Insiders Are Buying These High Dividend Stocks

New Mountain Finance Corporation (NYSE:NMFC) has been another popular insider buy with multiple insiders purchasing significant amounts of stock in December at prices as high as $14.50 per share (the current market price is about $14.90). New Mountain is an investment management company which primarily invests in debt securities. The dividend yield, based on quarterly payments of 34 cents per share the last few quarters, is over 9%. The stock is up 14% from its levels shortly after its June IPO, though with 12% of the outstanding shares held short there are clearly quite a few investors bearish on the stock despite the high yield.

Since the beginning of November multiple insiders have bought shares of MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE:MFA). MFA is another REIT, with a focus on investing in mortgage backed securities. The stock has risen 23% over the last year as the markets have become more confident in a recovery in real estate, and the dividend yield is over 8%. MFA also has a higher market capitalization than many other stocks on this list; the current valuation is over $3 billion. Again, the emphasis on mortgage backed securities is something investors would have to look into and be comfortable with before buying.

Oil and gas pipeline company NuStar Energy L.P. (NYSE:NS) is another high yield stock, paying about $1.10 per share per quarter over the last several quarters and with a good record of increasing payments prior to that. The current yield is close to 9%, though the stock price is down 13% from a year ago. At a market cap of $3.9 billion, NuStar trades at 24 times consensus earnings for 2013. Revenue was down slightly in the third quarter of the year versus a year earlier. While payments have been stable up until this point, we think it would be important to stress test the stock a bit.