Fourth-quarter GDP, which is set for release this Friday (1/29/10), is expected to show that the US economy expanded by 4.5%, but growth prospects for the US are expected to normalize as we move further into the year and beyond to a slower pace closer to 2% per annum, rather than the more historical 3%.

One of the reasons for the projected slower growth rates is the across-the-board de-leveraging we're seeing from businesses to individual households.

Businesses in general will find it harder to acquire credit/financing to expand their businesses. And consumers will find it tougher to afford all of the goods and services desired.

And while small-cap companies with innovative products and solutions will always have an audience, I believe the larger, stable and more solid companies will start to gain additional attention and become sought after holdings.

Many larger companies are large because they have an established and loyal customer base with widespread usage of their products. In turn, they see steady and sustainable growth for their business. Financing is unlikely an issue for their operations. And they likely generate a great deal of cash.

But that's not all. A lot of the big name companies will also pay their investors a nice dividend.

And as different investment vehicles compete for investors' cash in this expected lower growth environment – the companies offering 'a little extra' (dividends) could have an edge.

What's interesting is that a lot of companies have cut their dividends while others have stopped paying them altogether, making the search for good paying dividends that much harder.

But they're out there if you're committed to finding them.

Smaller growth companies will typically not pay a dividend as they will pour all their money into growing their business.

The larger companies with solid earnings, but without the aggressive growth rates that may have marked their earlier years, will often reward their investors by paying out a portion of their earnings in dividends.

And these are the companies we're looking for in this week's screen: strong stocks with good dividends and a track record of excellent growth and payment history.

• Zacks Rank less than or equal to 3
  This will give us Zacks #1 Ranks ('strong buy'), Zacks #2 Ranks ('buy') and Zacks #3 Ranks ('hold'). But will exclude Zacks #4 Ranks and Zacks #5 Ranks, which are sells and strong sells, respectively.

   

• 5 Year Historical Growth Rate greater than or equal to 10%
  We want to see a history of solid growth.

   

• Next 3-5 Year Projected Growth Rate greater than or equal to 10%
  (In addition to a track record of solid earnings, it's important to have a successful future of solid growth as well, otherwise your dividend could be in jeopardy. And 10% is still pretty exciting when you consider growth will be harder to come by nowadays in light of the slower growth predictions.)

   

• 5 Year Average Dividend Yield greater than or equal to Average for the S&P 500
  (Above average market yields is what we're looking for.)

   

• Current Dividend Yield greater than or equal to 5 Year Average Dividend Yield
  (We're also insisting that their current yield be greater than their average dividend yield over the last 5 years.)

For those of you building this on your own at home with the Research Wizard, here's how that screen looks when it's completed. (That last line was done with the Calculation Expression feature where you can compare one item to another. On that last line, i26 references the Current Dividend Yield and i27 references the 5 Year Average Dividend Yield.)

Of course, this screen will not preclude that a company will decide to cut their dividend in the future. But these additional measures should help us find some of the best dividend paying companies with a history of success.

Here are 5 stocks from this week's screen:

ABT - Analyst Report Abbott Labs
AFL - Analyst Report Aflac, Inc.
EMR - Analyst Report Emerson Electric Co.
OLN - Snapshot Report Olin Corp.
SNA - Analyst Report Snap-on, Inc.

Get the rest of the stocks on this list and start finding top dividend paying companies on your own today. It's easy to do.

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Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material.

Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks’ portfolios and strategies are available at: http://www.zacks.com/performance.

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