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Top Wall Street Strategist Sees 500 Point S&P 500 Drop: Buy 6 Passive Income Dividend Stocks Now

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24/7 Insights

If there is one voice on Wall Street that we always listen to at 24/7 Wall St, it is Stifel’s Barry Bannister, and with good reason. We have watched and documented his market calls for years, some of which are among the most incredible and courageous ever made by a sell-side research chief institutional equity strategist and his staff. 

The stock market was absolutely crushed in the first quarter of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. We saw a stunning 34% decline from the high on February 19, 2020, to the low on March 23rd.

That high-velocity sell-off included a startling day on March 16, when the Dow Jones industrials dropped 12.9%, the second most significant one-day drop after the disaster in 1987. The S&P 500 fell 12%, its third largest percentage drop, and the Nasdaq declined a staggering 12.3%, the biggest loss ever for the tech-heavy index. At the same time, Bannister called a bottom and said buy now, and investors were richly rewarded.

By no means a perma-bear, Bannister thinks the next 500-point move for the S&P 500 is to the downside, taking the venerable index back to long-term support in the 4750 area in the second or third quarter. Given the massive increase since last fall, moving to safe, passive-income, income-yielding large-cap stocks now makes sense. We screened our 24/7 Wall St. passive income research database and found six stellar ideas to buy now.

Bristol-Myers Squibb

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Bristol-Myers Squibb is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies in the Fortune 500.

This top company remains a solid pharmaceutical stock to own long-term, offering an outstanding entry point and a massive 5.45% dividend. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, and markets pharmaceutical products worldwide.

The company offers products in hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, and immunology therapeutic classes.

The company’s products include:

  • Revlimid, an oral immunomodulatory drug for the treatment of multiple myeloma
  • Opdivo for anti-cancer indications
  • Eliquis, an oral inhibitor indicated for the reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in NVAF and for the treatment of DVT/PE
  • Orencia for adult patients with active RA and psoriatic arthritis, as well as reducing signs and symptoms in pediatric patients with active polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis

The company also provides:

  • Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia
  • Yervoy for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma
  • Abraxane, a protein-bound chemotherapy product
  • Implicit for the treatment of multiple myeloma
  • Reblozyl for the treatment of anemia in adult patients with beta-thalassemia

Comerica

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Comerica Bank is a regional commercial bank with 413 branches in the United States.

Based in Dallas, this fast-growing banking center giant pays a substantial 5.10% dividend. Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) provides various financial products and services.

The company operates through:

  • Commercial banking
  • Retail banking
  • Wealth management
  • Finance segments

The Commercial Bank segment offers:

  • Commercial loans and lines of credit
  • Deposits
  • Cash management
  • Capital market products
  • International trade finance
  • Letters of credit
  • Foreign exchange management services
  • Loan syndication services
  • Payment and card services for small and middle-market businesses, multinational corporations, and governmental entities

The Retail Bank segment provides:

  • Personal financial services, such as consumer lending
  • Consumer deposit gathering
  • Mortgage loan origination and various
  • Consumer products that include deposit accounts, installment loans, credit cards, student loans, home equity lines of credit
  • Residential mortgage loans and commercial products and services to micro-businesses.

The Wealth Management segment offers products and services comprising:

  • Fiduciary
  • Private banking
  • Retirement
  • Investment management and advisory
  • Investment banking and brokerage services
  • Annuity products and life, disability, and long-term care insurance products

The Finance segment engages in the securities portfolio and asset and liability management activities.

Comerica operates in:

  • Texas
  • California
  • Michigan
  • Arizona
  • Florida
  • Canada
  • Mexico

Dominion Energy

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Dominion Energy operates in 16 states across the U.S., offering affordable energy to more than 7 million customers.

Many of the Wall Street firms we cover are still very positive on utilities despite the sharp move higher this year, and this company pays a strong 5.60% dividend.

Dominion Energy Inc. (NYSE: D) operates through four segments:

  • Dominion Energy Virginia
  • Gas Distribution
  • Dominion Energy South Carolina
  • Contracted Assets.

The Dominion Energy Virginia segment generates, transmits, and distributes regulated electricity to residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental customers in Virginia and North Carolina.

The Gas Distribution segment engages in:

  • Regulated natural gas gathering
  • Transportation
  • Distribution and sales activities 
  • Distributes nonregulated renewable natural gas

This segment serves residential, commercial, and industrial customers.

The Dominion Energy South Carolina segment generates, transmits, and distributes electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in South Carolina.

The company’s portfolio of assets included approximately:

  • 30.2 gigawatts of electric generating capacity
  • 10,500 miles of electric transmission lines
  • 85,600 miles of electric distribution lines
  • 94,200 miles of gas distribution lines
  • Dominion serves approximately 7 million customers

ONEOK

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ONEOK is an American diversified corporation focused primarily on the natural gas industry.

Solid natural gas pricing over the next year could help lift this top energy company, which pays a 4.80% dividend. ONEOK Inc. (NYSE: OKE) gathers, processes, fractionates, stores, transports, and markets natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) in the United States.

It operates through four segments:

  • Natural Gas Gathering and Processing
  • Natural Gas Liquids (NGL)
  • Natural Gas Pipelines
  • Refined Products and Crude

The company owns natural gas gathering pipelines and processing plants in the Mid-Continent and Rocky Mountain regions; it also provides midstream services to producers of NGLs.

It also owns NGL gathering and distribution pipelines in:

  • Oklahoma
  • Kansas
  • Texas
  • New Mexico
  • Montana
  • North Dakota
  • Wyoming
  • Colorado

ONEOK also owns terminal and storage facilities in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois; NGL distribution pipelines in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana; transports refined petroleum products, including unleaded gasoline and diesel; and owns and operates truck- and rail-loading, and -unloading facilities connected to NGL fractionation, storage, and pipeline assets.

In addition, the company transports and stores natural gas through regulated interstate and intrastate transmission pipelines and storage facilities.

Further, it owns and operates a parking garage in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, and leases excess office space and rail cars. The company also transports, stores, and distributes refined products, NGLs, and crude oil and conducts commodity-related activities, including liquids blending and marketing.

It serves integrated and independent:

  • Exploration and production companies
  • NGL and natural gas gathering and processing companies
  • Crude oil and natural gas production companies
  • Utilities
  • Industrial companies
  • Natural gasoline distributors
  • Propane distributors
  • Municipalities
  • Ethanol producers
  • Petrochemical, refining, and marketing companies
  • Heating fuel users, refineries, and exporters

Rio Tinto

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Rio Tinto is a leading global mining group that focuses on finding, mining and processing the Earth’s mineral resources.

This mining giant could be a massive winner as demand for all commodities continues to storm higher and pays a solid 7% dividend. Rio Tinto Group (NYSE: RIO) explores, mining, and processing mineral resources worldwide. The company offers:

  • Aluminum
  • Copper
  • Diamonds
  • Gold
  • borates,
  • Titanium dioxide
  • Salt
  • Iron ore
  • Lithium

It also owns and operates open pit and underground mines, mills, refineries, smelters, power stations, and research and service facilities.

In 2022 the company completed the sale of a royalty it holds on an area, including the Cortez mine operational area and the Fourmile development project in Nevada, to RG Royalties, a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Gold, for $525 million in cash. Rio Tinto obtained the royalty as partial consideration for selling its 40% interest in the Cortez Complex to Barrick in 2008.

Verizon Communications

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Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications.

This top telecommunications company offers tremendous value and pays investors a 6.64% dividend. Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ) is one of the largest U.S. telecom companies. It provides wireless and wireline services to retail, enterprise, and wholesale customers.

Verizon’s wireless network serves approximately 120 million mobile connections and 115 million postpaid subscribers. Due to wireless substitution and cable competition, Verizon’s wireline business has undergone a period of secular decline.

Verizon also provides converged communications, information, and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide.

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