7 months ago
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Investing in dividend stocks can be a great way to build your passive income. Many companies pay a portion of their profits to investors via dividends.
While the average dividend stock yields around 1.5% these days (based on the S&P 500's yield), many offer even bigger payments. Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI), Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (NYSE: BIP), and Agree Realty (NYSE: ADC) stand out for their payouts. All four companies offer dividends yielding 4% or more. Further, they have excellent records of increasing their payments.
Piping passive income into your portfolio
Kinder Morgan currently yields more than 5%. The pipeline giant backs that high-yielding dividend with very stable cash flow. Roughly 68% comes from take-or-pay agreements and hedging contracts that pay the company a fixed rate regardless of volumes and commodity prices. Meanwhile, most of its remaining earnings come from assets that generate fee-based cash flow with limited fluctuations based on their volume exposure.
The company pays out about half of its stable cash flow in dividends. It retains the rest to fund its expansion while maintaining its strong balance sheet.
Kinder Morgan currently has $5.2 billion in high-return expansion projects underway that will grow its cash flow over the next few years. It also uses its financial flexibility to make accretive acquisitions (it bought STX Midstream for about $1.8 billion late last year). These growth catalysts should give it more fuel to increase its dividend. Kinder Morgan delivered its seventh consecutive year of dividend growth in 2024.
Your connection to a prodigious passive income stream
Verizon offers a dividend yield of more than 6% these days. The telecom giant recently delivered its 18th straight year of dividend growth. That's the longest current streak in the U.S. telecom sector.
The mobile and broadband company generates lots of cash. Its operating cash flow totaled $16.6 billion during the first half of this year, enough to cover its capital expenses ($8.1 billion) and dividend payments ($5.6 billion) with room to spare. It used that excess cash to strengthen its balance sheet.
Verizon's steadily improving balance sheet is enabling it to bolster its fiber business by acquiring Frontier in a $20 billion all-cash deal. That acquisition should eventually help grow its free cash flow, which should allow it to repay that debt. Meanwhile, its capital investments to grow its fiber and 5G businesses should also help increase its cash flow. These drivers should enable Verizon to continue extending its dividend growth streak in the coming years.
