These stocks pay between 3.2% and 6.7% in dividends.
What’s better than a high-yielding dividend stock? A high-yielding dividend stock that’s trading at a dirt-cheap price. As long as the underlying business is in strong shape, buying a cheap dividend stock can help maximize your long-term profits as you benefit from both the stock rising in value, assuming it rallies, and from the dividend income you’ll earn from holding it.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY 1.30%), Verizon Communications (VZ 0.90%), and ExxonMobil (XOM 1.15%) are not only cheap, but they pay you more than double the S&P 500 average of 1.4%. Here’s why these dividend stocks are worth buying right now.
Bristol Myers Squibb: 4.8%
Shares of Bristol Myers Squibb have been under pressure over the past 12 months, falling by 30%. Although this is a top healthcare company to invest in with a market cap of around $100 billion, investors are concerned for multiple reasons. The first is its high debt load of more than $40 billion, which makes the stock unattractive, particularly as interest rates are high. Secondly, there’s also the concern of what lays down the road for Bristol Myers, which has multiple top-selling drugs losing patent protection in the years ahead.
Those are valid concerns for investors. But that’s not enough of a reason to ignore the stock, as many investors have been doing of late. Patent cliffs are nothing new in the world of healthcare, and it’s a risk that any healthcare stock is going to face sooner or later. The name of the game is innovation. If Bristol Myers didn’t have a plan, that would be concerning — but that isn’t the case. It has been investing in new products, and by 2029 it projects its new product portfolio will bring in $25 billion in revenue. That’s significant when you consider that in 2023 its total revenue was just over $45 billion. It may be a bumpy road for Bristol Myers, but this is a company that has been around since the 1800s — and it has faced a lot of adversity over the years.
Its payout ratio remains manageable at 60% of earnings, and its free cash flow totaled $12.7 billion last year. This is still a healthy business, and its 4.8% yield looks safe. If the company can get back to growing and its financials improve, the debt load should also come down, making Bristol Myers a more attractive option for risk-averse investors in the process.
In the meantime, the stock’s incredibly low forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of less than seven, which is based on analyst expectations, compensates investors for that risk in a big way, giving them a good margin of safety in case things go worse than expected.
Verizon Communications: 6.7%
Investors can collect an even higher yield from telecom giant Verizon Communications. At 6.7%, this yield is more than four times the S&P 500 average. This is an unusually high yield from Verizon — normally it’s around 4%. But high interest rates have given income investors other options to choose from.
As one of the top telecom companies in the country, Verizon’s strong industry position makes it a fairly safe stock to own. Once interest rates come down, there’s likely to be a rally to come for the stock, which trades at a forward P/E of less than nine.
The company’s financial performance shouldn’t give investors much concern either. In 2023 the business did underwhelm a bit, with an operating revenue of $134 billion falling by 2.1% year over year. But the positive is that free cash flow rose from $14.1 billion in the previous year to $18.7 billion. And analysts project that revenue for its main segment, wireless service, will grow by between 2% and 3.5% this year.
Verizon is a solid dividend stock that could make for a great bargain buy right now.
ExxonMobil: 3.2%
ExxonMobil has been a fantastic dividend stock to own over the years. Not only does it offer an above-average yield of 3.2%, but the oil and gas giant has been raising its dividend payments for decades. This could be an ideal stock to buy right now.
In the long run, it looks likely that there will be drop in demand for oil as electric vehicles become more prominent. But it could still be a long time before demand dips dramatically. According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), global demand for oil could still rise to 110 million barrels per day by 2045, up from 103 million this past year.
OPEC obviously has an incentive to want demand to grow, but even if it doesn’t and demand slows down, there could still be around 100 million barrels per day needed for years to come. And a top producer such as Exxon is in great shape as it focuses on efficiencies and bringing its costs down; it will be better equipped to face adversity than smaller producers. It’s showing no signs of concern, either. Last year the company announced plans to merge with Pioneer Natural Resources, in a move that would double its footprint in the Permian, creating a great growth opportunity for the business.
In each of the past three years, Exxon has generated more than $20 billion in profit. Although it faces an uncertain future over the very long haul, for the next 10+ years, this could still make for a solid dividend stock to own. At only 13 times its estimated future earnings, it’s a cheap stock to buy today.
David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bristol Myers Squibb. The Motley Fool recommends Pioneer Natural Resources and Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
