Are you ready to enjoy a high-dividend lifestyle? Today is a great day to bolster your passive income potential with four stocks featuring forward annual dividend yields that exceed 12% as of Oct. 3, 2025.
We like to cover high-yield dividend stocks because, while they may involve higher risk, investors can pair them with more safety-oriented stocks for a “barbell approach.” The key is to stay diversified, maintain small position sizes and don’t overload your portfolio with too many mega-yield stocks at once.
Furthermore, you can mitigate your risk by having an exit strategy in case the share price of a high-dividend stock falls too much and/or the dividend gets cut. It’s also important to research every company and be able to answer some basic factual questions.
These questions can include: What does the company do to make money? Does the company’s recent history of dividend payments show consistency and even a dividend increase? In addition, does the company have a reasonable amount of cash and cash equivalents, preferably in the millions of dollars?
The following four high-paying dividend stocks carry some risk but also have enough green flags to be worth considering. So, check out these big-yield standouts that could help you achieve passive income dominator status in 2025.
1. Annaly Capital Management (NLY)
Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) describes itself as a “diversified capital manager with investment strategies across mortgage finance.” While some people might classify the company as a real estate investment trust or REIT, Annaly Capital Management mainly focuses on mortgage lending.
Looking through the company’s recent history, we can see that Annaly Capital Management pays a dividend once every three months. Earlier this year, the company increased its quarterly per-share cash payments from $0.65 to $0.70.
If we annualize those distributions and assume that there won’t be any imminent dividend cuts, we can estimate that Annaly Capital Management will at least pay out $2.80 ($0.70 x 4) in dividends per year. If the NLY share price is around $20.75, this would equate to a forward annual dividend yield of $2.80, or 13.5%.
Finally, we should answer the question of whether Annaly Capital Management has sufficient capital reserves to continue paying those quarterly dividend distributions. As of June 30, 2025, the company had cash and cash equivalents (including certain pledged assets) exceeding $2 billion. Hence, passive income collectors probably don’t have to worry about the near-term sustainability of Annaly Capital Management’s dividend payments.
2. B&G Foods (BGS)
The companies that offer 12% or greater dividend yields tend to be in the financial and/or real estate sectors. However, B&G Foods (NYSE:BGS) breaks the mold as it’s a mega-yielder that happens to be packaged foods distributor. Some of the company’s recognizable brands include Crisco, Green Giant, Ortega, and Cream of Wheat.
A quarterly cash distribution payer, B&G Foods doesn’t appear to have hiked its dividend recently. Nevertheless, it’s a positive sign that B&G Foods has maintained steady dividend payments of $0.19 per share.
If the BGS stock price is roughly $4.55, then the company’s forward annual dividend yield would be (($0.19 x 4) / $4.55). This comes out to a juicy 16.7% yield, assuming no dividend cuts in the next 12 months.
Is this a sustainable dividend, though? Most likely the answer is yes, as B&G Foods held ample cash and cash equivalents totaling $54.084 million as of June 28, 2025.
3. TXO Partners (TXO)
Now, here’s another supersized dividend distributor that’s not in the financial or real estate sector. It’s TXO Partners (NYSE:TXO), a a master limited partnership (MLP) that acquires and develops oil and gas properties.
Over the past year, TXO Partners has paid quarterly per-share dividends of $0.58, $0.61, another $0.61, and $0.45. Investors should closely monitor the future trajectory of the company’s dividend distributions to ensure that they’re not getting cut too deeply.
For the time being, however, TXO Partners offers a tempting yield. Specifically, if we assume a TXO share price of approximately $14 and no dividend cuts in the next 12 months, then the company’s forward annual yield would be (($0.45 x 4) / $14), or 12.9%.
Regarding TXO Partners’ capital position, this will undoubtedly fluctuate since that’s the nature of energy property developers. It’s fairly encouraging to learn, though, that the company held cash and cash equivalents totaling $7.953 million as June 30, 2025, suggesting a respectable store of capital.
4. ARMOUR Residential REIT (ARR)
Jumping back into the real estate market, ARMOUR Residential REIT (NYSE:ARR) primarily invests in residential mortgage-backed securities. Just to be clear, ARR stock would expose your portfolio to mortgage interest rates, so that’s a factor to keep tabs on.
Here’s a switch-up for you: ARMOUR Residential REIT distributes its cash dividends every month instead of just every quarter. During the past year, the company has been impressively consistent in delivering per-share dividend payouts of $0.24 per month.
If you can tolerate the ups and downs of the sometimes volatile real estate sector, you might be rewarded with outstanding yield from ARR stock. An assumed share price of around $15.50 would mean that ARMOUR Residential REIT offers a forward annual dividend yield of (($0.24 x 12) / $15.50), or 18.6%.
Glancing at the company’s financials, ARMOUR Residential REIT reported a sizable cash and cash equivalents position of $141.166 million as of June 30, 2025. Consequently, barring any unexpected changes, ARR stock has the makings of a reliable dividend deliverer for aspiring passive income mavens.
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