re: Help for a novice: is percent dividend payout a helpful factor?

Thanks to all for the advice/warnings. We are not going to jump into anything but when we are losing 5-6% return on tax-free TX school bonds as they are being called, we are looking for a reasonable alternative. I have started to pull together a list to winnow down to 5-10: IBM,CSCO, PEP, PG, AAPL, MSFT, JPM, BA, GE, HON, HD, VFC, KMI, AXP, KO, XOM, OKE, HCP, T, MAT, ABT, ANTM, STX, LYB, ITW, CVX, COP