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Short-term interest rates are still high enough for you to get a yield of more than 4% on a savings account. But stocks with attractive dividend yields might also be appropriate for you, depending on your investment goals.

Investors holding shares of companies that pay dividends can look forward to increasing payouts over time, assuming that the companies are well-managed and remain competitive. Increasing profits and dividends can both support higher stock prices over the long term, as well.

For people who wish to avoid the stock or bond markets, the writing is on the wall. The Federal Reserve has made two cuts since September to the federal-funds rate, which is currently in a target range of 4.5% to 4.75%. So the environment is still a friendly one for savers, but there is political pressure for the Fed to continue lowering interest rates.

There are many mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that are focused on dividend-paying stocks, and we will be covering some of them soon in the Deep Dive column. But today we will list stocks that are highly regarded by analysts and that have dividend yields of at least 4%.

Dividend stock screen

The S&P Composite 1500 Index XX:SP1500 is made up of the S&P 500 SPX, the S&P MidCap 400 index MID and the S&P Small Cap 600 Index SML. Among those 1,500 stocks, there are 146 with trailing dividend yields of at least 4%, according to FactSet.

We pared the list to 24 companies that are covered by at least five analysts working for brokerage firms polled by FactSet and that have majority buy or equivalent ratings.

We then excluded any company that had cut its regular quarterly dividend at any time over the previous five years, according to FactSet data.

Here are the 10 remaining dividend stocks with the highest upside potential over the next year implied by the consensus price targets:

Any stock screen is only a snapshot. You should do your own research and form your own opinion about the long-term viability of any company you consider investing in. One way to do that is to click on the tickers for more information.