24/7 Wall St. Insights

• Wall Street is looking for 25-basis-point rate cuts in November and December.
• The federal funds rate is expected to be as low as 3.25% in 2026.
• Sit back and let dividends do the heavy lifting for a simple, steady path to serious wealth creation over time. Grab a free copy of “7 Things I Demand in a Dividend Stock,” plus get our two best dividend stocks to own today. Access two legendary, high-yield dividend stocks Wall Street loves.

Investors love dividend stocks because they provide dependable income, passive income streams, and an excellent opportunity for solid total return. Total return includes interest, capital gains, dividends, and distributions realized over time. In other words, the total return on an investment or portfolio consists of income and stock appreciation.

Let’s take a closer look at the concept of total return. Imagine you purchase a stock at $20 that offers a 3% dividend. If the stock price rises to $22 within a year, your total return is 13%. This is calculated by adding the 10% increase in stock price to the 3% dividend.

Investors looking for defensive companies paying big dividends are drawn to the Dividend Aristocrats and with good reason. The 66 companies that made the cut for the 2024 S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats list have increased dividends (not just remained the same) for 25 years straight. But the requirements go even further, with the following attributes also mandatory for membership on the aristocrats list:

• Be worth at least $3 billion each quarterly rebalancing
• Average daily volume of at least $5 million transactions for every trailing three-month period at every quarterly rebalancing date
• Be a member of the S&P 500

We screened the Dividend Aristocrats looking for the highest dividends and the best value for investors to buy in October and two incredible companies jumped out at us. Both are favorites on Wall Street, and both are offering outstanding entry points for investors to scoop up the shares now.

Why do we cover the Dividend Aristocrats?

S&P 500 companies that have paid and raised their dividends for 25 years or longer are the kind that growth and income investors want to buy and hold in stock portfolios forever. These stocks are mostly conservative, and should we see a dramatic market correction, they will likely keep their ground much better than volatile technology names.

Franklin Resources

This company is a mutual fund powerhouse that pays a safe and secure 6.24% dividend, which will be ex-dividend on 9/30. Franklin Resources Inc (NYSE: BEN) is among the most prominent global money managers. The firm markets mutual funds and institutional separate accounts under the Franklin, Templeton, and Mutual Series brands. At times, 50% of its sales are from outside the United States, an advantage given the maturing U.S. market.

Franklin Resources offers its products and services under the brands of:

• Franklin
• Templeton
• Franklin Mutual Series
• Franklin Bissett
• Fiduciary Trust
• Darby
• Balanced Equity Management
• K2
• LibertyShares
• Edinburgh Partners

The two-year bull market has proven to be a solid tailwind for the company. While withdrawals from baby boomers may be a concern, the path forward looks solid.

Realty Income

This is an ideal stock for growth and income investors looking for a safer inflation-busting idea for 2024 that pays a stable 5.90% dividend. Realty Income Corp. (NYSE: O) is an S&P 500 company that provides stockholders with dependable monthly income.

The company is structured as a REIT, and its monthly dividends are supported by the cash flow from over 15,450 real estate properties in all 50 U.S. states, the U.K., and six other European countries (including properties acquired in the Spirit merger in January 2024) primarily owned under long-term net lease agreements with commercial clients.

The company has declared 651 consecutive common stock monthly dividends throughout its 55-year operating history and increased the dividend 123 times since Realty Income’s public listing in 1994. It is a top real estate member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index.

Five Ultra-High-Yield Stocks Under $10 That Pay Huge Monthly Dividends

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