Investing
5 Goldman Sachs S&P 500 Dividend Picks With the Highest Prospective Risk-Adjusted Returns

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Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is the world’s second-largest investment bank by revenue and is ranked 55th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations by total revenue. The Wall Street white-glove giant offers financing, advisory services, risk distribution, and hedging for the firm’s institutional and corporate clients. In addition, it provides advice, investing, and execution for institutions and individuals across public and private markets. At 24/7 Wall St., we have followed the company’s research for 15 years to bring our readers their top stock and investment ideas.
Goldman Sachs recently finished a rebalancing of its High Sharpe Ratio Basket.
Stocks included in the basket are expected to generate more than two times the price return of the median S&P 500 stock.
After a volatile year, the dividend stocks in the Goldman Sachs basket could be outstanding ideas.
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The rebalance of Goldman Sachs High Sharpe Ratio Basket gives us a chance to look at the current holdings, as well as the stocks that can outperform the median S&P 500 company. The Goldman Sachs team said this in a research note on the rebalance:
- Within the S&P 500, our High Sharpe Ratio basket contains companies with the highest prospective risk-adjusted returns relative to their sector peers. The basket’s median constituent has a prospective risk-adjusted return of 0.9. Our High Sharpe Ratio basket has posted a year-to-date return of 3%, outperforming both the cap-weighted S&P 500 (2%) and equal-weighted S&P 500 (1%). The basket comprises 50 S&P 500 stocks and is sector-neutral, with equal weighting across all sectors.
- Consensus price targets indicate that the median stock in the basket will generate more than two times the price return of the median S&P 500 stock (29% vs. 11%) with only slightly higher implied volatility (30 vs. 28).
- We define a stock’s prospective risk-adjusted return as the return to the stock’s consensus 12-month price target divided by its 6-month option-implied volatility. Currently, the median S&P 500 stock is expected to post an 11% return to its 12-month consensus price target with a 6-month implied volatility of 28, yielding a prospective risk-adjusted return of 0.4.
- Because the basket’s construction methodology often captures constituents with significant upside to consensus price targets due to substantial price declines, the median basket constituent typically trades at a valuation discount to the median S&P 500 stock 2
We screened the list looking for the top dividend stocks that the Goldman Sachs team feels outperform the median S&P 500 constituent. Five top companies caught our eye, and all make sense for growth and income investors looking for a performance edge for the rest of 2025 and beyond.
Goldman Sachs is one of the acknowledged leaders in the investment landscape on Wall Street and worldwide. The firm’s top-notch research department continues to provide institutional and high-net-worth clients with the best ideas across the investment spectrum. It is likely to continue doing so for years.
This leading company invests in real estate related to the healthcare industry, including senior housing and life science and medical offices. Healthpeak Properties Inc. (NYSE: DOC) is a fully integrated real estate investment trust (REIT).
The company acquires, develops, owns, leases, and manages healthcare real estate across the United States. It owns, operates, and develops real estate focused on healthcare discovery and delivery.
Healthpeak Properties segments include:
The Outpatient medical segment owns, operates, and develops outpatient medical buildings, hospitals, and lab buildings.
The lab segment properties contain laboratory and office space, and are leased primarily to:
Its CCRC segment is a retirement community that offers independent living, assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing units, providing a continuum of care within an integrated campus.
Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP) was formed in 2005 through the merger of Molson of Canada and Coors of the United States. While the iconic American beer company merged with a Canadian beer giant, it remains based in Chicago, with its principal offices located in Golden, Colorado, and Montreal, and pays a solid dividend. Molson Coors manufactures, markets, and sells beer and other malt beverage products under various brands in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific.
The company offers a range of flavored malt beverages, including hard seltzers, craft spirits, energy drinks, and ready-to-drink beverages.
It provides its products under these brands:
The company also markets these economy brands:
With a huge and dependable dividend and being in the sweet spot of the energy market, this company is a wise choice now. ONEOK Inc. (NYSE: OKE) is a midstream operator that provides gathering, processing, fractionation, transportation, storage, and marine export services.
The company’s segments include:
The Natural Gas Gathering and Processing segment provides midstream services to producers in the Rocky Mountain region, the Mid-Continent region, the Permian Basin region, and the North Texas region.
Its Natural Gas Liquids segment owns and operates facilities that gather, fractionate, treat, and distribute natural gas liquids (NGLs) and store Purity NGLs, primarily in the Rocky Mountain region, Mid-Continent region, Permian Basin, and Gulf Coast region (including Louisiana).
The Natural Gas Pipelines segment transports, stores, and markets natural gas.
The Refined Products and Crude segment gathers, transports, stores, distributes, blends, and markets refined products and crude oil.
Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (NYSE: SWK) is the world’s largest tool company, with 50 manufacturing facilities in the United States and more than 100 worldwide. With the potential for the economy to slow down, 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, Other Americas, Europe, and Asia.
Its Tools & Outdoor segment offers professional-grade corded and cordless electric power tools and equipment, including:
This segment sells its products under these brand names:
The company’s Industrial segment provides:
This segment sells its products through a direct sales force and third-party distributors to the automotive, manufacturing, electronics, construction, aerospace, and other industries.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications company that continues to offer tremendous value. Its stock trades 9.13 times its estimated 2026 earnings and is up almost 10% in 2025. Verizon provides a range of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and government entities worldwide.
It operates in two segments:
The Consumer segment provides wireless services across the United States through Verizon and TracFone networks, as well as through wholesale and other arrangements.
It also provides fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband through its wireless networks and related equipment and devices, such as:
The segment also offers wireline services in the Mid-Atlantic (including the District of Columbia) and northeastern United States through its fiber-optic network, Verizon Fios product portfolio, and copper-based network.
The Business segment provides wireless and wireline communications services and products, including:
Network access services to deliver various IoT services and products to businesses, government customers, and wireless and wireline carriers in the United States and internationally.
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