Consolidated Edison, Inc. (ED), Altria Group Inc (MO): Are Dividend-Paying Stocks The Riskiest On The Market?

To add substance to this argument, here’s a chart comparing the historical price-to-earnings ratios of some of the more popular dividend-paying stocks on the S&P 500. The valuations for utilities such as Duke Energy Corp (NYSE:DUK) and Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) haven’t let up since the financial crisis, far outpacing even the safest of American companies, such as McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) and Caterpillar.

DUK P/E 10 data by YCharts.

The bottom line here is that a flight to safety may not, in fact, be a flight to safety at all, assuming that these valuations will ultimately come back to their historical norms.

The article Are Dividend Stocks the Market’s Riskiest? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by John Maxfield.

John Maxfield has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of McDonald’s.

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