I have a thousand to invest. I want to invest in a "safe" stock that has a high yield. Of the ones that I have screened, the following appeal to me because their ex-dividend date is in Auguest or early September. FTR (Frontier Communications), DUK (Duke energy), DD (duPont) and ED (Con Ed). FTR would give me the highest dollar return. Any comments about its rating? Thanks

You should investigate before investing.
For that, you can call up the company on their website. They will show their performance for the last 2 or 3 quarters... that is, 90 day periods is a quarter.
The stock price will be shown and how it has performed in as many quarters as they publish. Sometimes, with older companies, the stock price will be shown for the last year, two years, 3 years, five years, ten years. From this you can ascertain whether the company is reliably showing its worth.

Sometimes, the stock price might not show how it may have been split... i.e. a $100.00 stock can be made to sell at $20.00... but the number of shares has multiplied 5 times.
This is often done when the stock price gets so high that it is difficult to draw investors to buy the usual "lot"... which is 100 shares. By splitting, the investors can buy the 100 shares at 1/5 the other asking price and so draw many more investors.

This is a basic outline. You should call up your local address of the NYSE... the New York Stock Exchange or a dealer in your town who will gladly send you material on many different companies they might siggest for investing.

One thousand dollars is not a great deal of money to go into the stock market. You might be better to invest in mutual funds, bank certificates of deposit, or bonds.
Think too that when you invest there may be costs by way of "commissions"... usually up to 2% of the amount invested. Such commission can lower the amount you invest.
Bonds do not carry any commission when bought. But get the story from your market advisor.
Sometimes banks offer certificates of deposit carrying higher interest rates if you leave the money in for long periods... 5 years plus.
Talk to your local bank manager or bond dealer for quotes.

I'm making an assumption that you are young and knowledgeable enough to make a small investment. You first need to come up with a rate of return you would like (required rate of return). Then decide how long are you going to hold your investment.

Assuming this is going to be barely long term (1 year or so), I would suggest you pick a company with a high dividend yield and a company that is reliable and think its share price will be higher in a year.

Hypothetical example: XYZ share price is $20 and quarterly dividend is 0.30 cents. A year dividend is worth 1.20 and the dividend yield would be 1.20/20= 0.06 (that means 6%). This means just holding the shares will give you an annual rate of at least 6% if dividends aren't reinvested. On top of this, if the security by the end of the year is up 10% then you end up with more than 10% return.

Where did you get the information for these stocks? I did not look them up individually, I am curious what your source is.

Investing101

Safe stocks do not generally have high yields.
Risk = Return.
Past performance is not future performance

What are you investing for?

1. To gamble and turn a quick buck
2. To pay for school or a house or retirement.
3. To get your feet wet in the stock market.
4. or some other reason.

I typically refer to the Morningstar website for detailed financial information on companies and mutual funds. Pay attention to the commissions and fees associated with certain accounts (aka Front End Loads, Back End loads and Management Fees).

If you want a good high yield stock, look at fundamentals on yahoofinance.com and pick one that has low or zero debt. Also find one that has good earnings, so it will be able to continue to pay those dividends in the future. Companies like Linn Energy (LINE) and Carpenter Technology (CRS) are just a couple you might want to research.