The best equity investment is a stock with good fundamentals and a convincing equity story. If this stock is also attractive valuated it could promise good returns. I’ve tried to summarize some significant fundamentals in order to screen the whole capital markets by interesting dividend stocks. Every month, I create a quick dividend list (from low-yield to high-yield paying stocks) of stocks with interesting performance and valuation figures. Stocks from that list are mid- and large caps (market capitalization of more than USD 1 billion) with double-digit long-term earnings growth rates. The companies are traded at AMEX, NYSE, NASDAQ and part of the Dow Jones, S&P 500 or Nasdaq Composite. The list is selected by the following criteria and sorted by dividend yield.

As some of the uncertainties surrounding the economy lift over the course of the year, attention is bound to turn back to the fundamentals of the private sector, says Katherine Nixon, chief investment officer for the Northeast region at Northern Trust.

Historically, small cap stock returns coming out of a bear market have outperformed large cap stocks. The performance of small caps relative to large caps since the March 9th lows has been no different. The relative valuation of small caps vs. large caps is at the highest level since 1983.