If stock buyers don t seem put off by rising price/earnings ratios, they apparently care even less about dividend yields. With the S&P 500 index up sharply over the past year, its yield has dipped below 2%.

The companies below pay at least twice that, not because they re especially generous, but because they re unpopular among investors, which has left their stock prices modest. Popularity aside, however, these companies generate more than enough cash to afford their dividend payments while investing funds in growth initiatives, debt repayment and share repurchases.

Pitney Bowes

Dividend Yield: 6.5%

Stamford, Conn.-based Pitney Bowes (PBI) makes machines for printing, sorting and stamping mail. That s not exactly a fast-growth business. Email has slowed the flow of postal correspondence permanently, while a sluggish economy has temporarily reduced the number of packages and catalogs being sent out. Sales for Pitney Bowes fell an estimated 11% last year. Shares sell for less than 10 times 2009 earnings, or half the price of the broad stock market. The company is aggressively cutting costs, and the worst of its sales declines might be over. Analysts project Pitney Bowes will produce 1% sales growth and a 7% increase in earnings per share this year. That might be enough to convince investors that the shares deserve a higher (but not high) price. The company has a 27-year history of raising its dividend payments. Current payments work out to 60% of profit.

Genuine Parts

Dividend Yield: 4.2%

Headquartered in Atlanta, Genuine Parts (GPC) sells aftermarket parts for cars. That s a lucrative business at the moment, with indebted drivers making older cars last a few extra years instead of buying new models. The problem is, Genuine Parts also sells industrial parts, office supplies and electronics materials like wire and tape. Each of those businesses is slumping. Companywide sales fell 9% last year. Wall Street is anticipating a return to modest growth this year. Shares aren t quite cheap, at 16 times earnings, but Genuine pays 62% of its profit as dividends, which gives the stock a handsome yield of 4.2%.

Ameren

Dividend Yield: 5.7%

One way to guard against a near-term dividend cut, I suppose, is to favor shares of companies that have already cut their payments. St. Louis-based Ameren (AEE), the largest electric utility in Missouri and the second-largest in Illinois, did so in February to the approval of credit agencies and the dismay of shareholders. The stock price is now lower, cash flow is stronger and what s left of the dividend makes for a 5.7% yield. Company managers say electricity rates in Missouri and Illinois are 40% and 10% below the national average, respectively, which bodes well for securing regulatory approval for future rate increases.