If you’re a serious dividend investor, you should never trust a stock screener. They might be OK for blue-chip stocks like Pfizer (PFE) and Procter & Gamble (PG) . But these stocks don’t pay enough to properly fund a retirement portfolio powered by dividends anyway. The big problem with screeners is that they get tripped up when yields get serious. They handle the 2% and 3% payers alright. They’ll spit back a fairly accurate dividend payout ratio based on earnings, and give you price-to-earnings metrics that are fair enough. But high-yield structures like REITs and BDCs? Forget it. They break the machines.… Read more