2 Dividend Stocks to Supercharge Your Portfolio Right Now

Dividend Stocks Deliver While Crypto Sleeps—Here's Where to Park Your Cash

Forget waiting for the next crypto pump—these dividend giants actually pay you to hold them. While digital assets swing wildly, these established players cut consistent checks month after month.

The Boring Money Makers

Two sectors keep printing money regardless of market sentiment: utilities and consumer staples. These aren't sexy tech plays—they're the bedrock portfolios are built on. They power homes and stock pantries while paying shareholders handsomely for the privilege.

Yield Meets Stability

Unlike chasing memecoins hoping for a 100x, dividend investing provides predictable returns. These companies boast decades of payout increases—something no crypto project can claim. Their balance sheets withstand recessions, inflation, and whatever drama the Fed dreams up next.

The Bottom Line

Smart money balances speculation with substance. While crypto might make headlines, dividends actually make rent payments. Sometimes the best trade is the boring one that compounds quietly in the background—no wallet passwords required.

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1. Energy Transfer

Energy Transfer, one of the largest midstream companies in America, operates over 135,000 miles of pipeline across 44 states. It provides pipeline, storage, and terminal sizing services for natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil, and refined products. It's a master limited partnership (MLP) that pays distributions, which include a return of capital to its investors, instead of regular dividends, which don't include a return of capital.

It generates most of its revenue by charging upstream extraction companies and downstream refining companies "tolls" to use its pipelines. That business model is resistant to volatile commodity prices because those companies need those resources to keep flowing through its pipelines. Energy Transfer also acquired several of its industry peers over the past five years, and it's expanding its smaller business of liquefied natural gas exports to serve more overseas customers.

That stable business model enables it to generate steady profits and pay high distributions. In 2024, it paid $4.39 billion in total distributions, easily covered by its annualized distributable cash FLOW (DCF) of $8.36 billion. It currently pays a high forward yield of 7.6%.

From 2019 to 2024, its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% -- even as the pandemic, inflation, high interest rates, and geopolitical conflicts rattled the markets. From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect its adjusted EBITDA to rise at a CAGR of 5%. That's a rock-solid growth trajectory for a stock that trades at just eight times this year's adjusted EBITDA.

2. Verizon

Verizon, one of America's biggest telecom companies, serves 146.1 million wireless customers. But over the past few years, it struggled to consistently gain new wireless subscribers as its competitors ramped up their aggressive promotions and bundling strategies. The ongoing decline of its business wireline segment exacerbated that pressure.

That's why Verizon's stock slumped 25% over the past five years. But after that decline, it looks dirt cheap at 6.5 times this year's adjusted EBITDA. It also pays a hefty forward yield of 6%, while its low payout ratio of 63% gives it plenty of room for future dividend increases.

Some investors might be reluctant to buy Verizon's unloved stock, but it has plenty of irons in the fire. It's expanding its higher-growth broadband business with its Home Internet and FiOS fiber plans, and it expects to add more than 2.2 million new fiber subscribers after it closes its acquisition of next year.

It also plans to bundle more wireless services with its broadband plans, integrate more AI features into its 5G networks to attract more enterprise customers, and use its own internal AI tools to streamline its customer support and network deployment services. If those efforts pay off, analysts expect Verizon's adjusted EBITDA to grow at a CAGR of 3% from 2024 to 2027. That stable growth could make it a great safe-haven play for income investors again.