The 5%+ Dividend Stocks I Love Today

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published

Key Points

  • Altria (NYSE: MO) and Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) are highlighted as strong dividend plays yielding over 7% and 5% respectively, offering income stability even amid moderate price underperformance.

  • Telecom giants AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) are regaining favor as pure-play wireless providers with attractive yields near 6%, especially as both exit non-core ventures.

  • Douglas and Lee emphasize trimming positions after strong runs and reinvesting selectively, noting that blue-chip dividend stocks currently outperforming the S&P 500 may revert to historical norms.
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The 5%+ Dividend Stocks I Love Today

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Transcript:

[00:00:04] Douglas: Lee, at this point in the year, all the companies that pay dividends have pretty much set their dividends. You know, the boards have their share buybacks, whatever they’re going to do to help shareholders with things that are not directly related to their businesses. As you know, I’ve got a couple of high dividend companies.

[00:00:24] Douglas: Altria is first on my list. People don’t like to own tobacco stocks. A lot of people, because tobacco kills, you know, millions of people every year around the world.

[00:00:35] Lee Jackson: Yeah, it does.

[00:00:36] Douglas: don’t if you can overlook that and maybe you can’t. I think they’re at 7%. What else do you like that’s yield, solid balance sheet, maybe

[00:00:46] Lee Jackson: Yeah. And yeah, it’s a really good question, Doug, because a lot of our readers and viewers are, and we write about this constantly, are looking for solid passive income ideas, you know, which, which, which are investments where you really don’t have to do anything other than own it. You know, whether, whether it’s stocks, bonds, real estate, you know, commodities, whatever.

[00:01:11] Douglas: But

[00:01:12] Lee Jackson: I think you’re right. I think, I think Altria is one of the best. It’s had a huge year. It’s up like 30% or more in the last year.

[00:01:20] Lee Jackson: Is it more

[00:01:21] Douglas: stock underperforms the market

[00:01:23] Lee Jackson: Yeah. Another name that we really like a lot is Bristol Myers. I mean, this is a quality large cap, blue chip pharmaceutical with a ton of, of products that sell, you know, whether it’s certain treatments or other, you know, Pharmaceuticals, but Bristol Myers yields over 5%, and that’s a dividend that is not going away. You know, so I think Bristol Myers and I, and I think, you know, some people say, well, what about Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) | PFE Price Prediction? You know, Pfizer yields over 7%, but Pfizer’s problem is they had two years of, of huge earnings because of, you know, COVID vaccinations and, and all that.

[00:02:06] Lee Jackson: And now, there’s just been so much negative. Publicity on the vaccinations that, you know, that’s fallen off. So, and they haven’t been able to replace that huge upside. So of the two, I think Bristol Myers is, is a better play. And I think also if you look at utilities, which while they’ve had a big, big run, look at Dominion (NYSE: D), I mean Dominion is in a big.

[00:02:31] Lee Jackson: Fast growing part of the country. They serve the customers in North Carolina and in that region down through there, they pay, almost a 5% dividend. And, you know, people gotta have electricity. That’s, that’s never going away. So I think that’s another solid idea.

[00:02:47] Douglas: I’ll tell you ones I like, be because. I like At&T and Verizon. Some people don’t like ’em, but you know, at and t got into a lot of weird businesses. Verizon owned Yahoo. pretty much flushed all that stuff out, and I like ’em now because they’re really pure plays. I understand that they’ve got some landlines, they’ve got some business to business.

[00:03:10] Douglas: But listen, they’re, they’re cell phone subscription businesses. Are they ever gonna grow a lot in the United States? No. Do they fight for market share? Sure. They’ve

[00:03:21] Lee Jackson: Yep.

[00:03:21] Douglas: but nobody gains more than, you know, a point, a percentage. market ca share here,

[00:03:27] Lee Jackson: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:03:28] Douglas: I like ’em because those are businesses that are now just stable. There’s, not a lot good gonna happen to ’em. Not a lot of bad happen to ’em. You know, you can, depending on the stock price, be in there around 4% or something like that, but they’re

[00:03:42] Lee Jackson: Well, for, for Verizon, you’re gonna get close to a 6% yield. So of the two, if you’re, if you’re strictly looking for a higher passive income, maybe Verizon ’cause, simply because telephones had a huge run. I mean, this time last year it was what, 18, $19 maybe? 20 yielding. 5%. Now it’s gone up into the high twenties and it yields a a little bit under four.

[00:04:05] Lee Jackson: But either way, whatever one you feel comfortable with you, you certainly won’t be taking any big hits.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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