finding stocks paying high and safe dividend yields is getting harder as recession fears cause companies to hoard cash the overall dividend payment for companies in the s  p 500 fell 23 in the second quarter from the prior period the first decline after seven quarters of record payouts according to s  p dow jones indices with that in mind cnbc pro sought to find stocks that are paying high dividends that they can afford and the stocks have a cheap valuation here was our criteria using data from factset dividend yield above 4 dividend payout ratio less than 50 increased dividend four of the last five years debt to capital ratio less than 80 current forward pe is cheaper than its average forward pe of the last five years values are as of the end of last week along with several banking shares drugmaker pfizer and childrens apparel maker carters made the list pfizer pays a 46 dividend yield a hefty income payout in this uncertain secondhalf environment and the shares are trading at a 9 discount to their 5year average forward pe forward pe looks at a share price relative to the consensus earnings estimate for the next 12 months carters pays a 4 dividend and is trading at a 10 discount