Social Security’s 2027 COLA Raise Is the Biggest in 3 Years: But These 5 Dividend Stocks Pay You More

Social Security’s 2027 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is officially 3.6%, as confirmed by the Social Security Administration on October 14, 2026. That is 0.8 percentage points higher than the 2026 COLA of 2.8% and marks the largest annual adjustment in Social Security payments since 2023. The average retired worker was receiving approximately $2,089 a month as of September 2026, so a 3.6% COLA lifts that by roughly $75, to around $2,164 a month starting in January 2027.

The final figure landed at the top end of analyst forecasts. Before the official announcement, independent analyst Mary Johnson projected a 3.5% adjustment, while AARP forecast 3.6%. Even with the higher outcome, a bigger COLA does not guarantee that retirees end up ahead financially. The adjustment is designed to help benefits keep pace with inflation rather than restore lost purchasing power. Because the formula is backward-looking, seniors absorb higher prices for months before their benefits catch up. A separate concern: Medicare Part B premiums are typically deducted directly from Social Security checks, so any premium increase in 2027 will chip away at the gross benefit gain.

While many seniors and retirees depend on Social Security, adding passive income sources like blue-chip dividend stocks makes considerable sense, particularly for retirees who need their income to outpace inflation over time. We screened our 24/7 Wall St. blue-chip dividend stock database for large-cap companies paying a higher yield than the official 2027 COLA of 3.6%. While many high-yield savings accounts pay rates in a similar range, they offer no growth or total return potential. The five blue chips featured here offer both. All carry Buy ratings from top Wall Street firms we cover.

Why Blue Chip Dividend Stocks Make Sense for Retirees

Blue chip stocks are shares of large, well-established companies considered less risky and more financially stable than many other equities. They are typically industry leaders with strong brand names, durable earnings, and a track record of consistent growth. For income-focused investors, their most valuable trait is the tendency to raise dividends regularly, compounding purchasing power in ways that a fixed savings account never can.

1. Altria

Altria (NYSE:MO | MO Price Prediction) is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of cigarettes and other tobacco-related products. The stock offers value investors a solid entry point with a dividend yield near 5.8%, well above the official 2027 COLA. Altria manufactures and sells smokable and oral tobacco products in the United States primarily to wholesalers, including distributors and large retail organizations such as chain stores. The company’s payout ratio runs near 100% of reported earnings, which sounds tight, but the underlying tobacco business throws off unusually stable and predictable cash flows that have supported a remarkable 57 consecutive years of dividend increases. The primary long-term risk is secular volume decline in combustible cigarettes, not a near-term cut to the payout.

In August 2026, Altria raised its quarterly dividend 4.7%, from $1.06 to $1.11 per share. That was the company’s 61st dividend increase in 57 years, reinforcing its Dividend King status. The annualized payout now stands at $4.44 per share, and management has reaffirmed a progressive dividend goal targeting mid-single-digit annual growth through 2028.

The company primarily sells cigarettes 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

Altria used to own over 10% of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer. In March 2024, the company sold 35 million of its 197 million shares through a global secondary offering. That represents 18% of its holdings but still leaves roughly 8% of outstanding shares on the books. Altria also announced a $2.4 billion stock repurchase plan partially funded by the sale.

UBS has a Buy rating with a $79 target price.

2. Bristol Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and delivering transformative medicines for patients with serious diseases across oncology, hematology, immunology, cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, and other therapeutic areas. The stock remains a solid long-term pharmaceutical holding, offering an attractive entry point alongside a reliable dividend yield of approximately 3.7%, which clears the COLA bar.

The company’s drug platforms span chemically synthesized small-molecule drugs, including protein degraders, as well as biologics produced through biological processes. These platforms also encompass antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), CAR-T cell therapies, and radiopharmaceutical therapeutics. Small-molecule drugs are typically administered orally as tablets or capsules, while biologics are usually delivered by injection or intravenous infusion.

Its growth portfolio includes:

• Opdivo
• Opdivo Qvantig
• Orencia
• Yervoy
• Reblozyl
• Opdualag

Bristol Myers Squibb’s legacy portfolio includes:

• Eliquis
• Revlimid
• Pomalyst/Imnovid
• Sprycel
• Abraxane

Roth Capital has a Buy rating with a $75 target price.

3. Comcast

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is an American multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate. With a yield near 5%, this blue chip has quietly built an 18-year dividend-growth streak, averaging roughly 7.5% annual payout growth over the past five years. Weakness in the share price reflects broader cord-cutting and streaming competition pressures, but the company has taken decisive structural action to address them. With a payout ratio of roughly 22% to 25%, Comcast’s dividend is one of the best covered among large-cap media names.

The company completed the spin-off of its legacy cable television networks in January 2026. The new publicly traded entity, now known as Versant, began trading on the Nasdaq under ticker VSNT on January 5, 2026. Versant houses cable channels including USA Network, CNBC, MS Now (formerly MSNBC), Bravo, E!, Syfy, Oxygen, and Golf Channel, along with digital assets such as Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes. By separating these mature linear-TV businesses, Comcast isolated its declining cable portfolio from its higher-growth core operations. Then, in June 2026, Comcast announced plans to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky into a separate publicly traded company within roughly one year, which would leave Comcast as a pure-play telecommunications company retaining a 19.9% stake in NBCUniversal.

The core assets remaining with Comcast include Xfinity broadband and wireless, the Peacock streaming service, NBC broadcast television, Universal Pictures, and Universal theme parks. Those theme parks currently operate in:

• Orlando, Florida
• Hollywood, California
• Osaka, Japan
• Beijing, China

Its Residential Connectivity and Platforms segment provides residential broadband and wireless connectivity services, residential and business video services, Sky-branded entertainment television networks, and advertising. The Business Services Connectivity segment offers broadband, wireline voice, and wireless services to small businesses, mid-sized customers, and larger enterprises in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Rosenblatt Securities has a Buy rating with a $31 target price.

4. Franklin Templeton

Franklin Templeton (NYSE:BEN) is a global investment management company serving clients in over 150 countries. With a dividend yield of approximately 4.1%, the company has raised its payout every year since 1981, an unbroken 46-year streak of consecutive dividend growth that places it among a rare group of ultra-long-term income compounders. Through its specialist investment managers, Franklin Templeton provides global capabilities across equity, fixed income, alternatives, and multi-asset solutions.

The company provides investment management and related services to retail, institutional, and high-net-worth investors worldwide. Its investment products include:

• Sponsored funds
• Institutional and high-net-worth separate accounts
• Retail separately managed account programs
• Sub-advised products
• Other investment vehicles

Its funds include registered funds (including exchange-traded funds) and unregistered funds. The company offers services and products under several distinct brand names, including:

• Alcentra
• Benefit Street Partners
• Brandywine Global Investment Management
• Canvas

TD Cowen has a Buy rating with a $40 target price.

5. Verizon

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is an American multinational telecommunications company that continues to offer compelling value for income investors. The stock trades at roughly 9 times estimated 2026 earnings and carries a dividend yield above 6%, one of the highest among large-cap U.S. companies. Verizon provides a broad range of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and government entities worldwide.

The dividend story is built on durability. Verizon raised its payout for the 20th consecutive year in January 2026, taking the quarterly dividend to $0.7075 per share and the annualized rate to $2.83. That 20-year streak now places Verizon among the Dividend Aristocrats. The company guided to at least $21.5 billion in free cash flow for 2026, a figure roughly double the annual dividend expense, leaving ample room to sustain and grow the payout. Free cash flow for the first half of 2026 rose 16% from a year earlier, underscoring the trajectory.

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:

• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Smartwatches
• Other wireless-enabled connected devices

The segment also offers wireline services in the Mid-Atlantic 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:

• FWA broadband
• Data
• Video and conferencing
• Corporate networking
• Security and managed network
• Local and long-distance voice

Network access services support a wide range of IoT products and solutions delivered to businesses, government customers, and wireless and wireline carriers in the United States and internationally.

Raymond James has an Outperform rating with a $56 target price.

 

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect the Social Security Administration’s official 3.6% COLA announcement for 2027 (released October 14, 2026), a revised average retired-worker benefit of $2,089 per month as of September 2026, Altria’s 61st dividend increase (raising the quarterly rate to $1.11 per share and annualized payout to $4.44), and the completion of Comcast’s Versant cable-network spin-off in January 2026 along with the company’s subsequent June 2026 announcement of plans to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky.

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