Enterprise Products Covers Its Distribution 1.9 Times. Here Are 3 More High-Yield Stocks
A high yield means nothing if the cash behind it runs dry at the wrong moment. These four income stocks clear that bar with room to spare, but one covers its payout at a rate that puts the others to…
Whether a payout lasts a bad year depends on the cash behind it. The four income names below have yields between about 5.6% and 6.3%, and each is backed by contracted, regulated, or subscription cash flow. Each also has a payment record you can check. The highlight is Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD | EPD Price Prediction), whose distributable cash flow covered its latest distribution 1.9x in the third quarter. That kind of coverage is what separates a durable payout from a thin one.
| Company | Forward Annual Dividend | Recent Price | Forward Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Products Partners | $2.24 | $37.51 | 5.97% |
| Realty Income (NYSE:O) | $3.258 | $57.45 | 5.67% |
| Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) | $2.83 | $44.85 | 6.31% |
| Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) | $2.784 | $49.48 | 5.63% |
Enterprise Products Partners: Nearly 2x Coverage and a Bigger Permian Footprint
Enterprise pays a quarterly distribution of $0.56 per unit, or $2.24 annualized. At the recent price, that works out to a forward yield of 5.97%. The yield sits just under the 6% line, so it counts as high-yield, and the coverage is the stronger part of the story.
Dividend safety: Third-quarter distributable cash flow from operations rose 27% year over year to $2.3 billion. That covered the distribution 1.9x and left $1.1 billion of retained cash flow. Distributions plus buybacks over the trailing 12 months used 54% of adjusted cash flow from operations. The balance sheet is conservative for a pipeline operator. Net leverage is 2.9x, about 96% of debt is fixed-rate, and the weighted average cost of debt is 4.7%. The payment record shows a higher distribution in every calendar year from 2016 through 2026, rising from $0.39 per quarter in early 2016 to $0.56 today.
Bull case: Gas production in the Permian Basin keeps growing, and Enterprise owns the plants, pipelines, and export docks that handle it. Permian plant inlet volumes hit a record 4.6 Bcf per day. Management also raised its forecast for wet gas and NGL production growth through 2030 to 34% from 23%. The company has $6.3 billion of approved projects under construction. That includes a fully contracted LPG export expansion that management expects to commission before year-end.
Risk: Co-CEO Randy Fowler warned that “2027 may be more modest compared to what we’re going to wind up reporting for 2026,” and he cited geopolitical uncertainty around spreads. Enterprise is also a master limited partnership, so unitholders receive a K-1 tax form instead of a 1099.
Realty Income: 116 Straight Quarterly Raises Backed by AFFO
Realty Income pays $0.2715 per share every month, or $3.258 annualized. That gives a forward yield of 5.67%.
Dividend safety: Realty Income raised 2026 adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) guidance to $4.45 to $4.46 per share. At the low end, the annualized dividend uses about 73% of AFFO. Management called its AFFO payout ratio “amongst the lowest it has been in the history of Realty Income.” The track record is among the deepest in the market. In September, the company announced its 116th consecutive quarterly dividend increase, and it has declared 676 consecutive monthly dividends. It is also a member of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index. Fitch rates the company “A” with a Stable Outlook, and quarter-end liquidity was about $5.4 billion.
Bull case: Occupancy stands at 98.8% across 15,536 properties. Leases have about 8.5 years of weighted average remaining term. New money is going into higher-growth areas such as European industrial assets and data centers. Third-quarter investments earned a 6.8% initial cash yield, a spread of about 170 basis points. Realty Income is also leaning less on public stock sales. Public equity funded 19% of investment volume this year, compared with a 47% average over the prior three years.
Risk: Growth per share is slow. AFFO per share rose 3.7%, and dividends rose only 0.7% year over year. Tenants that lack investment-grade credit ratings account for 65.7% of annualized base rent. The company also recorded $111.6 million of real estate impairments in the quarter. About $2.9 billion of debt matures next year at 2.9% so that refinancing will raise interest costs.
Verizon: An Ultra-High-Yield Payout Covered by Record Cash Flow
Verizon pays $0.7075 per quarter, or $2.83 annualized. That gives a forward yield of 6.31%, the only ultra-high-yield name on this list.
Dividend safety: Verizon generated $18 billion of free cash flow in the first nine months and paid $8.8 billion in dividends. Dividends therefore used about 49% of free cash flow. Third-quarter free cash flow of $7.8 billion was the company’s highest quarterly total since 2020. Net unsecured debt fell to 2.3x adjusted EBITDA, up 0.2x from the prior quarter. The payment record shows a higher dividend every year from 2021 through 2026, rising from $0.6275 to $0.7075.
Bull case: Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone subscribers, its strongest third quarter in five years. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 40.2%. Management raised 2026 guidance for the third straight quarter, now calling for adjusted EPS of $5.04 to $5.06. Its AI Connect business has signed about $4 billion of contracts, including an AWS dark-fiber deal worth more than $2 billion. CEO Dan Schulman said, “We have meaningful additional capacity to return capital to shareholders through both our growing dividend and incremental buybacks.”
Risk: Verizon has $166.2 billion of debt, and interest expense rose 17.2% year over year. Revenue of $34.31 billion missed expectations. Wireless retail postpaid ARPA, which measures revenue per account, fell 1.9%. Competition for subscribers remains intense.
Enbridge: 31 Years of Raises Backed by Regulated Cash Flow
Enbridge declares a quarterly dividend of C$0.97. For U.S. holders, the annualized forward payout comes to $2.784, a yield of 5.63%.
Dividend safety: The annualized dividend of C$3.88 uses about 64% to 68% of the 2026 distributable cash flow (DCF) per share guidance Enbridge gave with second-quarter results, C$5.70 to C$6.10. Second-quarter cash from operations rose 27%. Management also reaffirmed 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance of C$20.2 billion to C$20.8 billion, though both ranges may change with third-quarter results. CEO Greg Ebel pointed to “31 consecutive years of dividend increases.” Payment history runs back to 1999.
Bull case: Enbridge resembles a utility more than a typical pipeline company. It serves more than 7 million gas utility customers, and its liquids system has about 30% of North American crude output. A secured backlog of about C$41 billion supports management’s post-2026 growth target of about 5% a year for EBITDA, DCF per share, and EPS. Demand from LNG exports and data centers adds to that runway.
Risk: Debt reached 5.1x EBITDA, above the target range of 4.5x to 5x, although management attributed the excess to currency moves. Enbridge also closed a C$3.0 billion common equity offering in September. The company has named Michele Harradence CEO effective January 1, 2027, and third-quarter results arrive on November 6. Payments in U.S. dollars move with the exchange rate: recent quarters went from $0.712 to $0.696, and Canadian withholding tax applies.
Four Payouts With Cash to Spare
All four companies pay out well under what their cash flow supports. Enterprise covers its distribution nearly twice, Verizon’s dividend uses about half of its free cash flow, and Realty Income and Enbridge pay out comfortably less than their AFFO and DCF guidance. Each has a payment record that holds up under scrutiny, and each is still investing in projects that grow that cash flow. For income investors, that combination makes the yields more durable than the headline number alone suggests.
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
