Investopedia: Tomorrow's Great Dividend Companies

Successful investing demands a balance between what we know about the past and what we think about the future. Today's great dividend-payer may not be such a great idea for the portfolio if the company's business is eroding and competitors are capturing the revenue it needs to fund those dividends. Likewise, a stock that may be entirely inappropriate for a dividend portfolio today could nevertheless emerge as a star dividend-payer in the future. 

With that in mind, consider a few companies that may not be great dividend ideas today (or may not pay one at all!) but could emerge as time goes on and the businesses mature.

Healthcare 

I have lamented on more than one occasion that outside of pharmaceuticals, there is a distinct lack of quality dividend-payers in the healthcare space. Nevertheless, companies like St. Jude (NYSE:STJ) and Stryker (NYSE:SYK) could be part of a change in that tradition.

St. Jude has a very attractive pipeline of growth prospects and a solid present-day business in areas like cardiac rhythm management, neurostim and heart valve replacement. St. Jude presently has considerable debt and formidable competitors, but it also has robust free cash flow and it is not so hard to imagine that a dividend could be in the company's future.

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