Investing

The Market Is Crashing (VOO), but One Safe Haven Stock Is Up Big and Pays a Dividend Big Enough to Live Off

Austin Smith

Published: March 14, 2025 9:59 am

24/7 Wall St. Key Points:

• Altria (NYSE: MO) is up 12% year-to-date with a 7.1% dividend yield, making it a strong defensive stock amid market volatility.
• Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and consumer staples stocks tend to hold up well during downturns, as essential services like telecommunications and tobacco remain in demand.
• Investors should focus on total return—stock price appreciation plus dividends—when evaluating safe haven stocks, as consistent dividend payers like Altria provide stability.
• Your future is too important to leave to chance. See if you’re on track for retirement by taking this simple quiz and matching with a fiduciary financial advisor serving your area. It only takes a moment, and is totally free. Click here to begin. (sponsor)

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Transcript:

[00:00:04] Doug McIntyre: Where do people go when the market falls apart? Now I did a An article a day ago about Altria, there are these stocks people say, well, is it a safe haven? Let me give you two definitions of a safe haven. That stock is up 12 percent and it has a yield of 7. 1%. It’s up 12 percent so far this year while the market has gotten killed.

[00:00:29] Doug McIntyre: That is the definition of a safe haven stock. They’ve increased their overrun, yeah. They’ve, raised their dividend 59 times in 55 years. They’re the king of share buy back. So it’s not a sexy company. They sell cigarettes. Marlboro is their big brand. If you don’t have a problem owning a cigarette company and you’re worried that the market may go down, you just, I think Verizon’s at a 52 week high,

[00:00:54] Lee Jackson: Verizon’s running into a 52 week high, still yields over 6% or close to 6%. And again, these are the kind of stocks we’ve written about. consumer staples and gold and real estate and things like that do good. When the market gets a little rough and at a stock like Altria, which also owns Budweiser, a big chunk of Budweiser, and Heiser Busch InBev, they own almost 10 percent of it.

[00:01:22] Lee Jackson: And, the same with Verizon. I mean, people are still going to make their phone calls. They’re still going to use the internet. I mean, that, the stock market’s not going to change any of that. And that’s why safe haven stocks always makes sense. For folks that are either senior citizens or growing towards, you know, towards retirement age because they’re generally holding pretty well,

[00:01:44] Lee Jackson: The rule of thumb that I like on these stocks is that people are addicted to their products. People are addicted to cigarettes. People are addicted to telephones. People are addicted to coca cola. People are not addicted to buying new cars. People are not addicted to buying new Teslas (NASDAQ: TSLA). People are not addicted to those things. They may be very good brands.

[00:02:09] Lee Jackson: I’m not knocking Any of these brands at all, they’re famous, valuable brands. But the fact of the matter is that, you’ll always have cell phone service, but that does not necessarily mean you’re going to buy an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) phone.

[00:02:23] Lee Jackson: Exactly. Exactly. And in fact, those are the things that the luxury or consumer discretionary items are exactly what people start to delay when the market gets a little rocky.

[00:02:36] Lee Jackson: I mean, I was a institutional and high network broker for 20 years, and I’ll guarantee you their phones are getting lit up by people that are concerned that everything’s going to zero, and they probably haven’t talked to them in two years.

[00:02:49] Doug McIntyre: Well, I think it is a good rule of thumb that if you’re looking for a safe haven stock other than a dividend and a rock solid balance sheet, you really, really want a company that sells something that people are just going to buy.

[00:03:05] Doug McIntyre: it’s not, if you smoke cigarettes and there’s a recession, you’re not going to cut from two packs to one pack, it may be expensive to smoke cigarettes, but that’s not, going to happen.

[00:03:17] Lee Jackson: Well, you may cut to one of those cheaper brands, I guess, because they seem a lot cheaper. But I mean, the hardcore cigarette smoker wants to stick with what they got, I would think.

[00:03:28] Lee Jackson: I don’t know. I haven’t smoked in years, but they’re expensive and that’s maybe one thing that would get somebody to smoke on the discount brands. But the bottom line is that Altria is the kind of stock that’s always going to hang in there. And like we’ve talked numerous times, there’s no, risk anymore of litigation or, they paid all that.

[00:03:50] Doug McIntyre: Those people already paid the biker on that. Yeah.

[00:03:53] Lee Jackson: And that’s why you’re right. And you’re right. It’s up 12 percent this year. Let’s say it didn’t go a bit higher. The rest of the year, let’s say it closed up just 12%, but look at the total return. And we always like to remind people the value of total return.

[00:04:08] Lee Jackson: Okay, so the stock’s up 12%. Well, you’re also getting a 7% dividend, so your total return is the sum of those two. So that’s 19% total return on a safe haven stock. That’s a winner in our book every single time.

[00:04:25] Doug McIntyre: And that is the way people should look at these. Yeah. What’s happened to the stock price? Look at what you’ve got on a yield and view it as the sum of those things, not as two.

[00:04:35] Lee Jackson: We’ve written about this. I mean, every day for 15 years of how important it is for investors and for our viewers and readers to look to those two items because stocks that pay solid, dependable dividends and, raise them every year like the dividend kings or the dividend aristocrats. You’re generally going to be logging on to a winning hand when you own those stocks.