When looking for a quality dividend stock, one thing I like to look at is the Dividend Payout Ratio. What I like to see is a stock with a high dividend yield and a low payout ratio. Now you maybe wondering what constitutes a high yield and a low payout ratio, and this isn’t an easy thing to answer because it largely depends on the stock and its industry.

There was some good posts this week, enjoy the list!

Dividend Based Investing Has 3 posts that make it into my list this week:
Checking in with the blue chips on Vasic's list
True yield provides bigger picture for investors
Dividend growth beyond the blue chips

It is always said that one of the best ways to invest, is to put your money in companies whose products you use every day, well, groceries are definitely something I use every day, so I thought the next two weeks I'd highlight the two big grocery chains here in Ontario, Sobeys which is owned by Empire Company Ltd. (TSE: EMP-A), and Loblaws (TSE: L), which will be featured next week. The store that my wife and I shop at most is Sobeys because it is right around the corner, and on our way home from work. So, I figure if I'm spending my money there, I might as well profit from it, right?

About the company:

Here is Google Finance's description of what they do, which can be found here

Dividend Based Investing highlights an interesting article from The New York Times called Inflation? Stick with Stocks

The Dividend Guy posted his Dividend Stock Wednesday with a great analysis of Johnson & Johnson Dividend Stock Wednesday: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ-N).

Continuing with our Oil / Energy stocks, we have the Canadian Oil Sands Trust (TSE COS.UN) up for analysis this week. COS.UN is an income trust that pays out a quarterly dividend and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Lets see how COS.UN fares as a hedge against the currently rising oil and gas prices.

About the company:

Here is Company description of what they do, which can be found on their website here

I think that Sin Stocks are an interesting topic, So I thought that today I'd do a brief post about them, and why I have one in my portfolio. First off, lets try to go over what exactly a Sin Stock is; A Sin Stock is generally any stock of a company that provides a product or service that people have moral judgments against. Now, there are so many people out there with different morals, so a sin stock for you, might not be a sin stock for me. For example, someone might not like ice cream, so any company that produces ice cream would be against their morals to own, but in general there are three types of stocks that are your main 'Sin Stocks', these are Alcohol, Tobacco and Casinos.

Some great articles this week,

Dividend Based Investing highlights an interesting article on volatility and how it is affecting your investing performance from the globadvisor called What all this volatility is doing to your head

The Dividend Guy Shows us that you don't need to buy individual stocks to put together a good dividend based portfolio with his post A Quality Dividend Portfolio Using 5 Investments.