These 5 Dividend Stocks Raised Their Payouts. Are They Worth Buying in November?

Yield is the easy part. What lets income investors sleep at night is a dividend that rises every year, no matter what the economy does, and all five companies here raised their regular quarterly payout in 2026. The increases ran from a step to $0.76 per share at Southern Company (NYSE:SO | SO Price Prediction) up to an 8.8% boost at Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM). Two of them, Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) and Southern, go ex-dividend in mid-November, on November 13 and November 16. Each pick below is graded on coverage, cash flow, balance sheet, and payout history before yield comes up in the conversation.

Philip Morris International: 19 Straight Raises and a Record Cash Year

Philip Morris raised its quarterly dividend to $1.60, or $6.40 annualized. At $202.93 a share, that works out to a forward yield of about 3.2%. The stock has rose 29.8% year to date, which has pushed the yield down. Even so, the payout keeps growing.

Safety read: Management called September’s increase its 19th consecutive year of dividend growth. The dividend history backs that up, with annual step-ups going back to the $0.46 to $0.54 raise in 2008. Operating cash flow is guided to around $13.5 billion this year against capex of $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion. That leaves room for a dividend bill of roughly $10 billion at the new rate. The $6.40 payout is about 77% of 2026 adjusted EPS guidance at its floor of $8.29 to $8.44. Leverage is falling: net debt to adjusted EBITDA improved to 2.17x from 2.53x at the end of 2025, and the company has no share repurchases planned. That keeps the dividend first in line for cash.

Bull case: Smoke-free products now make up more than 40% of net revenue. U.S. segment revenue grew 22.7% last quarter, and adjusted operating margin expanded to 44.7%. Third-quarter adjusted EPS of $2.36 beat the $2.34 estimate, the company’s 6th straight beat. Shares trade at 19x forward earnings.

Risk: ZYN is getting expensive to defend. Philip Morris is switching cans to 20 pouches at the old 15-count price, which management called a 25% per-pouch price reduction. It expects fourth-quarter U.S. adjusted operating income to be around zero or slightly negative.

Prudential Financial: Nearly 5% Yield at 10x Earnings

Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU) pays a regular quarterly dividend of $1.40, or $5.60 annualized. At $116.46, the forward yield is about 4.8%. A separate $0.3516 distribution recorded in July falls outside the regular payout and shouldn’t be counted as recurring income.

Safety read: Trailing dividends of $5.50 come to about 50% of trailing EPS of $11.04, the most comfortable coverage on this list. Second-quarter adjusted EPS of $4.08 was almost three times the quarterly dividend. The company still returned $743 million in the quarter, including $250 million of buybacks. Its main insurance subsidiaries carry AA- ratings from S&P and Fitch. The regular quarterly payout has risen every year, from $0.70 in 2016 to $1.40 in 2026, and the payment history dates back to 2002.

Bull case: Shares trade at 10x forward earnings while returning an operating ROE of 16.4%. The asset manager PGIM grew pre-tax adjusted operating income 28% to $294 million, which brings in fee income to sit alongside the insurance spread business.

Risk: Japan is the weak spot. A voluntary sales suspension at Prudential of Japan cut international sales 33% in constant currency. Wall Street is cool on the stock, with 14 holds, 3 sells and a consensus target of $110.20, below the current price.

Duke Energy: Data-Center Demand Backs a Rising Payout

Duke declared a quarterly dividend of $1.085, with an ex-dividend date of November 13 and payment on December 16. On a $4.34 annualized basis, that gives a forward yield of about 3.5% at $125.10.

Safety read: The forward dividend is roughly 66% of reaffirmed 2026 adjusted EPS guidance at its floor of $6.55 to $6.80. That is a normal range for a regulated utility, whose earnings are set by state rate cases. The quarterly payout has risen from $0.89 in 2017 to $1.085 today, and quarterly payments date back to 1999.

Bull case: Duke has signed 7.6 GW of economic-development projects under electric service agreements and targets 5% to 7% annual EPS growth through 2030. The company expects to land in the top half of that range starting in 2028. Second-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.43 exceeded the $1.31 estimate, the company’s 5th consecutive beat.

Risk: A growing rate base brings higher depreciation and rising interest expense, and coal ash cleanup costs remain uncertain. The stock has also gained 9.57% in the past month, so the yield on new money has already declined.

Southern Company: 25 Years of Annual Raises on Record

Southern declared a $0.76 quarterly dividend, with an ex-dividend date of November 16 and payment on December 7. On a $3.04 annualized basis, that yields about 3.3% at $93.04.

Safety read: Southern has the clearest raise record in this group. Its dividend history shows an increase in every year from 2002 through 2026, most recently from $0.74 to $0.76. Trailing dividends of $2.98 equal about 72% of trailing EPS of $4.15. Second-quarter net income rose 33.4% to $1.17 billion.

Bull case: Commercial electricity sales rose 7.3% on data-center demand, and wholesale volumes grew 9.2%. Adjusted EPS of $1.13 beat the $1.00 estimate. Shares trade at 17x forward earnings with a beta of 0.301, which makes Southern one of the steadiest names on this list.

Risk: Repowering wind farms at Southern Power will add roughly $205 million of accelerated depreciation in 2026 and about $120 million in 2027. Residential kWh sales also fell 1.5% in the second quarter.

T. Rowe Price: A Debt-Free Balance Sheet Behind a Nearly 5% Yield

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) pays $1.30 per quarter, or $5.20 annualized. That is a forward yield of about 4.9% at $105.32, the highest on this list.

Safety read: T. Rowe has the strongest balance sheet here. It carries almost no long-term debt and holds $3.23 billion in cash and equivalents. On the last earnings call, CFO Jen Dardis said, “Our balance sheet remains strong with $4.4 billion of cash and discretionary investments.” Trailing dividends of $5.14 equal about 52% of trailing EPS of $9.96. The quarterly payout rose every year from $0.90 in 2020 to $1.30 in 2026, and the record also includes a $3 special dividend in 2021.

Bull case: Assets under management hit a record $1.89 trillion, and about two-thirds of client assets are retirement money, which tends to stay put. The ETF business took in $4.4 billion of net inflows in the second quarter. Shares trade at 10x forward earnings.

Risk: Outflows are still running. Clients pulled a net $6.5 billion in the second quarter after $13.7 billion in the first, and CEO Rob Sharps warned that “net flows in the second half of the year [will be] meaningfully more challenging than the first half.” The stock is still down 36.2% over five years.

Five Raises in 2026, Five Different Engines

These five names pay for their dividends with different sources: tobacco pricing power, insurance and asset-management fees, regulated utility rate bases, and a debt-free fund manager. Each raised its regular payout this year. Prudential and T. Rowe Price offer the most coverage per dollar of yield. Philip Morris brings the fastest dividend growth, and Duke Energy and Southern provide steady, rate-backed income heading into their November ex-dividend dates. Build a few of these into a ladder, and the checks can cover the bills without ever selling a share, which is exactly the setup we walked through in a free dividend ladder guide.

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