We Named 3 Dividend Stocks to Dominate 2026. Only One Beat the S&P 500.
We picked three dividend stocks to beat the market in 2026, and the results split in ways that reveal something uncomfortable about how income investors actually grade their own calls.
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A year ago, 24/7 Wall St. named three top dividend stocks poised to dominate 2026. Yet only one of them, Evergy (NASDAQ:EVRG | EVRG Price Prediction), outperformed the S&P 500 since that call. Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) and Public Storage (NYSE:PSA) both trailed the benchmark, even as one of them delivered two of the largest core funds from operations (FFO) beats that a large-cap real estate investment trust (REIT) has posted this year, and the other pushed through a double-digit dividend raise. This post grades the original call on its own terms. The measured window runs from September 9, 2025, through September 10, 2026, with 2026 year-to-date shown alongside because the current calendar year is a separate story that partly reshapes the picture.
Scorecard
This is based on price only, with no reinvested dividends, alongside the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) as the benchmark.
| Ticker | Since publication | 2026 YTD |
|---|---|---|
| EVRG | 20.1% | 11.1% |
| PSA | 5.0% | 14.0% |
| ATO | 3.9% | −1.6% |
| SPY | 17.4% | 11.0% |
Evergy: A Clean Win
This is the one name that did what we predicted it would do. Shares are up 20.1% over the period since publication, ahead of the S&P 500. The Kansas–Missouri regulated electric utility was trading at $82.55 in premarket on September 10, 2026.
The dividend held its end of the bargain. Evergy is paying $0.6950 per share quarterly, with the next payment on September 18, 2026, and a trailing 12-month total of $2.78 per share. That quarterly amount stepped up from $0.6675, which was the rate across the four ex-dates ending August 2025, so shareholders got a real raise inside our measurement window.
The earnings reports backed up the stock. Evergy beat adjusted EPS by 13.8% in Q1 2026 and by 9.9% in Q2 2026, with adjusted EPS of $0.69 and $0.88, respectively. Management reaffirmed 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $4.14 to $4.34 at Q2. CEO David Campbell said Evergy expects to “execute at least one more electric service agreement in 2026,” tied to data-center and large-load customer demand across Kansas and Missouri.
Note that the two beats followed a 24.3% Q4 2025 EPS miss, when adjusted EPS came in at just $0.42. Sentiment on Evergy heading into 2026 was not uniformly warm. Our original piece also cited management’s long-term adjusted EPS growth framework of 6% to 8%+ through 2030, with growth expected to exceed 8% beginning in 2028. There is a caveat still on the record: Evergy carries wildfire litigation risk and execution risk on hyperscale data-center loads, and neither has been priced as sharply as at some Western peers.
Public Storage: A Paradox
This may be the most interesting part of the story, and the name we got most wrong on price. The stock returned only 5.0% over the period since publication, well short of the benchmark. Year to date, though, is a different story: the stock is up 14.0% in 2026, ahead of SPY’s 11.0%. Shares last traded at $292.34 on September 10, 2026, after a rough −9.6% one-month stretch.
The operating business hit our thesis and then some. Core FFO per share beat consensus by 2.2% in Q1 2026 at $4.22, and by 1.9% in fiscal Q2 at $4.17. Revenue also beat in both quarters, by 0.6% and 0.4%. Management raised full-year core FFO guidance to $16.75 to $17.05 per share, closed the $10.5 billion National Storage Affiliates merger on July 22, 2026, and signed an agreement to acquire Public Storage Canada for $1.2 billion. CEO Tom Boyle called Q2 the start of a “new era” he labels PS 4.0.
Our original pitch was that a reader would collect the yield while waiting for a price recovery. The payout has not grown, though. The quarterly dividend has been $3 per share since the March 2023 ex-date, and it stayed at $3 across the March, June, and September 2026 ex-dates. Trailing 12-month dividends total $12 per share, and the annualized forward rate is $12. Income investors were paid to wait, but they were paid the same amount they were paid two years ago. One risk to flag alongside that: same-store revenue declined 0.6% in Q2 with same-store net operating income (NOI) down 2.2%, and integration of the NSA and PS Canada portfolios is still ahead.
Atmos Energy: A Quiet Miss
Atmos Energy shares closed at $166.59 on September 9, 2026, up 3.9% over the period since publication and 1.6% lower year to date. The stock has gone essentially nowhere in 2026.
The dividend delivered exactly what a utility income investor would want. The quarterly payout stepped up from $0.87 to $1.00 per share at the November 2025 ex-date and has held at $1.00 across each of the four most recent records. That is a 14.9% increase over fiscal 2025, with an indicated annual rate of $4.00 per share and a trailing 12-month total of $4.00.
Earnings execution has been steady but unspectacular. Fiscal Q1 2026 GAAP diluted EPS came in at $2.44, beating consensus by 0.07%, a very thin margin. Fiscal Q2 2026 EPS was $3.47 versus $3.41 consensus on revenue of $2.06 billion. Management raised fiscal 2026 EPS guidance to $8.40 to $8.50 and reaffirmed it at fiscal Q3, backed by roughly $4.2 billion of capex, of which more than 87% is going to safety and reliability. The balance sheet is unusually clean for a capital-intensive utility: $4.6 billion in available liquidity and 60% equity capitalization at quarter end.
There is a critical limitation on grading this name, as Atmos runs a September fiscal year, so its current fiscal year is not finished, and there are no reported EPS or revenue figures for fiscal Q4. The original article cited an expected full-year revenue growth figure. That claim cannot be graded yet because the fiscal year is still open. The relevant near-term risk investors are actually pricing is that management said Waha basis spreads have narrowed significantly as additional takeaway capacity came online, and it now expects to land at the lower end of the Atmos Pipeline-Texas through-system EPS contribution range.
What a Split Result Actually Says
One clean win, one paradox, one quiet miss. Evergy beat the market and raised its dividend. Public Storage grew core FFO, closed a transformational merger, and still trailed the benchmark on price while holding its distribution flat. Atmos raised its dividend by a double-digit percentage, and the stock barely moved. Dividends and price are two different scoreboards. A call graded only on price would say Public Storage was a bust; a call graded only on dividends would call Atmos a winner. Both readings are incomplete, and blending them into a single total-return verdict is how income investors talk themselves into or out of positions for the wrong reasons. (If you want to see how we screen for the payers with the longest raise streaks at today’s prices, our free Dividend Kings report ranks 10 of them.)
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Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.
Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.
Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.
Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.
