.
We've put together some of the best dividend stocks that are trading under their value and at lower P/E ratios than their peers. These stocks are true bargains in the dividend world right now.
Let's review some of the best cheap dividend stocks in the market today in this slideshow.
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Continue to Slide #1" button view the first stock.
