Ask Matt: Search for large dividend-paying stocks continues

— -- Q: How can investors find out how large of dividends companies pay? Can you use Royal Dutch Shell and AT&T as examples?

A: Investors' search for any kind of cash or income from their assets continues.

Dividends, or periodic payments from companies to their shareholders, continue to be widely sought after. Investors, fed up with the lackluster return of stocks last year, are looking to dividends as a more certain, yet not guaranteed, way to get some cash from their investments.

Given how important dividends have become to investors, it's natural that you'd like to know how to look them up. Luckily, finding the dividend yield of most stocks is very easy using the free investment tools at USATODAY.com.

To get the dividend yield of a stock, start at the Money section of USATODAY.com at money.usatoday.com. Scroll down a bit until you get to the "Get A Quote" blank, which is roughly in the center of the screen.

Both the 3.9% and 5.8% dividend yields on Royal Dutch Shell and AT&T are relatively high. Currently, the S&P 500 is paying a dividend yield of about 1.9%, meaning that the two stocks you're asking about are yielding at least double the average.

Be careful, though, before you go on a wild goose chase for yield. Remember that when you own shares of an individual stock you are subjecting your principal to more market risk than if you buy a basket of investments. If Royal Dutch Shell, for instance, were to face litigation risk or a decline in earnings, then you would likely see the value of your investment fall relative to the broader stock market.

With that said, if you only care about dividend yield you've selected two companies with outsized dividend payments. And using USATODAY.com's free tool, you might be able to find others, too.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies and Fundamental Analysis for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at: twitter.com/mattkrantz