A 10% yield usually suggests a high amount of risk, but not in this case. This stock may actually be the safest double-digit yielding stock available in the investing universe. Immediately boost your dividend income by purchasing this wrongly underestimated company.

I think it might be a side-effect of the intense focus on market sectors, indexes, and the various types of index funds, rather than individual stocks, as the reason why companies that do not fit into a certain box are mispriced by the investing community. In the high-yield stock world, I love to find and get surprised by companies that are extremely financially solid and are priced to pay very high yields.

Ship Finance International (NYSE: SFL)

is one of those companies that scares uninformed dividend investors and makes lots of money for those who understand the company.

Ship Finance operates as the financial intermediary for shipping companies that want to add to their fleets. The company becomes the owner of ships, which are then purchased with financing or taken on long-term leases by Ship Finance’s customers. The fleet includes all of the major types of vessels, including container ships, oil tankers, dry bulk, and offshore drilling rigs. In most cases, Ship Finance has a signed client lease agreement in place when it acquires a new vessel.

The company is conservatively managed and has paid a dividend every quarter since it went public in 2004. In response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis which severely affected the shipping sector, Ship Finance reduced its dividend rate by 50% in the fourth quarter of 2008. Cash flow remained sufficient to support the higher dividend, but the company wanted to conserve cash as the industry and global economy worked itself out of the financial crisis and resulting recession. Starting in 2010, Ship Finance started to grow the dividend, with 11 increases over the last five years, totaling 50% growth in the quarterly payout to investors over the last half decade.