9 Dividend Investments to Buy Now

You aren't alone if your investment portfolio is starved for yield. With savings and money market accounts yielding around a paltry 1 percent or even less, investors are hard-pressed to find a decent return on traditional accounts.

"If you're looking for income, you don't have a lot of good options today," says Charles Sizemore, founder of Dallas-based Sizemore Capital Management. "Bonds and CDs yield too little to warrant consideration, and we may very well see negative interest rates before all is said and done."

The low-yield phenomenon is not limited to the U.S. In fact, while U.S. Treasury bonds still offer a positive return, many government bonds throughout the globe now boast negative yields. For example, 10-year German government bonds now yield negative 0.10 percent, Swiss 10-year bonds yield negative 0.58 percent and Japan's 10-year bonds return negative 0.11 percent.

[See: 6 Reliable Dividend Stocks Paying Out for 100 Years or More.]

Estimates suggest that there are now more than $13 trillion in bonds that have a negative yield, says Henry To, partner at CB Capital Partners in Newport Beach, California.

"More importantly, the low-yield environment for bonds will likely stay put as most of the world's central banks are still easing monetary policy, while the Federal Reserve will likely only raise rates once for the foreseeable future," To says.

This has pushed a legion of individual investors into areas like dividend-paying stocks to lock in a reliable income stream.

"Today is a good time to buy high-yielding dividend stocks," To says. Additionally, low yield environment or not, he adds, "Studies have shown that higher-yielding dividend stocks have historically outperformed the market over the long run."

Many companies are cash-flush and are rewarding shareholders with dividends and dividend increases. Aggregate quarterly dividends for the Standard & Poor's 500 index amounted to $113.9 billion, which was a 10.3 percent increase year-over-year. The dividend total in the first quarter marked the largest quarterly dividend amount in at least 10 years, according to Factset.

All types of investors can benefit from dividend growth stocks, or those with a history of consistently increasing their dividend payouts, says Eric Ervin, CEO of Reality Shares in San Diego. Investors can look at historical payouts to identify those with a consistently growing dividend.

Here are dividend investments analysts like now.

General Motors Co. (ticker: GM). A stock worth considering for both its income and value characteristics is GM, To says. Its 12-month forward annual dividend yield is 4.8 percent. "GM's management paid out just over half of its free cash flow in dividends in 2015, maintaining that the current dividend is pretty sustainable, barring an economic recession in the U.S. or China," To says.

iShares International Select Dividend (IDV). Foreign stocks are cheaper and have higher dividend yields than stocks trading in the U.S. today, To says. This means "investors should look overseas for high-yielding dividend stocks. The iShares International Select Dividend [exchange-traded fund] is a good fit. Its dividend yield is almost 6 percent. More importantly, this high-yielding ETF only includes names that it regards as having a sustainable dividend policy using benchmarks such as the dividend payout ratio and dividend-per-share growth." Investors should note that this ETF is not currency-hedged, meaning the price of this ETF will fluctuate along with the level of the U.S. dollar, To says.

[See: 7 Stocks to Buy for the Baby Boomer Retirement Wave.]

iShares Select Dividend ETF (DVY). This ETF is a decent "one-stop shop" for dividend seeking investors, Sizemore says. It yields about 3 percent at current prices and is well diversified across sectors.

Sizemore also likes the diversified retail real estate investment trust Vereit (VER). This real estate company trades at a discount to most of its peers, as it is still recovering from an accounting scandal years ago, Sizemore says. "The company now runs a tight ship and will soon likely have an investment-grade bond rating. Once that happens, you should see the price enjoy a nice bounce. And in the meantime, you can enjoy the nice 5.2 percent percent yield," Sizemore says.

Dividend growth stocks could be part of a core portfolio allocation or could even serve as a fixed-income replacement in some cases, Ervin says. The DIVS ETF (DIVY) from Reality Shares provides access to the expected dividend growth rate of all the companies in the S&P 500 and can be utilized as a fixed-income alternative, Ervin says.

Ervin highlights four solid dividend growth investments with the potential to increase dividends ahead. "It's important to make a distinction between high-yielding stocks and dividend-growing stocks. In many cases, the highest-yielding names are not the healthiest dividend payers," Ervin says.

Nike (NKE). The global sports apparel and shoe company shows a healthy dividend at 1.09 percent. Looking ahead, Nike's consistent earnings growth is a positive sign for dividend growth, Ervin says.

Starbucks Corp. (SBUX). SBUX boasts strong earnings growth and a relatively large amount of cash left after paying regular debts, Ervin says. "This combination, in addition to its history of increasing dividends, makes a strong case for future dividend growth," Ervin says. The current dividend yield stands at 1.46 percent.

Texas Instruments (TXN). This firm has a high credit rating and an extremely low probability of bankruptcy, indicating a solid financial foundation, Ervin says. "This gives Texas Instruments the room to increase its dividend going forward." The current dividend yield stands at 2.16 percent.

Tyson Foods (TSN). The global food company has a history of increasing dividends, Ervin says. "The company can easily cover its future dividend increase obligations based on levered free cash flow, and its low yield compared to industry peers means the stock represents a strong growth opportunity in the coming years." The current dividend yield stands at 0.80 percent.

[See: The 10 Best Small-Cap Value ETFs.]

"Obviously retirees will enjoy the current income. But even if you're years or decades away from retirement, dividends are a blessing. You can reinvest them to grow and compound your share base so that when you finally decide to start receiving them in cash, you'll be doing so on a lot more shares," Sizemore says.

Kira Brecht is a financial journalist who writes extensively on stock, commodity, and foreign exchange markets, investing strategies, the economy and the Fed. She was managing editor at SFO (Stock, Futures & Options) Magazine for 10 years, creating digital magazine, newsletter and online content aimed at the individual investor. She began her career on the floor of the Chicago futures exchanges covering commodity markets for a financial newswire service. Follow her on Twitter @KiraBrecht.