Archives February 2025

Updated on February 24th, 2025 by Bob Ciura

It isn’t surprising that we favor stocks that pay dividends, as studies have shown that owning income producing securities is an excellent way to build wealth while also protecting to the downside.

In bull markets, dividends can add to the gains from the stock while also purchasing additional shares. When prices decline, dividends can reduce the losses while being used to acquire more shares at a now lower price.

With this in mind, we created a full list of the Dividend Kings, a group of stocks with over 50 consecutive years of dividend increases.

You can see the full downloadable spreadsheet of all 54 Dividend Kings (along with important financial metrics such as dividend yields, payout ratios, and price-to-earnings ratios) by clicking on the link below:

 

The Dividend Kings  have rewarded shareholders with rising income for decades.

The following 10 stocks represent Dividend Kings that can continue to raise their dividends for decades to come.

The list includes 10 Dividend Kings with our highest Dividend Risk Score of ‘A’ in the Sure Analysis Research Database, that also have payout ratios below 70% to ensure a sustainable dividend payout.

The stocks are sorted by dividend payout ratio, from lowest to highest.

Table of Contents

Dividend King To Hold Forever: Nordson Corp. (NDSN)

Nordson was founded in 1954 in Amherst, Ohio by brothers Eric and Evan Nord, but the company can trace its roots back to 1909 with the U.S. Automatic Company.

Today the company has operations in over 35 countries and engineers, manufactures, and markets products used for dispensing adhesives, coatings, sealants, biomaterials, plastics, and other materials, with applications ranging from diapers and straws to cell phones and aerospace.

Source: Investor Presentation

On August 14th, 2024, Nordson increased its dividend by 15% to $0.78 per share quarterly, marking 61 years of increases.

On December 11th, 2024, Nordson reported fourth quarter results for the period ending October 31st, 2024. For the quarter, the company reported sales of $744 million, 4% higher compared to $719 million in Q4 2023, which was driven by a positive acquisition impact, and offset by organic decrease of 3%.

Industrial Precision saw sales decrease by 3%, while the Medical and Fluid Solutions and Advanced Technology Solutions segments had sales increases of 19% and 5%, respectively. The company generated adjusted earnings per share of $2.78, a 3% increase compared to the same prior-year quarter.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on NDSN (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Dividend King To Hold Forever: Sysco Corp. (SYY)

Sysco Corporation is the largest wholesale food distributor in the United States. The company serves 600,000 locations with food delivery, including restaurants, hospitals, schools, hotels, and other facilities.

Source: Investor Presentation

On January 28th, 2025, Sysco reported second-quarter results for Fiscal Year (FY)2025. The company reported a 4.5% increase in sales for the second quarter of fiscal year 2025, reaching $20.2 billion.

U.S. Foodservice volume grew by 1.4%, while gross profit rose 3.9% to $3.7 billion. Operating income increased 1.7% to $712 million, with adjusted operating income growing 5.1% to $783 million. Earnings per share (EPS) remained at $0.82, while adjusted EPS grew 4.5% to $0.93.

The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance, projecting sales growth of 4%-5% and adjusted EPS growth of 6%-7%.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on SYY (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Dividend King To Hold Forever: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)

Archer-Daniels-Midland is the largest publicly traded farmland product company in the United States. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s businesses include processing cereal grains, oilseeds, and agricultural storage and transportation.

Archer-Daniels-Midland reported its third-quarter results for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 on November 18th, 2024. The company reported adjusted net earnings of $530 million and adjusted EPS of $1.09, both down from the prior year due to a $461 million non-cash charge related to its Wilmar equity investment.

Consolidated cash flows year-to-date reached $2.34 billion, reflecting strong operations despite market challenges.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on ADM (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Dividend King To Hold Forever: Farmers & Merchants Bancorp (FMCB)

Farmers & Merchants Bancorp is a locally owned and operated community bank with 32 locations in California. Due to its small market cap and its low liquidity, it passes under the radar of most investors.

F&M Bank has paid uninterrupted dividends for 88 consecutive years and has raised its dividend for 59 consecutive years.

In late January, F&M Bank reported (1/23/25) financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. The bank grew its earnings-per-share 9% over the prior year’s quarter, from $28.55 to a new all-time high of $31.11. Loans and deposits grew 1% each.

Net interest income dipped -3% due to a contraction of net interest margin from 4.30% to 4.05% amid higher deposit costs. Management remains optimistic for the foreseeable future, as the bank enjoys one of the widest net interest margins in its sector.

We reiterate that F&M Bank is one of the most resilient banks during downturns, such as the pandemic, a potential recession or the financial turmoil caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Credit Suisse and First Republic.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on FMCB (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Dividend King To Hold Forever: Hormel Foods (HRL)

Hormel Foods was founded back in 1891 in Minnesota. Since that time, the company has grown into a juggernaut in the food products industry with nearly $10 billion in annual revenue.

Hormel has kept with its core competency as a processor of meat products for well over a hundred years, but has also grown into other business lines through acquisitions.

Hormel has a large portfolio of category-leading brands. Just a few of its top brands include include Skippy, SPAM, Applegate, Justin’s, and more than 30 others.

It has also pursued acquisitions to drive growth. For example, in 2021, Hormel acquired the Planters snack nuts business from Kraft-Heinz (KHC) for $3.35 billion, which has boosted Hormel’s growth.

Source: Investor Presentation

Hormel posted fourth quarter and full-year earnings on December 4th, 2024, and results were in line with expectations. The company posted adjusted earnings-per-share of 42 cents, which met estimates. Revenue was off 2% year-on-year to $3.14 billion, also hitting estimates.

Operating income was $308 million for the quarter on an adjusted basis, or 9.8% of revenue. Operating cash flow was $409 million for Q4.

For the year, sales were $11.9 billion, and adjusted operating income was $1.1 billion, or 9.6% of revenue. Adjusted earnings-per-share was $1.58. Operating cash flow hit a record of $1.3 billion.

Guidance for 2025 was initiated at $11.9 billion to $12.2 billion in sales, with organic net sales growth of 1% to 3%.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on HRL (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Dividend King To Hold Forever: PPG Industries (PPG)

PPG Industries is the world’s largest paints and coatings company. Its only competitors of similar size are Sherwin-Williams and Dutch paint company Akzo Nobel.

PPG Industries was founded in 1883 as a manufacturer and distributor of glass (its name stands for Pittsburgh Plate Glass) and today has approximately 3,500 technical employees located in more than 70 countries at 100 locations.

On January 31st, 2025, PPG Industries announced fourth quarter and full year results for the period ending December 31st, 2024. For the quarter, revenue declined 4.6% to $3.73 billion and missed estimates by $241 million.

Adjusted net income of $375 million, or $1.61 per share, compared favorably to adjusted net income of $372 million, or $1.56 per share, in the prior year. Adjusted earnings-per-share was $0.02 below expectations.

Source: Investor Presentation

For the year, revenue from continuing operations decreased 2% to $15.8 billion while adjusted earnings-per-share totaled $7.87.

PPG Industries repurchased ~$750 million worth of shares during 2024 and has $2.8 billion, or ~10.3% of its current market capitalization, remaining on its share repurchase authorization. The company expects to repurchase ~$400 million worth of shares in Q1 2025.

For 2025, the company expects adjusted earnings-per-share in a range of $7.75 to $8.05.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on PPG (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Dividend King To Hold Forever: California Water Service Group (CWT)

California Water Service is a water stock and is the third-largest publicly-owned water utility in the United States.

It was founded in 1926 and has six subsidiaries that provide water to approximately 2 million people in 100 communities, primarily in California but also in Washington, New Mexico and Hawaii.

Source: Investor Presentation

California Water Service reported its third quarter earnings results on October 31st. Operating revenues totaled $300 million during the quarter, which was 18% higher than the same quarter last year. This represents a stronger performance compared to what the analyst community had forecasted.

The operating revenue increase was driven by rate increases over the last year as well as by higher accrued unbilled revenue compared to the previous year’s quarter.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on CWT (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Dividend King To Hold Forever: Gorman-Rupp Co. (GRC)

Gorman-Rupp began manufacturing pumps and pumping systems back in 1933. Since that time, it has grown into an industry leader with annual sales of nearly $700 million and a market capitalization of $1 billion.

Today, Gorman-Rupp is a focused, niche manufacturer of critical systems that many industrial clients rely upon for their own success.

Gorman Rupp generates about one-third of its total revenue from outside of the U.S.

Source: Investor Presentation

Gorman-Rupp posted fourth quarter and full-year earnings on February 7th, 2025, and results were weaker than expected. Adjusted earnings-per-share came to 42 cents, which was three cents light of estimates.

Revenue was up 1.3% year-over-year to $162.7 million, which matched expectations. The increase in sales was primarily attributed to the impact of pricing increases taken in the year-ago period.

Gross profit was $49.2 million for the quarter, or 30.2% of revenue. These were down from $50.9 million and 31.7%, respectively, in the same period of 2023.

The decline in gross margins of 150 basis points included 220 basis points of increased labor and overhead costs, which were driven by healthcare expenses.

That was partially offset by a 70-basis point improvement in cost of materials, which itself was driven by a 140-basis point improvement in selling prices offset by a 70-basis point decline from inventory costing.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on GRC (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Dividend King To Hold Forever: SJW Group (SJW)

SJW Group is a water utility company that produces, purchases, stores, purifies and distributes water to consumers and businesses in the Silicon Valley area of California, the area north of San Antonio, Texas, Connecticut, and Maine.

SJW Group has a small real estate division that owns and develops properties for residential and warehouse customers in California and Tennessee. The company generates about $670 million in annual revenues.

Source: Investor Presentation

On October 28th, 2024, SJW Group reported third quarter results for the period ending June 30th, 2024. For the quarter, revenue grew 9.9% to $225.1 million, beating estimates by $11.6 million. Earnings-per-share of $1.18 compared favorably to earnings-per-share of $1.13 in the prior year and was $0.04 more than expected.

As with prior periods, the improvement in revenue was mostly due to SJW Group’s California and Connecticut businesses, which benefited from higher water rates, while growth in customers aided the Texas business.

Higher rates overall added $40 million to results for the quarter, higher customer usage added $4.8 million, and growth in customers contributed $2.4 million. Operating production expenses totaled $166.7 million, which was a 12% increase from the prior year.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on SJW (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Dividend King To Hold Forever: Stepan Co. (SCL)

Stepan manufactures basic and intermediate chemicals, including surfactants, specialty products, germicidal and fabric softening quaternaries, phthalic anhydride, polyurethane polyols and special ingredients for the food, supplement, and pharmaceutical markets.

It is organized into three distinct business lines: surfactants, polymers, and specialty products. These businesses serve a wide variety of end markets, meaning that Stepan is not beholden to just a handful of industries.

Source: Investor presentation

The surfactants business is Stepan’s largest by revenue, accounting for ~68% of total sales in the most recent quarter. A surfactant is an organic compound that contains both water-soluble and water-insoluble components.

Stepan posted fourth quarter and full-year earnings on February 19th, 2025, and results were mixed once again. Revenue was down 1.2% year-on-year to $526 million, but did beat estimates by almost $5 million. Adjusted earnings-per-share came to 12 cents, which missed estimates by 21 cents.

Global sales volume was off 1% year-over-year as double-digit growth in surfactants was offset and then some by demand weakness in polymers. Surfactants were up 3% year-over-year in Q4 to $379 million. Polymer net sales fell 12% to $130 million.

The company managed to generate about $13 million in pre-tax cost savings during the quarter, and about $48 million for the full year.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on SCL (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Final Thoughts

Screening to find the best Dividend Kings is not the only way to find high-quality dividend growth stocks to hold forever.

Sure Dividend maintains similar databases on the following useful universes of stocks:

There is nothing magical about investing in the Dividend Kings. They are simply a group of high-quality businesses with shareholder-friendly management teams that have strong competitive advantages.

Purchasing businesses with these characteristics–at fair or better prices–and holding them forever, will likely result in strong long-term investment performance.

The Last Melt-up starts tonight at 8 PM … Nvidia’s earnings are strong but disappoint Wall Street … how Louis Navellier is investing today … a rare earth metals deal between Ukraine and the U.S. … another good headline for Bitcoin

We begin today with a final reminder that tonight at 8 PM Eastern, Keith Kaplan, CEO of our corporate affiliate TradeSmith, is going live.

His presentation focuses on two things:

• The coming stock melt-up that Keith’s algorithms have just flagged (even considering the sell-off in recent days)
• A suite of tools that can help investors ride that surge higher and then get out near the top, escaping before the worst of the ensuing crash wipes out unprepared investors

Behind Keith’s melt-up prediction is a market signal that’s rooted in historical data – and data is where TradeSmith excels.

You see, beyond being our corporate partner, TradeSmith is an investment research shop that focuses on quantitative analysis. They’ve spent over $19 million and over 11,000 man-hours developing their analytical algorithms. And their latest quant breakthrough – the “MQ Algorithm” – has been signaling a coming melt-up.

But even in a melt-up, some stocks suffer sharp drawdowns – which can present fantastic buying opportunities. Given this, Keith and his team of engineers developed a complementary strategy that isolates such pullbacks in top-tier stocks then buys them to ride the rebound.

Overall, in the back tests, the strategy boasted a near 80%-win rate 21 days later, with an average return of just under 16%.

Tonight at 8 PM, Keith will dive more into more details on this. He’ll also cover:

• What’s behind the recent market melt-up signal
• How he’s preparing investors users to take advantage
• 10 stocks positioned to ride the melt-up higher…and 10 stocks to avoid

If you haven’t reserved your seat yet, just click here for instant registration, and we’ll see you tonight.

Nvidia’s “good, but not good enough” earnings

In yesterday’s Digest, we highlighted how the S&P 500 had just bounced off the critical support level of its 100-day MA. Whether that bounce continued or not could drive market direction for the next several weeks.

The most immediate influence on that budding bounce was Nvidia’s earnings report that arrived yesterday after the closing bell.

The numbers were good, but not good enough to kick Wall Street back into full-blown “party” mode.

The chip giant’s Q4 results easily beat Wall Street estimates, and management upped its forward guidance. But Nvidia’s largest source of revenue, data center revenue, slowed substantially. This raised some eyebrows, as did some margin compression.

Here’s MarketWatch:

Nvidia’s stock decline is building [in Thursday’s session], with investors seemingly focused on quibbles such as continued margin pressure and a smaller-than-usual beat on the guidance.

As I write at mid-day, Nvidia shares are down almost 3% despite the beat.

Meanwhile, the major indices have been all over the place. Wall Street is digesting Nvidia’s earnings, the news that Trump’s Mexico/Canda tariffs will go into effect on March 4, and weekly jobless claims that came in above expectations.

Unfortunately, that leaves us where we were yesterday…

With the S&P sitting directly atop its 100-day MA.

We’re still cautiously optimistic about a bounce.

The next big catalyst is tomorrow’s Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index report, and what is reveals about inflation.

We’ll report back.

The more interesting part of Nvidia’s earnings report

Coming into Nvidia’s earnings report, investors were concerned about the impact of the Chinese low-cost AI platform DeepSeek.

Its advanced technology suggested that the global AI buildout could occur at a lower cost with less power consumption.

Yesterday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang threw cold water on that idea. From CNBC:

[Huang] said next-generation AI will need 100 times more compute than older models as a result of new reasoning approaches that think “about how best to answer” questions step by step.

“The amount of computation necessary to do that reasoning process is 100 times more than what we used to do,” Huang told CNBC…

He cited models including DeepSeek’s R1, OpenAI’s GPT-4 and xAI’s Grok 3 as models that use a reasoning process.

In Tuesday’s Digest, I wrote, “I hope you didn’t sell your AI energy stocks back in January when the news of DeepSeek broke.”

That goes double today after Huang’s comment.

Bottom line: Despite Wall Street’s pouty reaction to Nvidia’s earnings, the AI trend is alive and well.

How legendary investor Louis Navellier recommends you invest in AI today

If you’re new to the Digest, Louis is a multidecade veteran investor who’s been out in front of just about every twist and turn of the AI boom. His quantitative algorithms have enabled him to get in early on each mini-phase of the AI rush.

Most notably, his quantitative stock picking system got his Growth Investor subscribers into Nvidia in 2019. They’re currently sitting on 2,924% gains.

Today, Louis is urging investors to add “AI Appliers” – companies finding ways to use AI to grow revenue and improve margins – to their portfolios. His most recent example of an AI Applier is one we flagged earlier this month…

Walmart.

(Full disclosure: I own Walmart.)

Louis reviewed Walmart’s earnings report in his latest issue of Market 360. After addressing how the report reflected consumer concerns about tariffs, Louis dove into the details that many investors overlooked, and they suggest one thing…

Walmart is becoming an AI Applier Juggernaut.

Here’s a quick summation of Louis’ points:

• Walmart has created a new AI agent for its merchants to help “get to the root cause of issues related to things like out of stocks or overstocks with more accuracy and speed.”
• The company is using tools for coding assistance that will “help streamline deployments and deliver code faster with fewer bugs.”
• Walmart has already been using AI to help reduce costs and boost margins.
• The Walmart+ subscription service is helping management understand its shoppers. This AI tool tracks spending habits and creates better recommendations for future buys.
• Walmart is using AI in its supply-chain automation. The company was an early user of warehouse robots.

From Louis:

I bring all this up because you might not think of Walmart when you think about AI.

But mark my words… In the not-too-distant future, every company will be involved with AI to one degree or another.

And those that don’t will go the way of the Dodo bird.

Walmart gets this, and so do a handful of AI Appliers, the companies that apply AI to better optimize their businesses.

The fact is, the early adopters of AI are already becoming more efficient and profitable. And we’re only at the beginning stages of this process.

If this message sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve heard similar versions from Eric Fry and Luke Lango. All our experts are banging the drum on this next evolution of AI.

We’re seeing an investment line in the sand between the companies that are applying AI to increase revenue, make smarter capital allocation decisions, and reduce costs… and those that are falling behind as technology races past them.

It’s worth doing a deep dive into the companies in your portfolio to make sure they’re implementing AI effectively.

For more on the AI Appliers Louis likes today – specifically, in the wake of the emergence of DeepSeek – you can check out his free research video right here.

Why the potential agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. on access to critical rare minerals is about AI

According to President Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will travel to Washington tomorrow to sign an agreement on sharing Ukraine’s rare earth minerals with the U.S. in exchange for greater U.S. security guarantees against Russia.

This would boost U.S.’s efforts to solidify its tech/AI supply chain away from China.

You see, “rare earth” minerals and metals are needed to make high-tech products – notably AI. But they’re also key for the green energy transition, a bevy of consumer electronics, infrastructure, and weaponry.

Ukraine has about 5% of the world’s rare earth deposits, according to a 2022 report by Ukraine’s association of geologists.

China has the largest volume of deposits and is behind most of the global processing.

Here’s the Center for Strategic & International Studies:

At present China produces 60 percent of the world’s rare earths but processes nearly 90 percent, which means that it is importing rare earths from other countries and processing them.

This has given China a near monopoly…

China announced a ban of rare earth extraction and separation technologies on December 21, 2023.

This has significant implications for U.S. national, economic, and rare earth security.

Rare earth elements—a group of 17 metals—are used in defense technologies, including missiles, lasers, vehicle-mounted systems such as tanks, and military communications…

Bottom line: This potential deal would be a big step toward the U.S. insulating itself from China in the AI race.

Finally, here’s something for bruised crypto investors to hold onto as prices slump

On Wednesday, Bitcoin entered an official bear market, as defined by a 20% pullback from the most recent high. Many altcoins are down far more.

In times like these, Bitcoin investors might find solace by focusing more on adoption and less on price.

After all, as a loose parallel, in the same way that a stock’s price eventually mirrors the quality of the underlying company’s earnings, Bitcoin’s price has, historically, mirrored the degree of its global adoption. And on that note, yesterday brought encouraging news.

Block (formerly “Square”) is officially rolling out its “Bitcoin inheritance” product.

Here’s CNBC:

What happens to your bitcoin when you die?

While traditional financial institutions allow for the seamless transfer of stocks, mutual funds and retirement plans, bitcoin’s self-custodial nature makes inheritance and estate planning inherently thorny. 

Coinbase requires probate court documents and specific will designations before releasing funds, while physical wallets offer little to no support, potentially leaving all that digital value stuck on a private key.

Jack Dorsey’s Block says it’s created a fix, and the company is now bringing it to market…

Block’s Bitkey self-custody bitcoin wallet [has] an inheritance feature that lets users set a beneficiary for their bitcoin holdings, creating a simple system for transferring the digital currency in the case of death.

This is just another piece of evidence demonstrating Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption. And that suggests higher prices out on the horizon.

To be clear, perhaps Bitcoin’s new bear market will turn into a real bruiser, and we have far lower to go. But even if that’s the case, history shows that this asset is fantastic at rising from the dead and proving the naysayers wrong.

We’ll keep you updated on all these stories here in the Digest.

Have a good evening,

Jeff Remsburg

Written by Steven Dooley, Head of Market Insights, and Shier Lee Lim, Lead FX and Macro Strategist

Global markets weaken led by tech shares

The Australian dollar was the biggest loser overnight after US president Donald Trump warned of another round of 10% tariffs on Chinese goods entering the US and said tariffs on Mexico and China would be introduced from next week.

The tariff news hit already shaky US markets with tech stocks leading the losses as AI chipmaker Nvidia fell 8.5% despite a strong earnings report.

The tech-focused Nasdaq fell 2.8%, the S&P 500 lost 1.6% while the Dow Jones index lost 0.5%.

The AUD/USD fell 1.2% with the pair at three-week lows – a sharp turnaround from the two-month highs seen at the start of the week.

The NZD/USD lost 1.1% with the pair now down 2.5% from last week’s highs.

Inflation fears support EUR

In Europe, the euro and British pound were both sharply lower.

Looking forward, today we see the release of the Euro Area ECB Consumer Expectations Survey.

Since their September 2024 lows, the 1y and 3y forward median inflation predictions have increased. Currently, they are 2.8% and 2.4%, respectively.

In order to prevent inflation expectations from rising and running the danger of de-anchoring, the ECB will be regularly monitoring them.

Even though we think that the impact of US tariffs and Europe’s retaliatory tariffs on European inflation would be minimal, consumer inflation expectations might nonetheless rise slightly as a result.

In APAC, the euro’s been mixed, down near three-year lows versus the Singapore dollar, but mostly stronger against the Australian dollar.

USD/SGD, USD/CNH jump on tariff news

The overnight moves in the US dollar saw big shifts in Asia FX, with regional pairs highly sensitive to news around tariffs.

The USD/SGD jumped 0.7% as it neared the 1.3500 level, while USD/CNH gained 0.5% towards 7.3000.

Over the weekend, China’s official PMI will be made public. Given the pent-up demand for the consumer trade-in program, we anticipate that the official manufacturing PMI will increase from 49.1 in January to 50.2 in February.

As USD/CNH recovers from support, further upward momentum is possible.

Aussie dollar limbo – how low can you go-go?

Table: seven-day rolling currency trends and trading ranges  

Key global risk events

Calendar: 24 February – 1 March  

All times AEDT

Have a question? [email protected]

*The FX rates published are provided by Convera’s Market Insights team for research purposes only. The rates have a unique source and may not align to any live exchange rates quoted on other sites. They are not an indication of actual buy/sell rates, or a financial offer.

New bimetallic circulating commemorative:

“Saarland“

TECHNICAL DATA
External ring: copper-nickel
Center disc: nickel-brass, nickel and nickel-brass three layers
Diameter: 25.75 mm
Weight: 8.50 g
Thickness: 2.20 mm



(news from Eddy Reynaert)
(image from Peter Kaminsky, eBay seller monedapeter)

Published on February 27th, 2025 by Bob Ciura

Passive income stocks help you build rising income for retirement and/or financial freedom. Passive income stocks are meant to be purchased once and never sold.

The beauty of earning passive income is that it allows investors to generate income for doing almost nothing.

The average dividend yield in the S&P 500 Index remains low at just 1.3%. As a result, income investors should focus on higher-yielding securities, if they want additional income from their stock portfolios.

With this in mind, we compiled a list of high dividend stocks with dividend yields above 5%. You can download your free copy of the high dividend stocks list by clicking on the link below:

 

This article will discuss 10 passive income stocks with current yields over 6%.

Importantly, these 10 stocks have durable competitive advantages and strong underlying earnings, which support their dividends.

These 10 passive income stocks also have dividend payout ratios at or below 70%, which indicates a sustainable dividend right now.

The 10 passive income stocks are listed below by current dividend yield, in ascending order.

Table of Contents

You can instantly jump to any specific section of the article by using the links below:

Passive Income Stock #10: Newtek One Inc. (NEWT)

Newtek One provides financial and business services to the small- and medium-sized business market in the United States.

What makes NewTek a unique company is that a good portion of its income is derived from subsidiaries that provide a wide array of business services to its large client base.

The company also gets a significant amount of its income from being an issuer of SBA (Small Business Administration loans), which only very few BDCs are licensed to do. This is not your typical BDC that only generates income from interest rate spreads, but also from a much wider range of small business services.

On November 6th, 2024, Newtek reported its Q3 results for the period ending September 30th, 2024. This was the third quarter of the second year of Newtek reporting as a financial holding company following its completion of the National Bank of New York City acquisition.

For the quarter, the company produced a net income of $11.9 million, or $0.45 per share. This compares to net income of $10.9 million, or $0.43 per share, for the prior-year period.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on NEWT (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Passive Income Stock #9: Verizon Communications (VZ)

Verizon Communications was created by a merger between Bell Atlantic Corp and GTE Corp in June 2000. Verizon is one of the largest wireless carriers in the country.

Wireless contributes three-quarters of all revenues, and broadband and cable services account for about a quarter of sales. The company’s network covers ~300 million people and 98% of the U.S.

On January 24th, 2025, Verizon announced fourth quarter and full year results. For the quarter, revenue grew 1.7% to $35.7 billion, which beat estimates by $360 million.

Source: Investor Presentation

Adjusted earnings-per-share of $1.10 compared favorably to $1.08 in the prior year and was in-line with expectations. For the year, grew 0.6% to $134.8 billion while adjusted earnings-per-share $4.59 compared to $4.71 in 2023.

For the quarter, Verizon had postpaid phone net additions of 568K, which was better than the 449K net additions the company had in the same period last year. Retail postpaid net additions totaled 426K.

Wireless retail postpaid phone churn rate remains low at 0.89%. Wireless revenue grew 3.1% to $20.0 billion while the Consumer segment increased 2.2% to $27.6 billion.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on VZ (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Passive Income Stock #8: Edison International (EIX)

Edison International is a renewable energy company that is active in energy generation and distribution. It also operates an energy services and a technologies business. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Rosemead, CA.

On October 29, 2024, Edison International reported its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2024.

The company delivered a GAAP net income of $516 million, or $1.33 per diluted share, marking a substantial increase from $155 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, in the same quarter last year.

On an adjusted basis, Edison achieved core earnings of $582 million, or $1.51 per diluted share, up from $531 million, or $1.38 per diluted share, in Q3 2023.

Revenue for the quarter was $5.20 billion, reflecting a 10.61% year-over-year growth and surpassing expectations by $192.39 million.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on Edison International (EIX) (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Passive Income Stock #7: Ford Motor Co. (F)

Ford Motor Company was first incorporated in 1903 and in the past 120 years, it has become one of the world’s largest automakers. It operates a large financing business as well as its core manufacturing division, which produces a popular assortment of cars, trucks, and SUVs.

Ford posted fourth quarter and full-year earnings on February 5th, 2025, and results were better than expected. Adjusted earnings-per-share came to 39 cents, which was seven cents ahead of estimates.

Revenue was up almost 5% year-over-year for the quarter to $48.2 billion, which also beat estimates by $5.37 billion. The fourth quarter was the highest revenue total the company has ever produced.

Ford Blue increased 4.2% to $27.3 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, beating estimates of $25.9 billion. Model e revenue was down 13% year-over-year to $1.4 billion, $400 million less than expected.

Ford Pro revenue was up 5.3% to $16.2 billion, beating estimates for $15.6 billion.

For this year, Ford expects full-year adjusted EBIT of $7 to $8.5 billion, and for adjusted free cash flow of $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion, with capex of $8 to $9.5 billion.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on Ford (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Passive Income Stock #6: AES Corp. (AES)

The AES (Applied Energy Services) Corporation was founded in 1981 as an energy consulting company. It now has businesses in 14 countries and a portfolio of approximately 160 generation facilities.

AES produces power through various fuel types, such as gas, renewables, coal, and oil/diesel. The company has more than 36,000 Gross MW in operation.

AES Corporation reported third quarter results on October 31st, 2024, for the period ending September 30th, 2024. Adjusted EPS rose 18% to $0.71 for Q3 2024.

The company constructed and acquired 2.8 GW of renewable energy year-to-date, and is on course to add 3.6 GW of new projects online in 2024.

Source: Investor Presentation

Leadership expects to achieve the high end of its 2024 guidance for adjusted EPS of $1.87 to $1.97 for the full fiscal year. Additionally, the company reaffirms it also still expects annual EPS growth of 7% to 9% from 2023 through 2027.

The company is actively engaged in developing and acquiring new energy projects.

It currently has a backlog of 12.7 GW of renewables. AES expects to complete the majority of these projects through 2027.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on AES (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Passive Income Stock #5: Enterprise Products Partners LP (EPD)

Enterprise Products Partners was founded in 1968. It is structured as a Master Limited Partnership, or MLP, and operates as an oil and gas storage and transportation company.

Enterprise Products has a large asset base which consists of nearly 50,000 miles of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, and refined products pipelines.

It also has storage capacity of more than 250 million barrels. These assets collect fees based on volumes of materials transported and stored.

Source: Investor Presentation

Enterprise Products Partners reported strong fourth-quarter 2024 earnings, delivering $1.6 billion in net income, or $0.74 per common unit, representing a 3% increase over the prior year.

Adjusted cash flow from operations rose 4% to $2.3 billion, with the company declaring a quarterly distribution of $0.535 per unit, a 4% year-over-year increase.

Enterprise also continued its capital return strategy, repurchasing 2.1 million common units during the quarter and 7.6 million units for the full year, bringing total buybacks under its program to $1.1 billion.

For the full year, the company posted $9.9 billion in EBITDA, moving 12.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on EPD (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Passive Income Stock #4: Midland States Bancorp (MSBI)

Midland States Bancorp (MSBI) is the holding company of Midland States Bank, a community bank that was founded in 1881 and is headquartered in Effingham, Illinois.

It operates 53 branches in Illinois and Missouri and provides a wide range of banking products and services to individuals, businesses, municipalities and other entities. Midland States Bancorp has total assets of $7.5 billion.

In late January, Midland States Bancorp reported (1/23/25) results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. Its net interest margin expand sequentially from 3.10% to 3.19% and its net interest income grew 2%.

However, the bank incurred massive charge-offs on loans ($103 million) and provisions for loan losses ($93.5 million).

As a result, it switched from earnings-per-share of $0.74 to an excessive loss per share of -$2.52, missing the analysts’ consensus by $3.19.

Midland States Bancorp has acquired seven smaller banks since 2009. As a result, it grew its asset base by 12% per year on average over the last nine years.

It had also grown its earnings-per-share by 6.9% per year on average during 2015-2023 but it incurred a loss in 2024 due to massive loan charge-offs and high deposit costs, which resulted from high interest rates.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on MSBI (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Passive Income Stock #3: Whirlpool Corp. (WHR)

Whirlpool Corporation, founded in 1955 and headquartered in Benton Harbor, MI, is a leading home appliance company with top brands Whirlpool, KitchenAid, and Maytag.

Roughly half of the company’s sales are in North America, but Whirlpool does business around the world under twelve principal brand names. The company, which employs about 44,000 people, generated nearly $17 billion in sales in 2024.

Source: Investor Presentation

On January 29th, 2025, Whirpool reported fourth quarter 2024 results. Sales for the quarter totaled $4.14 billion, down 18.7% from fourth quarter 2023.

Ongoing earnings per diluted share was $4.57 for the quarter, 19% higher than the previous year’s $3.85 per share.

Whirlpool issued its 2025 guidance, seeing ongoing earnings-per-share coming in at approximately $10.00 on revenue of $15.8 billion.

Additionally, Whirlpool expects cash provided by operating activities to total roughly $1 billion, with $500 to $600 million in free cash flow.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on WHR (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Passive Income Stock #2: MPLX LP (MPLX)

MPLX LP is a Master Limited Partnership that was formed by the Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) in 2012. In 2019, MPLX acquired Andeavor Logistics LP.

The business operates in two segments:

• Logistics and Storage, which relates to crude oil and refined petroleum products
• Gathering and Processing, which relates to natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs)

In early February, MPLX reported (2/4/25) financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. Adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow (DCF) per share grew 9% and 7%, respectively, primarily thanks to higher tariff rates and increased volumes of liquids and gas.

MPLX maintained a healthy consolidated debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 3.1x and a solid distribution coverage ratio of 1.5x.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on MPLX (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Passive Income Stock #1: Western Union Company (WU)

The Western Union Company is the world leader in the business of domestic and international money transfers. The company has a network of approximately 550,000 agents globally and operates in more than 200 countries.

About 90% of agents are outside of the US. Western Union operates two business segments, Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) and Other (bill payments in the US and Argentina).

Western Union reported mixed Q4 2024 results on February 4th, 2025. Revenue increased 1% and diluted GAAP earnings per share increased to $1.14 in the quarter, compared to $0.35 in the prior year on higher revenue and a $0.75 tax benefit on reorganizing the international operations.

Revenue rose, despite challenges in Iraq on higher Banded Digital transactions and Consumer Services volumes.

CMT revenue fell 4% year-over-year even with 3% higher transaction volumes. Branded Digital Money Transfer CMT revenues increased 7% as transactions rose 13%. Digital revenue is now 25% of total CMT revenue and 32% of transactions.

Consumer Services revenue rose 56% on new products and expansion of retail foreign exchange offerings. The firm launched a media network business, expanded retail foreign exchange, and grew retail money orders.

Click here to download our most recent Sure Analysis report on WU (preview of page 1 of 3 shown below):

Final Thoughts & Additional Reading

If you are interested in finding high-quality dividend growth stocks and/or other high-yield securities and income securities, the following Sure Dividend resources will be useful:

High-Yield Individual Security Research

Other Sure Dividend Resources

I remember it like it was yesterday.

My son was an engineering student at Stanford when one of their research teams debuted an autonomous race car named Shelley.

As a self-professed car guy, my interest was immediately piqued.

It was a modified Audi TTS – a beautiful machine with perfect handling. The students even upgraded it with ceramic brakes since they fade slower and are easier to program.

But what really caught my attention wasn’t the car.

It was what powered it.

This self-driving project was made possible by semiconductor chips from NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA).

Maybe you’ve heard of ‘em.

I say that tongue-in-cheek, of course, because practically the whole world knows NVIDIA by now.

My introduction to NVIDIA could have happened to anyone. It was one of life’s happy coincidences. But after 40-plus years in this business, I’ve learned that keeping your eyes and ears open is key if you want to be a great investor. You never know when an opportunity is right in front of you.

By that same token, NVIDIA didn’t become the household name it is today because of self-driving cars.

Instead, it took advantage of another happy coincidence – one that changed the future of computing.

Back in 2012, a PhD student named Alex Krizhevsky used NVIDIA’s graphics processing units (GPUs) to train a deep neural network called AlexNet.

This model didn’t require a single line of traditional programming. It taught itself to recognize images. And when it crushed the competition in the ImageNet challenge, it proved that GPUs were far superior to CPUs (central processing units) for AI workloads.

That’s when everything changed.

Practically overnight, NVIDIA’s chips became must-haves for AI.

The AI Revolution was on.

Fast forward to today, and NVIDIA remains at the heart of the AI Revolution. But after such a historic run, investors had one big question ahead of its latest earnings report, which was released yesterday: Can the company keep up the momentum?

Because this time, the stakes were a little different…

• The rise of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI firm, has raised concerns about competition and the need for high-powered chips. (I discussed what happened – and why DeepSeek isn’t a threat – in this article.)
• Investors are growing concerned about Big Tech’s AI spending habits.
• Production delays in NVIDIA’s new Blackwell chip had some investors on edge.
• And as Big Tech companies look to make their own AI chips for internal use, Wall Street was watching closely.

So, in today’s Market 360, let’s break down NVIDIA’s latest results. We’ll dive into what they mean for the AI Revolution, and more importantly – how you can take advantage of the next stage of AI investing… even if you missed the first wave.

Written by the Market Insights Team

Dip buyers save the day

Boris Kovacevic – Global Macro Strategist

Yesterday’s market session was split into two distinct phases, as investors began the week by selling risk assets amid growing concerns of a U.S. slowdown. Recession fears intensified following weaker-than-expected leading indicators from the Chicago and Dallas Federal Reserves. U.S. equities fell, bond yields plunged, and the dollar followed suit, pressured by deteriorating sentiment.

However, dip buyers stepped in during the U.S. session, helping equities and the Greenback recover some losses. Overall, the impact of the day’s news and data appeared to be net-neutral for markets. That said, recent growth concerns could become a bigger problem for risk assets if soft economic data persists, making secondary indicators increasingly important to monitor.

The dollar ended the day slightly lower after briefly touching its weakest level since mid-December. As we highlighted in our feature for Fortune, the dollar remains under pressure for two key reasons: the absence of new tariffs reducing safe-haven demand and the Fed’s pause being linked to rising inflation expectations rather than strong macro data. With recent data reaffirming these trends, the dollar has struggled to benefit from steady rates, currently sitting at its lowest level this year, down 3.4% from January’s peak.

For a meaningful rebound, dollar bulls will need either stronger U.S. economic data or renewed tariff enforcement by Trump. The latter could materialize today, as Trump reiterated overnight that tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods will be implemented once the delay expires.

New government, old problems

Boris Kovacevic – Global Macro Strategist

The euro briefly climbed above $1.05, reaching its highest level in nearly a month before retreating to $1.0460. Investors see the potential for increased fiscal spending, particularly in defense, as a way to support economic activity. However, fiscal constraints may limit the impact, as political hurdles complicate efforts to boost spending. Meanwhile, business sentiment is showing cautious optimism, though immediate economic conditions remain subdued. We will continue to monitor political developments and key macro releases, as they will play a crucial role in shaping EUR/USD’s near-term direction.

Following the German election outcome, Chancellor-designate Friedrich Merz is actively engaging with the Social Democrats (SPD) to accelerate defense spending in response to escalating geopolitical tensions. However, the rise of fringe parties, securing a minority with blocking rights, has complicated efforts to amend the constitutional “debt brake”, which restricts government borrowing. To navigate these constraints, Merz is considering pushing reforms through the current parliament before the new session begins on March 24. These political maneuvers have added uncertainty to the euro’s performance, as markets assess their potential economic impact.

On the macro front, the Ifo Institute’s latest survey indicates a modest improvement in business expectations, with the index rising to 85.4 in February, up from 84.3 in January, and exceeding forecasts of 85.0. However, current conditions worsened, highlighting that while businesses are hopeful about the future, they continue to struggle with present challenges..

Pound running into resistance

Boris Kovacevic – Global Macro Strategist

The pound climbed to a nine-week high of $1.2690 before encountering resistance near $1.27. Strong UK data and persistent inflation in recent weeks continue to provide support, leaving room for further gains—especially if U.S. economic momentum slows in parallel.

However, geopolitical risks remain a key factor. Trump’s tariff agenda, while not directly targeting the UK, could disrupt global trade flows, particularly with China and the eurozone, leading to potential spillover effects for Britain. Meanwhile, elevated UK inflation still supports GBP, but a renewed rise in gilt yields—back toward January highs—could shift rate expectations from a tailwind to a headwind if fiscal concerns resurface.

This morning, the pound is trading in the lower $1.26 area, as a risk-off mood takes hold following Trump’s overnight comments. The administration is set to raise tariffs on major trading partners and is considering further restrictions on China’s access to advanced chips, adding fresh uncertainty to markets..

Dollar continues to decline

Table: 7-day currency trends and trading ranges

Key global risk events

Calendar: February 24 -28

All times are in GMT

Have a question? [email protected]

*The FX rates published are provided by Convera’s Market Insights team for research purposes only. The rates have a unique source and may not align to any live exchange rates quoted on other sites. They are not an indication of actual buy/sell rates, or a financial offer.