5 High-Yield Dividend Stocks That Could Be Headed for a Dividend Cut
A double-digit yield can look like a gift when it is really a warning. Five familiar names have already slashed payouts or carry heavy debt, and one simple coverage test shows which income streams may break next.
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A 14.6% yield sounds like a retirement paycheck. At B&G Foods (NYSE:BGS), it mostly measures how far the stock has fallen: shares are down 87.05% over five years. A high yield is only as good as the company’s ability to keep paying it, and all five names below show cracks worth checking before you chase the income.
Quick test: a sustainable dividend is covered by the right earnings measure (FFO for REITs, earnings and free cash flow for operating companies), paid from cash the business actually generates, and funded without piling on debt.
B&G Foods (BGS): A Double-Digit Yield After Two Cuts
B&G Foods pays an annualized $0.38 per share. At $2.61, that works out to roughly 14.6%. Shares are down 33.26% year to date, so the price drop is doing most of the work behind that yield.
The company already halved the quarterly payout in 2026, from $0.19 to $0.095. That followed a 2022 cut from $0.475. Trailing diluted EPS is -$0.95. B&G replaced its 5.25% notes due 2027 with 11% senior notes due 2031, and second-quarter full-year interest expense guidance ran from $157.5 million to $162.5 million. Total liabilities stand at $2.96 billion against $395 million of equity. Second-quarter revenue fell 9.7%, and base business volume slipped 4.3%.
Bulls will point to second-quarter adjusted EPS guidance of $0.575 to $0.675, putting the reduced payout at about 66% of the low end. Management still cites a “healthy dividend policy,” but divestiture proceeds and cost cuts have to keep pace with an 11% coupon.
Whirlpool (WHR): A Payout That Has Gone Quiet
Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR | WHR Price Prediction) paid $1.80 over the trailing 12 months. That is a trailing yield of about 5.5% at $32.83. The yield comes from a collapse: shares are down 53.89% year to date and 80.83% over five years.
The quarterly dividend fell from $1.75 to $0.90 in 2025. The last recorded ex-dividend date was February 27, 2026, and the second quarter showed $0 in common dividends declared. Third-quarter adjusted EPS of -$0.21 missed the $1.01 consensus, and revenue dropped 8.8%. Full-year ongoing EPS guidance went to roughly -$1.30, down from $2.50 to $3.00. The quarter consumed about $1.1 billion of free cash flow, so reaching the roughly $300 million full-year target depends heavily on fourth-quarter collections.
Management has over $3 billion of liquidity, no major maturities until 2028, and 7% U.S. price increases coming. CEO Marc Bitzer said the company is “cautiously optimistic for 2027.” Income investors need that recovery to happen before the payout can count as reliable again.
Conagra Brands (CAG): Halved and Still Under Strain
Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) now pays $0.70 a year, a yield near 4.6% at $15.29. The stock has rebounded 15.92% in a month but remains down 40.04% over five years.
The quarterly dividend dropped from $0.35 to $0.175 this year, and the stress remains. First-quarter fiscal 2027 free cash flow was -$127.9 million on litigation payments. Leverage sits at 3.99 times, above the three-times target. Organic sales are guided to fall 3% to 1%, after $2.0 billion of impairments drove a fourth-quarter GAAP loss of -$3.37 per share.
Adjusted EPS guidance of $1.40 to $1.50 sits well above the new payout. The CFO said rating agencies “looked at our cut of the dividend as a positive.” Debt reduction clearly comes first, ahead of dividend growth.
Franklin Templeton (BEN): Earnings Barely Clear the Dividend
Franklin Templeton (NYSE:BEN) pays $1.32 annually, a yield of about 3.9%. A 47.8% year-to-date rally has compressed the yield, and the payout has grown each year since 2021.
For an asset manager, compare earnings and cash flow against the dividend. Trailing GAAP EPS of $1.47 puts the payout near 90%. The third quarter carried a $100 million regulatory settlement and $77.2 million in termination benefits, and Western Asset bled another $1.1 billion. The company returned $521.5 million, including $348.1 million in buybacks. The CEO conceded “there is pressure around distribution fees.”
On the positive side, adjusted EPS of $0.72 beat estimates, and AUM hit a record $1.79 trillion. A market pullback would test that coverage quickly.
Simon Property Group (SPG): Solid Coverage, Heavy Debt
Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) pays $9.00 a year, about 3.9% at $231.33, and recently raised its quarterly dividend by 4.7%.
For a REIT, FFO is the right test. Real estate FFO guidance of $13.20 to $13.30 puts the payout near 68%, which is comfortable. The real warning is the balance sheet: $33.86 billion of liabilities against $4.43 billion of equity, plus about $4.5 billion of unsecured debt due in late 2027 at higher rates. The latest payment was also flat with the prior quarter. Liquidity of $9.3 billion and 96% occupancy give it the strongest cushion on this list.
Yield Alone Never Makes the Case
(Seven warning signs suggest a big yield is about to be cut, and we laid them all out in a free dividend trap report.)
As Jim Cramer put it, “often super high yields are a signal that the payout simply can’t be maintained.” When a dividend is cut, the share price usually falls with it, so income investors lose twice. Check coverage, cash flow, and debt first. Watch each company’s next earnings report before you rely on the yield.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
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.
