Weekly Dividend Stocks

A small group of US-listed securities distributes income every single week — 52 payments a year rather than the usual four. It is the rarest payment schedule on the market, and almost every name here is a fund rather than an operating company.

That is not an accident. No ordinary business generates and distributes cash weekly; the schedule exists because certain funds, particularly option-income and derivative-income products, collect premiums continuously and pass them through on a rolling basis. Their headline yields are often very high as a result, and it is important to understand what that yield is made of. Much of it is option premium and, in some cases, return of capital — money handed back to you from the fund's own assets rather than income the fund earned.

For an investor drawing an income, weekly payments smooth cash flow to an unusual degree. For an investor reinvesting, the practical benefit over monthly is marginal. In both cases the payment frequency should be the last consideration rather than the first: a high weekly distribution funded by return of capital erodes the value of your holding even while it pays out reliably.

Read the fund's own documentation before buying anything on this list. The distribution rate advertised by these products is frequently not the same thing as the return you will earn.