Five amazing stock ideas, vetted by Morningstar and their top stock pickers, and then offer you a totally free report that gives you access to 13 additional stock ideas.

Why dividends, and why now?
After the financial crisis of 2008, companies worldwide cut back on just about everything. They laid off employees, cut back on perks, chopped dividends, and trimmed overhead wherever they could. The result today is that global companies have more cash on hand than they’ve had in ages. As of late March this year, U.S. companies were holding $1.9 trillion in cash -- a record not seen for a long, long time.

So many of them are now starting to put that cash to use by increasing their dividends and rewarding shareholders who have stuck by their side. In 2010, dividend increases in the S&P 500 went up 62% (from 157 to 255), and 2011 should shape up to be even better. For investors, this means greater gains in the market. Want proof?

While the SPDR S&P Dividend ETF (NYSE: SDY  ) has outperformed the general market so far this year, other more sector-specific ETFs have done even better. For instance, utility and real estate ETFs, particularly because of their strong weighting of dividend stocks, have fared more than a few basis points better than the market.

Dividend-heavy ETFs do well because they shell out consistent cash to shareholders, but academics and investors alike long have praised the ability of dividend-paying stocks to outperform their nonpaying brethren.

And not only have dividend stocks outperformed the market over the long-haul, but they provide investors income along the way. This is especially important for retirees as they learn to balance their income with expenses.

Despite the obvious allure of dividend stocks, investors still aren’t catching on. According to Morningstar, as of the end of May, inflows to U.S. stock funds were $25 billion, while inflows to bond funds were nearly $80 billion.

Give me those stock picks!
If you’ve stuck with me so far, then hopefully you’re at least partially convinced that dividends will help accelerate your portfolio. So in that fashion, I decided to try and find the best dividend stocks out there. Fortunately, Morningstar made this easy by offering some great advice.

They polled their “Ultimate Stock Pickers” (their top 26 managers) and found stocks that were the most widely held by all of them. The only criterion was that the stocks were held by at least five of the managers, and that they paid a minimum yield of 3.5%. Below are some stats on five stocks they chose:

Source: Morningstar data; Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor’s

With the exception of GlaxoSmithKline, each company has a fairly reasonable payout ratio (which means there is room for dividend growth), and each company has been consistently paying dividends for quite some time. Although this doesn’t necessarily mean complete success moving forward, these are great indicators that the five companies above are truly solid dividend plays.

U.K.-based Glaxo might have a high payout ratio, but it churns out tons of free cash flow, and has a more reasonable free cash flow payout ratio of 69.6%, which assures me that their dividend is in no danger. I especially like Glaxo because at a time when pharma companies are finding fewer opportunities in developing countries, Glaxo has decided to focus on emerging markets. It has partnered with generic drug manufacturers like Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (NYSE: RDY  ) in India, and has formed deals with companies everywhere from South Africa to Argentina. In fact, 70% of their revenue stream comes from non-U.S. markets -- emerging markets revenue in particular increased 22% last year.

In addition, the company is diversifying its range of products and has jumped into vaccines and consumer products like sleep aids and heart burn remedies. This will help them boost revenues as patents have expired in recent years and their blockbuster drugs cease to bring in the dollars they used to. Furthermore, the company announced a $1.6 billion share buyback that illustrates management thinks the stock is at a reasonable price and that it should continue generating earnings for years to come.

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