5 High-Yield Stocks to Buy Now Before Your Retirement Starts
With the 10-year Treasury now a genuine rival to dividend stocks, only a handful of large caps can still justify their yields on safety grounds alone. A telecom selloff suddenly made two of them far more interesting.
Retirement income now faces a hard benchmark. The 10-year Treasury yielded 5.09% on October 16, so a dividend stock must offer more than a bond: a growing, cash-flow-funded payout. The five large caps below pay above-market yields supported by free cash flow and long payout records. A telecom selloff on Friday drove two of them to even higher yields. We judge each on safety first, then yield.
Realty Income: Monthly Checks Backed by 98.8% Occupancy
Realty Income (NYSE:O) yields about 6.01%, based on a forward annualized dividend of $3.258 and a price of $54.17. The newest monthly payment of $0.2715 went out October 15. Bills come monthly, which is the whole case for stocks that pay on the same schedule. (We rounded up seven of our favorite monthly payers in a free report here.)
Dividend safety: For a real estate investment trust (REIT), the key coverage measure is adjusted funds from operations (AFFO), a cash-flow figure. Management raised 2026 AFFO guidance to $4.44 to $4.45; the dividend uses roughly 73% of AFFO even at the low end. Occupancy is 98.8%, Fitch rates the company “A”, and net debt runs 5.4x pro forma adjusted EBITDAre. The company’s Q1 2026 filing counts its 115th consecutive quarterly dividend increase, and its payment history goes back to 1999.
Bull case: Realty Income put $2.6 billion to work in Q2 at a 7.3% initial cash yield, raised its 2026 investment target to $10.0 billion, and launched a $6 billion hyperscale data center joint venture. Shares fell 9.41% over the past month and trade below the $66.39 analyst target.
Risk: Tenants without investment-grade ratings account for 65.7% of annualized base rent, and rising rates make the REIT’s funding more expensive.
Verizon: Friday’s Selloff Lifted the Yield Near 6.8%
Verizon (NYSE:VZ | VZ Price Prediction) had its worst day since 2002 after news that SpaceX plans a U.S. network. Shares fell 10.14% to $41.65, raising the yield to about 6.79% on the $2.83 forward dividend.
Dividend safety: Free cash flow was $6.43 billion in Q2, up 27.1% from a year earlier, and the 2026 forecast calls for $21.94 billion to $22.14 billion. The dividend matches about 57% of the low end of adjusted EPS guidance ($4.99). The quarterly payout has risen from $0.64 in 2021 to $0.7075 today.
Bull case: Verizon added 184,000 postpaid phone subscribers, up from a loss of 9,000 a year earlier. Its adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 40.1%, and the Frontier deal brought fiber connections to 10.9 million.
Risk: Net unsecured debt rose to 2.5x adjusted EBITDA after the Frontier acquisition, and satellite competition is a new threat to pricing.
AT&T: A Flat Dividend With Wide Cash Coverage
AT&T (NYSE:T) yields about 5.01% after a 9.85% drop on Friday. It cut its quarterly dividend in 2022, from $0.52 to $0.2775, and has paid that same amount ever since.
Dividend safety: The company expects at least $18 billion of free cash flow this year against a dividend bill of roughly $8 billion. The payout is about 49% of the low end of adjusted EPS guidance. AT&T plans to return over $45 billion to shareholders from 2026 to 2028.
Bull case: Q2 brought 432,000 postpaid phone net adds and 646,000 internet net adds. It is on track to reach more than 40 million fiber locations by year-end, and its free cash flow targets rise each year through 2028.
Risk: Dividend income will not grow. Legacy copper revenue fell 25.9%, and net debt stands at 2.68x adjusted EBITDA.
Chevron: Lower Yield, Strongest Balance Sheet in the Group
Chevron (NYSE:CVX) yields about 3.36%, the lowest of the five. It earns its place through dividend growth: the quarterly payout has risen every year from $1.42 in 2022 to $1.78 in 2026.
Dividend safety: Q2 free cash flow of $18.10 billion covers a quarterly dividend bill of more than $3.5 billion many times over. Net debt is 1.08x EBITDA, with interest costs covered 13.7x, and Chevron paid down $8.41 billion of debt in Q2 alone.
Bull case: Production rose 20% to 4,070 MBOED after the Hess acquisition. Chevron also reached $3 billion in cost savings ahead of schedule and signed a 2.67 GW power deal with Microsoft for an AI data center.
Risk: Earnings depend on oil prices. Shares are up 42.95% this year, so the yield has fallen.
Altria: A Fresh Raise and an Ultra-High-Yield Payout
Altria (NYSE:MO) yields about 6.19%, among the highest in the market, after raising its quarterly dividend to $1.11 from $1.06. The payout has risen every year, starting at $0.80 in 2019.
Dividend safety: The new $4.44 annual rate is about 79% of the low end of 2026 adjusted EPS guidance ($5.61). Debt-to-EBITDA was 1.9x, in line with the company’s target. On the Q2 call, management called the dividend “our primary vehicle” for returning cash to shareholders.
Bull case: Pricing power holds up. Smokeable price realization was 4.5%, and the segment’s margins were 64.8%. Retail share for the on! nicotine pouch brand rose to 8.6%.
Risk: Industry cigarette volumes fell 5%, and Marlboro’s retail share slipped to 39.5% as smokers trade down to cheaper brands.
Five Income Streams Ranked on Safety and Yield
Realty Income pays monthly, the two telecoms supply heavy free cash flow at marked-down prices, Chevron brings dividend growth and the best balance sheet, and Altria raised its payout again this year. Each dividend is covered by cash flow or earnings guidance with room to spare. Over the next few months, watch how Verizon and AT&T respond to SpaceX and where the 10-year yield goes from 5.09%.
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Lee Jackson has covered Wall Street analysts' equity and debt research and equity strategy daily for 24/7 Wall St. since 2012. His broad, diverse career, including a stint as creative services director at an NBC affiliate in Austin, Texas, gives him unique insight into the financial industry.
Lee Jackson's journey in the financial industry spans more than 30 years, including nearly two decades as an institutional equity salesperson at Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Morgan Stanley. His career spanned pivotal sell-side Wall Street events, from the dot-com rise and bubble to the Long-Term Capital Management debacle, 9/11, and the Great Recession of 2008. This reflects his resilience and adaptability amid market volatility.
Lee Jackson’s practical financial industry experience, gained through a career at some of the biggest banks and brokerage firms, is complemented by a lifetime of writing across various platforms. This unique combination allows him to shed light on the intricacies of Wall Street in a way only someone with deep insider experience and knowledge can. Moreover, his extensive network across Wall Street continues to provide direct access for him and 24/7 Wall St., a privilege few firms enjoy.
Since 2012, Jackson’s work for 24/7 Wall St. has been featured in Barron’s, Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Business Insider, TradingView, Real Money, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Benzinga, and other media outlets. He attended the prestigious Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and has a degree in broadcasting from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts.
