10 High-Yields We're Not Buying

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The dividend yield of the S&P 500 is 2.15%, less than half of the index's historical average, but still greater than the 10-year U.S. Treasury note.

These are difficult times for income investors.

While plenty of high-yield opportunities exist, investors must always consider the safety of their dividend and the total return potential of their investment (Radio Shack(RSH) and Supervalu(SVU) are two stocks that recently suspended dividends and suffered precipitous share price declines).

TheStreet Ratings' stock rating model views dividends favorably, but not so much that other factors are disregarded.

Our model gauges the relationship between risk and reward in several ways, including: the pricing drawdown as compared to potential profit volatility, i.e. how much one is willing to risk in order to earn profits?; the level of acceptable volatility for highly performing stocks; the current valuation as compared to projected earnings growth; and the financial strength of the underlying company as compared to its stock's valuation as compared to its stock's performance.

These and many more derived observations are then combined, ranked, weighted, and scenario-tested to create a more complete analysis. The result is a systematic and disciplined method of selecting stocks.

The following pages contain our analysis of 10 stocks with spectacular yields, that ultimately, we have rated "Sell." TWO Free Cash Flow data by YCharts

Two Harbors Investment Corp

Growth -- 3.5 out of 5 stars

Measures the growth of both the company's income statement and cash flow. On this factor, Two Harbors(TWO) has a growth score better than 60% of the stocks we rate.

Total Return -- 3.0 out of 5 stars

Measures the historical price movement of the stock. The stock performance of this company has beaten 50% of the companies we cover.

Efficiency -- 3.0 out of 5 stars