13,650 dividend stocks trade on various US exchanges, and the dividend stock with the highest yield right now is Site Centers Corp, paying a whopping 375.96% Dividend Yield. But, just because it has a high yield, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a buy.
In this article, I’ll cover the highest-yielding dividend stocks worth buying. You’ll learn my process for finding quality companies that pay a higher dividend so that you can do it again and again in the future. I’ll also tell you a little bit about each company and why I like them.
Finding The Highest Yielding Dividend Stocks: Methodology
Finding high-yield stocks requires us to also look at other metrics, like whether Wall Street analysts like the stock. Is the dividend stable? In the case of Site Centers, it’s not a company I’d be buying—at least not today. And if you look at the image below, the stock dropped almost 50% in September.
Dividend yields and stock prices are correlated, if the stock drops, the yield goes up, and vice versa. Worse yet, if you bought this stock on yield alone, you’d be in for a surprise because, in the coming quarters, it’ll likely get cut. The company is selling off assets, restructuring investments, and so on. These types of companies are generally not appropriate for most investors.
So it goes without saying that if you’re looking to buy high-yielding dividend stocks, you’d want to buy a quality company, one with healthy financials, growing earnings, and a high rating.
So how exactly does someone look for companies like that? You could manually do the research, company by company, or you could do what I do and use a stock screener. A stock screener is like a search engine, but, for stocks.
Metrics to Find High Yield Dividend Stocks
When looking to buy high-yielding dividend stocks, you want to find quality companies—companies with growing earnings, stable dividends, and buy ratings from analysts.
Analysts are professionals who follow companies carefully so that they’re aware of all the ins and outs. They rate the stock on a scale of strong sell to strong buy. So, it’s natural that we want companies that rate higher.
Another metric we need to look at is the number of analysts. If one analyst gives a stock a strong buy rating, then okay. Maybe you think, what’s the story here, are they related in some way?
If you compare that with, say, another company with 50 or more analysts, then maybe you’re not so concerned about bias.
Don’t Forget Earnings Health
With analysts out of the way, we should also check the company’s earnings to ensure growth.
One way to check a company’s earnings health is to analyze its EPS. EPS is a company’s total net profit divided by the number of shares in circulation.
The higher the EPS, the more profitable the company. This works with any company. But there’s an easier way than looking up and comparing a company’s last five years of EPS: We can screen for companies with five-year earnings growth over a certain amount.
I’ll add 5-yr earnings growth in the screener, and set it to high. That means we’ll only get companies that have grown their earnings 30% over the last five years.
I’ll also add number of analysts, analyst ratings, and dividend yield. However, I have to clarify that the dividend yield in this screener is set for the trailing twelve months (ttm), which means it accounts for the payments for the last year, not future ones. This means I’ll have to do more digging once I get the results, but that’s precisely why stock research should be thorough.
I’ll look for forward dividend yields, which are calculated by taking the company’s latest quarterly dividend payment, multiplying it by four, and then dividing it by the stock’s current trading price.
Forward yields assume the following three payments are the same as the latest ones, which is the case for consistent dividend stocks.
I’ll set the number of analysts to “very high” because we want many analysts covering the stock. I’ll set the minimum rating to moderate buy, including buy and strong buy. I’ll leave the dividend yield blank to sort the results by dividend.
Now I’ll hit “see results,” and see what comes up.
3 Highest Yielding Dividend Stocks
322 companies with growing earnings and buy ratings came up on my list. If I click the 5-year earnings column, we can see which companies grew their earnings the most. But, for this article, we’re looking at highest yields, so we’ll sort by dividend yield.
Right out of the gate, Lennar Corp’s TTM yield is elevated because it spun off its Millrose Properties segment. Also, Nutrien comes up on the list, but their latest dividend payment renders the forward yield around 3%, so I’ll exclude it as well.
I’ll also bump Civitas down to 2nd place and discuss why when I dive into the company.
Gaming & Leisure
The first company on our list of highest-yielding stocks to buy is Gaming & Leisure Properties Inc. (NASDAQ:GLPI). This real estate investment trust owns and leases casino properties to gaming operators across the United States. The company generates revenue through long-term lease agreements with major gaming brands, ensuring stable cash flow. Of course, it pays regular dividends, which today work out to around a 6% forward yield, which is above average.
Civitas Resources Inc
Next is Civitas Resources (NYSE:CIVI), an energy company that produces oil and natural gas in Colorado and is one of the state’s largest pure-play oil and gas producers.
Earlier, I mentioned I bumped it down to number 2, here’s why. In the past, Civitas paid regular dividends and special or extra dividends based on how well the company performed in the past quarter.
However, its last dividend payout did not include an extra dividend amount, and given its Q4’24 financials, I’m unsure about its dividend announcement later this month. But despite not paying the extra dividend, the company still pays enough to make it to the top two with a 5.97% forward yield.
Healthpeak Properties Inc.
Healthpeak Properties Inc. (NYSE:DOC) is another real estate investment trust that operates healthcare-related properties, including life sciences, medical offices, and senior housing. The REIT holds properties throughout the United States, and some of its most prominent properties are in California and Massachusetts. Healthpeak Properties pays around a 5.94% forward yield.
Other High-Yielding Companies to Consider
Here are the other companies that appeared on the list. Again, remember that these results are based on trailing twelve-month dividends, so be sure to look for one-off special dividends, as these might not reflect yields going forward. Feel free to discuss this in my Discord group!
- Permian Resources Corp (NYSE: PR),
- Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital Inc (NYSE: HASI),
- Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE: CNQ),
- Vici Properties Inc (NYSE: VICI),
- Murphy Oil Corp (NYSE: MUR),
- Eversource Energy (NYSE: ES),
- Regions Financial Corp (NYSE: RF),
- Suncor Energy Inc (NYSE: SU),
- Oneok Inc (NYSE: OKE),
- Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ: FANG), and
- Patterson-UTI Energy Inc (NASDAQ: PTEN).
Final Thoughts
Finding high yield dividend stocks is one thing, but finding those worth adding to your portfolio is another story. Stocks that are highly rated and have growing earnings are a good place to start. Now, are these the only metrics to look at? No. You could always add RSI, which tells us if a company is over or undersold, or its price-to-earnings ratio, which tells us if it’s overvalued compared with its competitors.
Disclaimer: Author has no positions in the companies listed in this article.
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