1 of These Companies Raised Its Dividend for 50+ Consecutive Years. All 3 Are Still Buys
One name in this trio has raised its dividend every single year since 1974, but the other two still make a compelling case for your income portfolio despite very different risks lurking beneath their payouts.
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Three consumer-facing dividend payers span retail, tobacco and parts distribution. But only one of them clears the 50-year continuous-raise bar that defines Dividend King status. Walmart (NYSE:WMT | WMT Price Prediction) has lifted its payout every year since 1974, and dividend records show an uninterrupted quarterly history through Aug. 21 that supports a streak exceeding 50 years. Pair that pedigree with Altria (NYSE:MO) for ultra-high current income and Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC) for industrial and aftermarket diversification, and you get a three-name income sleeve where dividend safety does the heavy lifting.
Walmart: The Dividend King in the Bundle
Walmart carries a current dividend yield of 0.93% at a share price of $106.51, with a forward annualized dividend of 99 cents off a most recent quarterly payment of 24 cents paid on Sept. 8. That is a modest headline number, but this is the income grower of the group.
Safety is the story. Walmart’s trailing net income supports the payout at a comfortable multiple, and management said on the fiscal Q2 call that the company expects “double-digit growth in free cash flow this year.” The balance sheet is investment-grade with debt/equity of 0.67, net debt/EBITDA of 1x, and interest coverage of 11x, and management just reauthorized a fresh $30 billion buyback in February 2026 with $25.1 billion remaining after Q2. On top of that, Walmart raised full-year guidance to adjusted EPS of $2.80 to $2.87, and Q2 delivered revenue of $187.94 billion, up 5.94% year over year, with global e-commerce growth of 23%.
The bull case for income investors is compounding. CEO John Furner said “The model’s working and we’re confident in its power to drive durable, long-term growth in shareholder value.” With a market cap near $852.6 billion, Walmart is comfortably the largest Dividend King in this bundle, and the combination of grocery scale, high-margin advertising and marketplace revenue, and consistent dividend hikes turns a small starting yield into meaningful yield-on-cost over a decade of ownership.
Risk: The valuation is rich. Walmart trades at a trailing P/E near 39 and forward P/E near 37, with a P/FCF of 57, so total return depends on continued e-commerce and margin execution rather than multiple expansion.
Altria: Ultra-High-Yield Income With Eyes Open
Altria offers a current dividend yield of 6.45%, placing it firmly in ultra-high-yield territory. The latest declared quarterly dividend is $1.11 per share, payable Oct. 9, up from the prior $1.06, taking the annualized forward payout to $4.44. Altria’s own press materials cite 60 dividend increases in the past 56 years, which is a long record of raises but not a continuous 50-plus-year streak, so treat this as a long-running payer rather than a Dividend King.
Payout coverage looks manageable against earnings power. Altria reaffirmed 2026 adjusted diluted EPS guidance of $5.61 to $5.72, a growth rate of 3.5% to 5.5% from a 2025 base of $5.42, and Q2 adjusted OCI margins in smokable products came in at 64.8%. Cash generation is prolific: Altria returned nearly $3.9 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks in the first half of 2026, including approximately $3.6 billion in dividends. Leverage is disciplined at debt-to-EBITDA of 1.9 times as of June 30, in line with the roughly two-times target, though shareholders’ equity is negative at -$3.21 billion in Q1 2026 because of years of aggressive buybacks and asset write-downs.
The bull case is unambiguous: this is a cash-return machine with pricing power. Marlboro retail pricing was up about 7% year over year in Q2, and shares have returned 22.02% year to date on top of the yield. CFO Heather Newman said, “We remain committed to returning significant value to shareholders.”
Risk: The underlying business is in secular volume decline. Management estimated domestic cigarette industry volumes fell 5% in both Q2 and the first half, and Altria took $2.2 billion in non-cash impairments on its e-vapor investments in FY25. Sustaining the dividend requires pricing to outrun volume every year, and that math gets harder over time.
Genuine Parts: Aftermarket Compounder With a Long Raise Record
Genuine Parts yields 3.15% at a share price of around $135, with a quarterly dividend of $1.0625 per share payable Oct. 2 and an annualized forward payout of $4.25. Dividend records show uninterrupted quarterly payments from 1999 through Sept. 4, with annual per-share amounts rising from 26 cents in 1999 to $1.0625 in 2026, consistent with the company’s long-running pattern of annual increases across retail, industrial, and international automotive aftermarket cycles.
Coverage looks healthy on an adjusted basis. Genuine Parts reaffirmed 2026 adjusted diluted EPS guidance of $7.50 to $8.00, projected operating cash flow of $1.0 to $1.2 billion and free cash flow of $550 to $700 million, and returned $288 million to shareholders in dividends during the first half of 2026. Q2 revenue reached $6.54 billion, up 6.0%, and the Industrial segment posted EBITDA growth of approximately 10% with EBITDA margin up 30 basis points to 13.1%. The balance sheet carries cash of $559.1 million and shareholders’ equity of $4.54 billion.
The bull case for income investors is diversification plus optionality. GPC gives you a mix of NAPA auto parts and Motion industrial distribution, and shares have advanced 12.08% year to date even as the automotive backdrop stayed choppy. CEO Will Stengel described industrial results as reflecting “a strong second quarter, reflecting focused teamwork and disciplined execution across the businesses.” The planned separation of Global Automotive and Global Industrial into two independent public companies, targeted for Q1 2027, could unlock a valuation rerating for the industrial side.
Risk: That same separation is the biggest overhang. Restructuring and separation costs pressured GAAP EPS in Q2, with $92.61 million in pre-tax charges, and the post-separation dividend policy of the two successor companies is not yet defined, so long-time holders should expect the combined payout to be reshaped rather than automatically preserved on today’s schedule.
Bundle Takeaway
Walmart anchors the bundle as the verified Dividend King, trading dividend size for dividend durability and reinvestment firepower. Altria brings the 6.1% headline yield, backed by fortress cash returns but tethered to a shrinking combustible-cigarette base. Genuine Parts sits in the middle with a mid-single-digit yield, a long raise history, and a 2027 spin that could reset how the payout is packaged. Together, the three cover retail scale, tobacco cash flow, and industrial-plus-aftermarket exposure, and each one still earns its place in an income sleeve on its own merits (if you want to see how we rank the full Dividend Kings roster by valuation right now, our free report is here).
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
