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• The interest rate cuts have started, and dividend stocks will be the big winners.
• With a wobbling stock market, it makes sense for investors to manage risk now.
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Almost regardless of what happens these days, the market pushes higher. The gains continued unabated thanks to 15 years of excess central bank-provided liquidity, tempered by two years of rate hikes. Still, a massive increase in retail trading volume and the constant flow of money into passive index and exchange-traded funds kept the train rolling. The Magnificent 7 mega-cap technology stocks that have influenced the indices and pushed everything higher are starting to roll over, and that could be a huge warning sign.

The overdue sell-off is probably coming and may have already begun. While it doesn’t necessarily mean a market crash, it could mean a fast and furious 10%, 15%, or even 20% bear market territory drop. We have been looking for ideas that could stand up best in a swift sell-off, and the group commonly known as the “sin stocks” may be just the ticket for worried investors.

One of the categories on Wall Street that some portfolio managers don’t want to discuss in their portfolios is the so-called sin stocks. These are companies that sell tobacco and alcohol products, run gambling casinos, sex-related industries, weapons manufacturers, and now even marijuana producers. While they don’t all seem sinful at the margin, some money management companies, like some investors, refuse to own them.

We screened our 24/7 Wall St. sin stock research database and found five companies that pay dependable high-yield dividends and look like great ideas for growth, and income investors worried that we could be on the ledge of a big sell-off. All are rated Buy at top Wall Street firms.

Why do we cover dividend stocks?

Dividend stocks provide investors with reliable streams of passive income. Passive income is characterized by its ability to generate revenue without requiring the earner’s continuous active effort, making it a desirable financial strategy for those seeking to diversify their income streams or achieve financial independence.

British American Tobacco

This European giant continues to print money and pays a massive 7.70% dividend. British American Tobacco PLC (NYSE: BTI) offers:

• Vapor
• Tobacco heating
• Modern oral nicotine products
• Combustible cigarettes
• Traditional oral products, such as snus and moist snuff

The company sells its products under these familiar brands:

• Vuse
• Glo
• Velo
• Grizzly
• Kodiak
• Dunhill
• Kent
• Lucky Strike
• Pall Mall
• Rothmans
• Camel
• Natural American Spirit
• Newport
• Vogue
• Viceroy
• Kool
• Peter Stuyvesant
• Craven A
• State Express 555
• Shuang Xi brands

Diageo

This company is one of the largest producers of alcoholic beverages in the world and pays a solid 3.27% dividend. Diageo PLC (NYSE: DEO) produces, markets, and sells alcoholic beverages worldwide.

It offers:

• Scotch whiskey, gin, vodka, rum, beer and spirits
• Irish cream liqueurs,
• Wine, Raki, tequila, Canadian and American whiskey
• Cachaça and brandy, as well as adult beverages and ready-to-drink products

The company’s premium brands comprise Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Tanqueray, and Guinness.

Its reserve brands include:

• Johnnie Walker Blue Label
• Johnnie Walker Green Label
• Johnnie Walker Gold Label 18-year-old
• Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve
• Johnnie Walker Platinum Label 18-year-old
• John Walker & Sons Collection,
• Johnnie Walker The Gold Route
• Johnnie Walker The Royal Route

Johnnie Walker super premium brands: The Singleton, Cardhu, Talisker, Lagavulin, and other malt brands.

L3 Harris Technologies

This off-the-radar giant may be the best total return candidate of all defense stocks, paying a 2.04% dividend. L3 Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) provides mission-critical solutions worldwide for government and commercial customers.

The company’s Integrated Mission Systems segment provides intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems, passive sensing and targeting, electronic attack, autonomy, power and communications, networks and sensors, and advanced air, land, and sea combat systems.

Its Space and Airborne Systems segment offers space payloads, sensors, and full-mission solutions; classified intelligence and cyber; mission avionics; electronic warfare systems; and mission network systems for air traffic management operations.

The company’s Communication Systems segment provides:

• Broadband communications
• Tactical radios
• Software
• Satellite terminals
• End-to-end battlefield systems for the U.S. Department of Defense, international, federal, and state agency customers
• Integrated vision solutions, including helmet-mounted integrated night vision goggles with leading-edge image intensifier tubes and weapon-mounted sights, aiming lasers, and range finders; and public safety radios, and system applications and equipment

Its Aerojet Rocketdyne segment provides propulsion technologies and armament systems for strategic defense, missile defense, hypersonic and tactical systems, and space propulsion and power systems for national security and space and exploration missions.

Molson Coors Brewing

While the iconic American beer company did merge with a Canadian beer giant, it is still based in Chicago with the main offices in Golden Colorado and Montreal and pays a solid 3.16% dividend. Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP) manufactures, markets, and sells beer and other malt beverage products under various brands in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific.

The company offers flavored malt beverages, including hard seltzers, craft, spirits, and energy drinks, and ready-to-drink beverages.

It provides its products under these brands:

• Aspall Cider
• Blue Moon
• Coors Original
• Five Trail
• Hop Valley brands
• Leinenkugel’s
• Madri
• Miller Genuine Draft
• Molson Ultra
• Sharp’s, Staropramen, and Vizzy Hard Seltzer
• Bergenbier, Borsodi, Carling, Coors Banquet, Coors Light, Jelen, Kamenitza, Miller Lite, Molson Canadian, and Niksicko, Ozujsko under the premium brands

The company also markets these economy brands:

• Branik
• Icehouse
• Keystone
• Miller High Life
• Milwaukee’s Best
• Steel Reserve

The company’s strategic response to Bud Light’s marketing missteps, which led to a surge in new customers, is a testament to its agility. Furthermore, the company is exploring new opportunities, such as the potential to market a cannabis-infused product.

VICI Properties

This is one of the top picks across Wall Street in the net lease group and is ideal for more conservative investors looking for gaming exposure and a solid 5.17% dividend. VICI Properties Inc. (NYSE: VICI) is an S&P 500 experiential real estate investment trust with one of the largest portfolios of market-leading gaming, hospitality, and entertainment destinations, including three iconic entertainment facilities on the Las Vegas Strip.

• Caesars Palace Las Vegas
• MGM Grand
• The Venetian Resort Las Vegas

VICI Properties owns 93 experiential assets across a geographically diverse portfolio of 54 gaming properties and 39 other experiential properties across the United States and Canada. The portfolio comprises approximately 127 million square feet and features approximately 60,300 hotel rooms and over 500 restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and sportsbooks.

Its properties are occupied by industry-leading gaming, leisure, and hospitality operators under long-term, triple-net lease agreements.

VICI Properties has a growing array of real estate and financing partnerships with leading operators in other experiential sectors, including:

• Bowlero
• Cabot
• Canyon Ranch
• Chelsea Piers
• Great Wolf Resorts
• Homefield
• Kalahari Resorts

VICI Properties also owns four championship golf courses and 33 acres of undeveloped and underdeveloped land adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip.

Six High-Yield Dividend Stocks Under $25 Are the Passive Income Kings

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