It can be hard to find good dividend stocks without taking some short cuts as you create a list of investment candidates. For example, you might just pick out the highest-yielding stocks from an index like the Nasdaq-100 as you start your research. Although this index is heavily oriented toward technology, the three top yielders hail from outside that industry.

The trio includes pharmacy chain Walgreens (NASDAQ: WBA), consumer staples maker Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC), and energy producer Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ: FANG). Each has a yield soundly above 4%. But don't just buy these companies blindly; in fact, only one seems to have a story that a long-term dividend investor might find compelling.

When Walgreens released its fiscal 2924 first-quarter earnings results, it also announced that it would be reducing its dividend by 48% to $0.25 per share per quarter. The dividend yield based on the new, lower payment is roughly 4.8%, still high enough to place it atop the Nasdaq-100. But a dividend cut is usually not good news, and that's decidedly the case with regard to Walgreens.

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Source Fool.com