Six Companies Whose Dividends Could be in Danger

Normally, like most brokers and analysts, iStock uses these pages for the bullish side of the tape but today, we are venturing over to the dark side. iStock is going to break out the trusty screener and see if we can't identify some companies that are in danger of cutting their dividends.

The first thing we want to find are companies paying abnormally high dividend yields. Anything over 5% is unusual, so let's see how many publicly traded companies offer investors a yield greater than 5% at the moment.

The answer… is 541. Of course, they aren't all in trouble of cutting payments.

Next, we'll focus companies that analysts believe will experience declining sales and profits. We are left with 71 companies with projected shrinking top-lines. Of those, 53 should see the bottom-line shrivel, too.

[Related -Pitney Bowes (PBI): Is That High-Yield Stock Really A 'Dividend Trap'?]

Let's see if any of the 53 is currently scheduled to pay out more than projected earnings in the form of dividend payments, and the answer is yes 34 of 'em.

In addition to falling sales and profits, how many of our 34 have increasing cost of goods sold and selling and general administrative costs. If costs are going up, margins should head south, which isn't good for profits and could make paying dividends more difficult.

Twenty knocked off the list leaving 14.

In the current super-duper low interest rate environment, many low-to-go growth companies are borrowing "cheap" money and using the proceeds to pay out dividends. Let's see how many of our 14 have racked up long-term debt in the past year. A half-dozen of the not-so-fabulous 14 added debt in 2013 versus 2012. These six companies could be in danger of cutting their dividend payouts sooner than later:

[Related -Dividend Roundup: AAN, CSL, DNB, GEO, RELV, THI, WIN]

Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLUB) - 10.9% dividend Lincoln Educational Services Corp (NASDAQ:LINC) – 7.3% dividend Windstream Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: WIN) – 10.4% dividend Rhino Resource Partners, L.P.(NYSE:RNO) – 13.5% dividend Santander Mexico Fincl Gp SAB deCV (ADR)(NYSE:BSMX) – 28.4% dividend Consolidated Communications Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CNSL) – 7.6% dividend

Overall: Investors considering any of the above names for their attractive dividend yields might think again as each is displaying warnings signs that the payouts could be in danger of getting cut.