Every year, the biggest Wall Street firms release a list of their top stock picks for the coming 12 months, and typically, they are companies that the stock analysts have incredibly high conviction in. In addition, they often have good upside to the assigned price target and are bestowed with either a Buy or Overweight rating depending on the company providing the coverage.
At 24/7 Wall St., we like to cover these top stocks and then screen the companies looking for those paying the highest dividends to investors, as this can increase the total return potential for investors.
We always like to remind our readers about the impact total return has on portfolios because it is one of the best ways to help improve the chances for overall investing success. Again, total return is the combined increase in a stock’s value plus dividends. For instance, if you buy a stock at $20 that pays a 3% dividend, and it goes up to $22 in a year, your total return is 13%. That is, 10% for the increase in stock price and 3% for the dividends paid.
We screened the 57 top stocks for 2024 from Jefferies, a top Wall Street firm, and found five companies that are the favorite 2024 picks that also pay stellar dividends. All are rated Buy.
Altria
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This maker of tobacco products offers value investors a great entry point now. The company pays a $ 9.66% dividend, and Jefferies has a $49 target price. Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) manufactures and sells smokable and oral tobacco products in the United States through its subsidiaries.
The company provides cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand
- Cigars and pipe tobacco principally under the Black & Mild brand
- Moist smokeless tobacco products and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands
- on! Oral nicotine pouches
Altria also owns over 10% of Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD), the world’s largest brewer, which some feel is worth more than $10 billion and a segment of the company that could be sold. Given the public relations disaster the company has gone through this year, it could be on the chopping board.
In June of 2023, the company purchased NJOY Holdings, which makes electronic cigarettes and vaping products, for a consideration of $2.75 billion. The company has increased its dividend for 52 consecutive years.
Best Buy
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The retailing giant pays a stellar 4.92% dividend, and Jefferies has a $89 target price. Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE BBY) retails technology products in the United States and Canada.
The company operates in two segments:
- Domestic
- International
Its stores provide:
- Computing and mobile phone products, such as desktops, notebooks, and peripherals
- Mobile phones comprising related mobile network carrier commissions
- Networking products
- Tablets covering e-readers; smartwatches consumer electronics consisting of digital imaging, health, and fitness products
- Home theater
- Portable audio comprising headphones and portable speakers, and smart home products
The company’s stores also offer:
- Appliances, such as dishwashers, laundry, ovens, refrigerators, blenders, coffee makers, and vacuums
- Entertainment products consisting of drones, peripherals, movies, music, and toys, as well as gaming hardware and software, and virtual reality and other software products
- Other products, such as baby, food and beverage, luggage, outdoor living, and sporting goods
In addition, it provides consultation, delivery, design, installation, memberships, repair, set-up, technical support, health-related, and warranty-related services.
The company offers its products through stores and websites under these brands:
- Best Buy
- Best Buy Ads
- Best Buy Business
- Best Buy Health
- Buy Mobile
- CST
- Current Health
- Geek Squad
- Lively
- Magnolia
- Pacific Kitchen
- Home
- TechLiquidators
- Yardbird brands
Chevron
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This integrated giant is safer for investors looking to be positioned in the energy sector, pays a high 4.04% dividend, and Jefferies’s price target is $184. Through its subsidiaries, Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) engages in integrated energy and chemicals operations worldwide.
The company operates in two segments:
- Upstream
- Downstream
The Upstream segment is involved in:
- Exploration, development, production, and transportation of crude oil and natural gas
- Processing, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification associated with liquefied natural gas
- Transportation of crude oil through pipelines
- Transportation, storage, and marketing of natural gas, as well as operates a gas-to-liquids plant
The Downstream segment engages in:
- Refining crude oil into petroleum products
- Marketing crude oil, refined products, and lubricants
- Manufacturing and marketing renewable fuels
- Transporting crude oil and refined products by pipeline, marine vessel, motor equipment, and rail car
- Manufacturing and marketing of commodity petrochemicals, plastics for industrial uses, and fuel and lubricant additives
It is also involved in cash management, debt financing, insurance operations, real estate, and technology businesses.
Chevron announced last fall that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Hess in an all-stock transaction valued at $53 billion, or $171 per share based on Chevron’s closing price on October 20, 2023. Under the terms of the agreement, Hess shareholders will receive 1.0250 shares of Chevron for each Hess share. The transaction’s total enterprise value, including debt, is $60 billion.
Hudson Pacific Properties
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This small-cap real estate play is a great idea now with a hefty 7.14% dividend, and Jefferies has set a $12 target price. Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. (NYSE: HPP) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) serving dynamic tech and media tenants in global epicenters for these synergistic, converging, and secular growth industries.
Hudson Pacific’s unique and high-barrier tech and media focus leverages a full-service, end-to-end value creation platform forged through deep strategic relationships and niche expertise across identifying, acquiring, transforming, and developing properties into world-class amenities and collaborative and sustainable office and studio space.
In January, the company sold its 75% stake in One Westside and Westside Two in Los Angeles to the Regents of the University of California for $700 million. The sale strengthens the company’s balance sheet, with no debt maturities due until 2025.
Realty Income
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This is an ideal stock for growth and income investors with a stable 5.73% monthly dividend and a $66 target price at Jefferies. 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 13,250 real estate properties owned under long-term lease agreements with commercial tenants.
The company has declared 640 consecutive common stock monthly dividends throughout its 54-year operating history and increased the dividend 122 times since Realty Income’s public listing in 1994. It is a top real estate member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index.
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