2015 is becoming a very interesting year. The bull market is now six years old, we are over three years without a true correction and the Federal Reserve is expected to start raising interest rates. Still, the 30-year Treasury Bond yields only about 2.50%. What is so amazing is that more than half of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) stocks are yielding more than the 30-year Treasury now.

24/7 Wall St. routinely looks for dividends and opportunities for investors. The Dow is of course a key index for dividend investors. As of early April, 17 of the 30 Dow stocks yield more than 2.60%. Also three more Dow stocks would yield 2.5% or more if their shares sell off more than a couple percentage points.

In an effort to find the best of these Dow stocks outyielding the so-called Long Bond, 24/7 Wall St. evaluated the Dow stocks by dividend and by implied upside to the Thomson Reuters consensus analyst price target. Color was also added on most of the companies, with trading ranges and recent drivers. While investors generally include the dividend yield for total return upside, we used the raw appreciation versus the current share price alone — and the yield can then go on top of that for a formal calculation of implied total return.

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Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), trading at $49.04, has a consensus price target of $51.54 and an implied appreciation expected to be 5.1%. Its dividend yield is 4.5%. Verizon has a 52-week range of $45.09 to $53.66. Rival AT&T was booted out of the Dow recently, and it yields even higher, and Credit Suisse just gave it a huge value call. Deutsche Bank just gave Verizon a big thumbs-up call of its own.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) trades at $106.50, and the oil giant’s consensus price target is $113.95, for an implied upside from appreciation of 7%. Its dividend yield is 4.0%. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $98.88 to $135.10, so that consensus target price is more than $20 less than the 52-week high. Short sellers remain aggressive here, as low oil is hurting.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) trades at $27.50, after the 10% post-capital sale pop from last week. GE has a consensus price target of $29.92, giving it an implied appreciation of 8.8%. Its dividend yield is 3.35%. The 52-week range is $23.41 to $28.68. We gave our view on what this GE asset sale really means.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) trades at $40.40 and has a consensus price target of $44.45, implying an expected appreciation of about 10%. Its dividend yield is 3.25%. The beverage giant has a 52-week range of $39.06 to $45.00. Will low oil prices really help drive Coca-Cola demand, or will a strong dollar eat into its growth ahead?

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) closed at $85.34 on Monday, and it has a consensus price target of $93.20, leaving an implied appreciation expected to be 9.2%. Its dividend yield is 3.25%, so the slightly higher appreciation and lower dividend than Chevron makes these two a coin toss. Exxon has a 52-week range of $82.68 to $104.76.

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Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) has a 3.17% dividend yield and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) has a 3.19% dividend yield. These two are so close that they seem identical. Still, Merck comes out ahead on implied upside at 12.1%, versus 3.8% for Pfizer. Merck trades at $56.89, its consensus price target is $63.83 and its 52-week range is $52.49 to $63.62.

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) is trading at $83.40, and the consumer products giant has a consensus price target of $91.44. This leaves an implied appreciation of 9.6%, if the pool of analysts is correct. The dividend yield is 3.1% and shares have traded in a 52-week range of $77.29 to $93.89.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) currently has the best dividend of the DJIA technology stocks, with a 3.03% yield. At $31.58, its consensus price target of $34.61 implies an appreciation of 6.6%, without considering that dividend yield. Intel’s 52-week range is $25.74 to $37.90. Intel was the top Dow stock of 2014 in total share gains. The Dow technology rivals are very close behind in dividend yields:

• Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) trades at $27.98, and its 3.00% yield is barely behind Intel — yet Cisco has an implied 8% upside to the consensus target of $30.21.
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is just behind Cisco in the dividend yield at 2.97%. At $41.42, Microsoft actually has an implied upside of 13.2% in appreciation alone to the consensus price target of $46.87. The problem here is that Microsoft is down 17% from its 52-week high, as investors are getting more down to earth on the company’s turnaround.

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The remaining Dow stocks outyielding the Treasury’s long bond are as follows:

• JPMorgan Chase yields 2.8%.
• Johnson & Johnson yields 2.8%.
• IBM yields 2.7%.
• DuPont yields 2.6%.

Two of the Dow stocks that outyield the Treasury’s Long Bond but have very muted upside to the consensus analyst price targets:

• McDonald’s has a 3.5% yield but only 2.75% gross upside.
• Caterpillar has seen its price target come crashing down, compared to our own 2015 bull and bear outlook on the stock, implying only 2% upside before the 3.5% yield consideration.

Then there is the “almost outyielding the long bond” category of Dow stocks. These are as follows:

• 3M with a 2.47% yield.
• Wal-Mart with a 2.44% yield.
• Boeing with a 2.4% yield.

Investors might want to consider what the 30-year T-Bond is doing as of now, or more importantly, what is it is signaling ahead. Some investors might be thinking that the Federal Reserve is not exactly going to be hell-bent on raising rates rapidly nor by too much.

ALSO READ: Why Many Banks Need Fed Interest Rate Hikes Sooner Rather Than Later

Federal fund futures from the CME now have the first rate hike, projected at a whopping 0.25%, not being fully priced in until October 2015. That expected timeline had been August and more recently moved out to September. The fed funds futures do not even fully predict a 0.50% fed funds rate until April of 2016.

Now, let’s consider the 10-year Treasury note yield of 1.86%. Using that 10-year benchmark as the yield cut-off for Dow stocks shows that all but seven of the 30 Dow stocks outyield it.

What you now are seeing is that dividend investors may still be getting significant value here. Buying the 30-year Treasury comes with no upside potential other than a 2.5% per year yield, if investors are just planning to buy and hold forever. If interest rates start to rise, then investors could potentially have losses, if long-term rates rise with the short-term rates and they decide to sell their bonds ahead of the maturity date in the year 2045.

The takeaway: Investors can get more yield in over half of the Dow stocks than they can in the Treasury’s 30-year bond, and they have a call option in the growth of America in the Dow stocks that the bond just does not offer.

The risks: Stocks are at all-time highs, valuations are at a premium, earnings growth is compressing outside of buybacks and there has not been a true 10% stock market correction in too long to remember.

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