3 Safe Stocks Increasing Dividends: Buy Before October Ends for an Instant 6.5%+ Yield
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Tobacco, pipelines, and wireless service all keep getting paid through recessions because their customers keep buying. Altria (NYSE:MO | MO Price Prediction), Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD), and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) have done so over the past year. Verizon alone yields 6.54% on its forward payout at the latest price. All three cover their payouts with cash and still have money left over.
Altria
Altria pays an annualized forward dividend of $4.44. At $72.26 a share, that works out to a forward yield of 6.14%. The trailing yield is 5.94%. The board declared its latest raise on August 27, 2026. The verified history shows the quarterly payment climbing every year, from $0.86 in 2021 to the current level.
On safety, the forward dividend uses about 79% of the low end of 2026 adjusted EPS guidance, which runs from $5.61 to $5.72. Debt-to-EBITDA stands at 1.9 times, close to the company’s target of about two times. Management said: “Historically, after we have the dividend, we have about a billion excess in cash.”
The bull case is pricing power. Marlboro’s retail price rose about 7% year over year. Smokable margins held at 64.8%, and on! PLUS now sells in 120,000 stores.
The main risk is volume. U.S. cigarette volumes fell about 5%, and Marlboro’s retail share slid to 39.5%.
Enterprise Products Partners
For the October deadline, this one counts. Investors can expect the $0.56 per-unit distribution to go ex on October 30, 2026, and pay on November 13, 2026. The $2.24 annualized payout against a $35.96 unit price gives a forward yield of 6.23%. The units are down 7.56% over the past month, which has driven the entry yield higher.
Coverage is the strongest of the three. Second-quarter distributable cash flow of $2.3 billion covered the distribution 1.9x, and the partnership kept $1.1 billion for growth projects and buybacks. Leverage is at its target of 3.0x net debt, and about 97% of its debt carries a fixed rate. The quarterly distribution has risen every year on record, from $0.45 in 2021 to $0.56 today.
Growth should keep the raises coming. Enterprise has $6.5 billion of organic projects under construction, and its LPG export capacity is about 90% contracted. Adjusted EBITDA reached a record $2.83 billion.
The catch is taxes. As a partnership, Enterprise issues a K-1 form instead of a 1099, which makes tax filing harder, especially in retirement accounts.
Verizon
Verizon pays $2.83 a year for a 6.54% forward yield. Shares are off 13.03% over the past month after a sharp telecom selloff on Friday (MarketWatch). Because the October 9 ex-date has already passed, new buyers will start with the following quarter’s payment.
Free cash flow carries the dividend easily. Verizon expects $21.94 billion to $22.14 billion of free cash flow this year. The dividend costs about $11.76 billion a year across its shares. The CFO called the latest raise “the 20th consecutive year of dividend increases.” That raise took the quarterly payment to $0.7075 from $0.69.
The operating trends have turned. In the second quarter, Verizon added 184,000 postpaid phone customers. Its adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 40.1%, and fiber connections grew 43.3% after the Frontier deal. The stock trades at a forward P/E of about 9.
The risk is debt. Unsecured debt totals $136.5 billion, and leverage rose to 2.5x after Frontier. Management is aiming for 2.0 to 2.25x in 2027.
Rising Checks From Three Essential Industries
The three forward yields average 6.3%. Verizon is the only one above the 6.5% line, and Enterprise offers the last ex-date of the month. Each payout is covered by cash, has gone up this year, and comes from a business that people keep paying through downturns. (A mid-six-figure stake spread across names like these can produce more monthly income than most investors expect, which is the point of our free income guide here.) Next up: Altria’s volume trends, Enterprise’s project startups, and Verizon’s debt paydown.
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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.
