Want to know the best dividend stocks for 2018, Don’t just look for the usual indicators of a good dividend stock, like a long dividend history: focus on factors that will attract more investors to the stock short-term. Those can include big dividend increases, earnings beats and of course a stock chart that’s moving up.

Companies whose earnings growth is expected to accelerate next year—meaning analysts expect earnings to grow even faster in 2018 than they did in 2017—are likely to attract more investors as 2018 passes, pushing their stock charts up. They’re also likely to deliver the big dividend increases that draw more investors into a stock.

Looking for the Best High-Yield Dividend Stocks, You get this free report and many others when you sign up for Wall Street's Best Daily, our free wealth-building advisory. And dividend stocks that are already in an uptrend are simply more likely to keep going up in 2018. The trend is your friend, as we say around the office. You know Amex for their credit cards, which typically come with more perks—but are harder to get—than typical co-branded credit cards. The company is a dividend stalwart, with a 40-year history of quarterly dividend payments.

But recently, competition from MasterCard and Visa has intensified, with the introduction of high-end cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. On top of that, American Express lost their exclusive relationship with Costco in 2015, triggering two straight years of revenue declines. But management isn’t taking the beating lying down. The company responded to the competition by making the Amex brand more inclusive, reaching out to smaller merchants and broadening their customer base by launching the Amex EveryDay card.

They also improved their Platinum offerings, introducing new features and benefits at the end of 2016. Over the next 12 months, Platinum member and volume numbers both hit record highs. Revenues and the stock price both started to recover in 2017, and in the last four quarters, Amex has beat analyst expectations for both revenue and earnings growth. Headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, BB&T has banks in 15 states and Washington, D.C. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, BB&T weighted its portfolio toward commercial lending, both reducing the size of and improving the credit quality of its mortgage portfolio.

The company’s best growth areas are now corporate loans, recreational vehicle loans, commercial mortgages and wealth management. 3.93, growth of over 40%. Over the next five years, analysts expect EPS growth to average about 6% per year. That should fuel dividend increases—the company has increased the dividend every year since 2011, by an average of 8% per year—and attract more investors to the stock.

BBT is near all-time highs, but the stock didn’t do as well as it could have in 2017 because of financial industry selloffs. But the stock is still trending generally up, via a series of higher highs and higher lows. Financial stocks are now trending up, as interest rates rise and tax cuts provide a tailwind, and if they can sustain their momentum into 2018, BBT should have a great year.

CME Group owns and operates exchanges where options, futures and derivatives are traded. Most recently, CME Group introduced a bitcoin futures contract, allowing speculators to bet on the price of bitcoin without owning bitcoin. This steady expansion of the derivatives market has fueled steady growth at CME Group. Revenues have increased in each of the last five years, by an average of 4% per year.

Net income has also increased every year, by an average of 11% per year. That should fuel growth in CME’s regular dividend, as well as their special dividend. CME Group pays regular quarterly dividends of 66 cents, for a current yield of just about 2.0%. However, the company also distributes excess cash as a special dividend at the end of each year.

3.50 per share, but this year’s distribution is likely to be just as generous. Emerson Electric is an industrial conglomerate with a high 2.8% yield. The company recently went through a multi-year restructuring to divest itself of small interests and focus on two core businesses. The first, Commercial & Residential Solutions, includes heating and cooling systems, construction and plumbing tools, ceiling fans and more. Offerings of Emerson’s other core business, Automation Solutions, include industrial equipment and consulting services.