The current stock market is generally depressing.  Averages of the major market indexes are down for the year, and the general investing mood is depressing.  Most of the blame goes to the price of oil and the sub-prime mortgage fiasco.  These are genuine problems, but in many cases good companies have been punished along with the bad, creating a very interesting opportunity for double gains, not seen for a number of years.

A stock that pays a regular dividend provides two opportunities for investor profit.  The dividend is one, and appreciation in the stock price is the other.  As investors look at stocks, they often pause at those paying high dividends, but caution is imperative. Is the dividend too high? Is the company paying out more than it is earning?

Both of these situations would cause one to avoid these stocks.

On the other hand, if a stock is paying a dividend that is less than their earnings per share, this would be one signal that there may be a good opportunity there.  With yields on savings accounts and money markets at low rates, there is tremendous demand for attractive yields.

Today there are stocks yielding 5-10%, due to deterioration in their share price, coupled with the continuation of dividend payments.  If you can find a major company, well established and well run, whose stock is yielding 10.7%, you have to think about  two things; this is a yield that will attract investors, and as it does, the price of the shares will be bid up.  So, today you can buy a stock, earn a high dividend, and realize a significant capital gain as the price of the stock is bid up by the demand from the yield.

As long as the company has the earnings to pay a high dividend, and all indications are that it is a victim of guilt by association with others in it's market sector, it deserves serious consideration.  Every market decline represents opportunity for those who seek it.  There are many companies operating profitably and efficiently, who fit this description.Traditionally, yields on stocks on major exchanges average 2-2.5%, today there is in an opportunity to double those yields and realize a substantial gain as well.