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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):

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

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*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.