Tomorrow's Ex-Dividends To Watch: CPLP, APL, UL, FE

Editor's Note: Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of TheStreet, Inc. or any of its contributors including Jim Cramer or Stephanie Link.

Tomorrow, Feb. 5, 2014, 36 U.S. common stocks are scheduled to go ex-dividend. The dividend yields on these stocks range from 0.6% to 11.5%. All of these stocks can be found on our stocks going ex-dividend section of our dividend calendar.

Highlighted Stocks Going Ex-Dividend Tomorrow:

Capital Product Partners L.P

Owners of Capital Product Partners L.P (NASDAQ: CPLP) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 23 cents per share. At a price of $10.35 as of 9:35 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 8.8%.

The average volume for Capital Product Partners L.P has been 314,000 shares per day over the past 30 days. Capital Product Partners L.P has a market cap of $873.8 million and is part of the transportation industry. Shares are up 0.5% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Monday.

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

Capital Product Partners L.P., a shipping company, provides marine transportation services in Greece. The company has a P/E ratio of 10.42.

TheStreet Ratings rates Capital Product Partners L.P as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, solid stock price performance, compelling growth in net income, expanding profit margins and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow. You can view the full Capital Product Partners L.P Ratings Report now.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

Atlas Pipeline Partners

Owners of Atlas Pipeline Partners (NYSE: APL) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 62 cents per share. At a price of $33.24 as of 9:34 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 7.4%.

The average volume for Atlas Pipeline Partners has been 495,100 shares per day over the past 30 days. Atlas Pipeline Partners has a market cap of $2.7 billion and is part of the energy industry. Shares are down 4.8% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Monday.

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

Atlas Pipeline Partners, L.P. operates in the gathering and processing segments of the midstream natural gas industry. The company operates in two segments, Gathering and Processing; and Transportation, Treating, and Other.

TheStreet Ratings rates Atlas Pipeline Partners as a hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, good cash flow from operations and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including feeble growth in the company's earnings per share, deteriorating net income and disappointing return on equity. You can view the full Atlas Pipeline Partners Ratings Report now.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

Unilever

Owners of Unilever (NYSE: UL) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 37 cents per share. At a price of $38.19 as of 9:35 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 3.7%.

The average volume for Unilever has been 1.3 million shares per day over the past 30 days. Unilever has a market cap of $116.8 billion and is part of the consumer non-durables industry. Shares are down 7.7% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Monday.

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

The company has a P/E ratio of 28.39.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

FirstEnergy

Owners of FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) shares as of market close today will be eligible for a dividend of 36 cents per share. At a price of $31.09 as of 9:35 a.m. ET, the dividend yield is 4.6%.

The average volume for FirstEnergy has been 5.2 million shares per day over the past 30 days. FirstEnergy has a market cap of $13.2 billion and is part of the utilities industry. Shares are down 4.5% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Monday.

STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.

FirstEnergy Corp., a diversified energy holding company, engages in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in the United States. The company operates in Regulated Distribution, Regulated Transmission, and Competitive Energy Services segments. The company has a P/E ratio of 131.21.

TheStreet Ratings rates FirstEnergy as a hold. The company's strongest point has been its a solid financial position based on a variety of debt and liquidity measures that we have looked at. At the same time, however, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and poor profit margins. You can view the full FirstEnergy Ratings Report now.

• See our top-yielding stocks list.

More About Dividends:

One benefit of owning a stock is the potential that you will be paid a dividend. The distribution of dividend payments is another way for a company to share its profit with you. A dividend means that the company pays you a certain amount of money, either as a one-time payment or more commonly on a quarterly basis, for each share of stock you own.

Many times, dividends come at the expense of greater price appreciation, because the company is distributing its profits to shareholders rather than reinvesting the profits back into the growth of the company. However, companies that pay dividends can be very attractive to investors when they offer a steady stream of income. There are some important terms and dates an investor should be familiar with before purchasing any dividend-paying companies. Let's work through an example to help better explain some of these terms:

On March 1, ABC Widget Company has decided that because it holds excess cash and lacks investment opportunities, it would like to reward shareholders with a regular quarterly dividend payment. The date for this particular announcement is known as the declaration date. It is on this date that the company announces the specific dividend payment along with the holder-of-record date (aka record date) and the payment date. The company announces that a dividend payment of 25 cents per share will be payable March 31, 2012 (the payment date) to all shareholders of record at the close of business on March 16, 2012 (holder-of-record date). What does this all mean? Well the short story is that the company looks at its records on March 16 and anyone listed on the books as an owner of ABC Widget company will be eligible for the dividend payment (on March 31).

The one other important term to remember is the ex-dividend date. The ex-dividend date (typically two trading days before the holder-of-record date for U.S. securities) is the day in which a company begins trading without the dividend. In order to have a claim on a dividend, shares must be purchased no later than the last business day before the ex-dividend date. A company trading ex-dividend will have the upcoming dividend subtracted from the share price at the start of the trading day. Many times, the price of a stock will increase in anticipation of the upcoming dividend as the ex-dividend date approaches, yet will fall back by the amount of the dividend on the ex-dividend date.

• See our dividend calendar.