High-yield dividend stocks are a favorite among investors for good reason. They provide a steady income stream of passive income and offer a promising avenue for total return. Total return, a comprehensive measure of investment performance, encompasses interest, capital gains, dividends, and distributions realized over time. 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.

The St. Louis Federal Reserve President Alberto Musalem is joining the chorus with some top Wall Street economists that the Federal Reserve’s efforts to keep inflation near the 2% target level are proving to be difficult, and that’s before you toss in the wild card of President Trump’s product tariffs. While egg and gasoline prices have fallen substantially this year, helping to lower the overall inflation rate, the reality is that surging food, insurance, electricity, and other costs continue to keep inflation around the 3% level. In a recent Reuters article, Musalem noted this:

If the economy remains strong and inflation remains above our target, then I believe the current, modestly restrictive policy will remain appropriate until there is confidence inflation is converging to 2%. … If the labor market remains resilient and the second-round effects from tariffs become evident, or if medium- to longer-term inflation expectations begin to increase actual inflation or its persistence, then modestly restrictive policy will be appropriate for longer or a more restrictive policy may need to be considered.

One tactic for growth and income investors is to consider some of the highest-yielding Dividend Kings. The Dividend Kings are the 54 companies that have raised their dividends for 50 years, a testament to their dependability and reliability. Those are two “must-have” items for investors who rely on passive income to boost their overall revenue. With yields now likely to remain in place until next year, five of the highest-yielding companies in the select group make sense for investors seeking passive income streams.

Why do we cover the Dividend Kings?

Companies that have raised their dividends for shareholders for 50 years or longer are the kind of investments that passive income investors need to own. Dependability is essential for those seeking to boost their annual income with dividend stock investments.

Altria

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of cigarettes and other tobacco-related products. This tobacco company offers value investors a great entry point, and it manufactures and sells smokable and oral tobacco products in the United States.

The company provides cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand, as well as:

• Cigars and pipe tobacco, principally under the Black & Mild and Middleton brands
• Moist smokeless tobacco and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands
• on! Oral nicotine pouches
• e-vapor products under the NJOY ACE brand

It sells its tobacco products primarily to wholesalers, including distributors and large retail organizations, such as chain stores.

Altria used to own over 10% of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer. Last year, the company sold 35 million of its 197 million shares through a global secondary offering. That represents 18% of its holdings but still leaves 8% of the outstanding shares in its back pocket. Altria also announced a $2.4 billion stock repurchase plan partially funded by the sale.

Altria recently increased its quarterly dividend by 4.1%, from $0.98 to $1.02 per share, marking its 59th dividend increase in the past 55 years

Northwest Natural

Northwest Natural Holding Co. (NYSE: NWN) provides natural gas service to approximately 2.0 million people in more than 140 communities. This off-the-radar utility stock suits worried conservative investors and pays a dependable dividend. Through its subsidiary, Northwest Natural Gas Company, it provides regulated natural gas distribution services to residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation customers in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

The company also operates:

• 5.7 billion cubic feet of the Mist gas storage facility contracted to other utilities and third-party marketers
• Offers natural gas asset management services
• Operates an appliance retail center

In addition, it engages in gas storage, water, non-regulated renewable natural gas, and other investments and activities.

The company provides natural gas service through approximately:

• 786,000 meters in Oregon and southwest Washington
• Water services to about 80,000 people through about 33,000 water and wastewater connections in the Pacific Northwest and Texas

Kenvue

Spun off from Johnson & Johnson Inc. (NYSE: JNJ) in May of 2023, this potential total return home run is a strong consumer staples stock that typically fares well in volatile markets. Kenvue Inc. (NYSE: KVUE) is a global consumer health company.

The company operates through three segments:

• Self Care
• Skin Health and Beauty
• Essential Health

The self-care segment offers cough, cold, and allergy pain care, digestive health, smoking cessation, and other products under these brands:

• Tylenol
• Nicorette
• Zyrtec

The Skin Health and Beauty segment provides face and body care, hair care, sun care, and other products under these brands:

• Neutrogena
• Aveeno
• OGX

The Essential Health segment offers oral and baby, women’s health, and wound care products under these brands:

• Listerine
• Johnson’s
• Band-Aid
• Stayfree

Stanley Black & Decker

Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (NYSE: SWK) is the world’s largest tool company, with 50 manufacturing American facilities and more than 100 worldwide. With the potential for the economy to slow down some, you can bet that the do-it-yourself legions will fix rather than buy new, and this legendary stock is a solid idea now. The company provides hand tools, power tools, outdoor products, and related accessories in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere.

Its Tools & Outdoor segment offers professional-grade corded and cordless electric power tools and equipment, including:

• Drills
• Impact wrenches and drivers
• Grinders, saws, routers, and sanders
• Pneumatic tools and fasteners, such as nail guns, nails, staplers and staples, and concrete and masonry anchors; corded and cordless electric power tools
• Hand-held vacuums, paint tools, and cleaning appliances
• Leveling and layout tools, planes, hammers, demolition tools, clamps, vises, knives, saws, chisels, and industrial and automotive tools
• Drill, screwdriver, router bits, abrasives, saw blades, and threading products
• Toolboxes, sawhorses, medical cabinets, and engineered storage solutions
• Electric and gas-powered lawn and garden products

This segment sells its products under these brand names:

• DeWalt
• Craftsman
• Cub Cadet
• Black+Decker
• Hustler

The company’s Industrial segment provides:

• Threaded fasteners, blind rivets and tools, blind inserts and tools
• Drawn arc weld studs and systems
• Engineered plastic and mechanical fasteners
• Self-piercing riveting systems
• Precision nut running systems
• Micro fasteners
• High-strength structural fasteners
• Axel swage, latches, heat shields, pins, couplings, fitting, and other engineered products
• Attachments used on excavators and handheld tools

This segment sells its products through a direct sales force and third-party distributors to the automotive, manufacturing, electronics, construction, aerospace, and other industries.

United Bancshares

United Bankshares Inc. (NASDAQ: UBSI) is a bank holding company dual-headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia, and Fairfax, Virginia. This mid-cap financial also offers solid total return potential now in a sector that has done well over the last year. United Bancshares primarily provides commercial and retail banking products and services in the United States.

It operates through two segments:

• Community Banking
• Mortgage Banking

The company accepts:

• Checking, savings, and time and money market accounts
• Individual retirement accounts and demand deposits
• Statement and special savings
• NOW accounts

Its loan products include:

• Commercial loans and leases to small to mid-size industrial and commercial companies
• Construction and real estate loans, such as commercial and residential mortgages
• Loans secured by owner-occupied real estate
• Personal, student, and credit card receivables
• Personal, commercial, and floor plan loans
• Home equity loans

In addition, the company provides credit cards, safe deposit boxes, wire transfers, and other banking products and services; investment and security services; services to correspondent banks, including buying and selling federal funds; automated teller machine services; and internet and telephone banking services.

Further, it offers community banking services, such as asset management, real property title insurance, financial planning, mortgage banking, brokerage services, investment management, and retirement planning.

Why J.P. Morgan’s High-Yield Dividend ETF Is the Safest Way to Stay Invested Now

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