2 High-Quality Dividend Stocks Under $50 for Retirees

When you’ve entered into your golden years, the last thing you want to do is take excessive risk in your investment portfolio. But if you are willing to consider a couple of high-quality dividend stocks, you could potentially increase your income streams while setting yourself up for the possibility of capital appreciation too. Whether you’re looking to supplement the income you are already receiving from a 401(k) or would like to create an additional income stream to cover everyday expenses, these two stocks fit the criteria as high-quality dividend stocks under $50 for retirees. 

As a bonus, both of these stocks are also a part of the portfolio of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. If they are good enough for Buffett, who is currently 94 years old, they surely should be good enough for a retiree looking to add high-quality dividend stocks for under $50 each. These stocks include oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) and consumer staple stock Kraft Heinz (Nasdaq: KHC). Both Occidental and Kraft Heinz are major investments for Buffett, representing 5% and 3.8% of his portfolio holdings, respectively. Let’s get right into it.  

Occidental Petroleum 

At just over $41 per share, Houston, Texas-based Occidental Petroleum makes the cut as a high-quality dividend stock for under $50 for retirees. Occidental has a dividend yield of 2.3%, which is a sweet spot among dividend-paying companies—not so high that it’s excessively risky and not so low that it’s uninteresting. In early 2025, Occidental raised its quarterly cash dividend by 9% to $0.24 per share. The company has been paying interrupted dividends for over four decades, giving assurance to investors in their retirement years that the checks should continue coming in the mail.

Last year, Occidental made a major acquisition, scooping up CrownRock in a blockbuster deal worth nearly $12 billion, taking on billions of dollars worth of debt to bankroll the transaction. Occidental announced it achieved its near-term debt repayment target of $4.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. In its Q1 2025 results, the company also announced it had whittled down its debt by another $2.3 billion as it sits on operating cash flow of $2.1 billion. Meanwhile, Occidental continues to hold high-quality assets in its portfolio that it actively explores.

Buffett has been adding shares of OXY to Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio as recently as early 2025, when he tacked on 763,000 shares. Wall Street analysts like the stock too, as evidenced by a recent move by Bank of America Securities. The analyst firm in recent days increased its price target on the stock to $44 from $42 per share with a “neutral” rating attached. The price target suggests there’s runway for gains in the ballpark of 7%. Most analysts have a “hold” rating on OXY stock and have an average price target of just shy of $48 per share.

Kraft Heinz 

One of Buffett’s strategies is to only invest in stocks whose business models he understands. Perhaps that explains why he has piled into shares of consumer staple stock Kraft Heinz, making him the company’s largest shareholder. As the maker of popular food brands like Jell-O, ketchup, Philadelphia Original Cream Cheese and more, Kraft Heinz products can be found in the households of hundreds of millions of Americans. One of the reasons the stock is a high-quality pick is for its potential resilience throughout changing economic cycles given the nature of its products.

Kraft Heinz pays a dividend of $0.40 per share, for a high dividend yield of roughly 6.1%. The food-brand company has been paying steady dividends for years, including a special dividend in 2015 when Kraft combined with H.J. Heinz. Later, Kraft suffered a dividend cut in 2019 amid a bevy of regulatory setbacks, since which time its cash distribution has remained steady – neither increasing nor decreasing in size. Meanwhile, the company has been focused on slashing its debt load of $21.6 billion and strengthening its balance sheet. Kraft Heinz is in the midst of a $3 billion share buyback program that will unfold through 2026.

At approximately $26 per share, Kraft stock has languished in 2025 and even over the past year. The company has been facing headwinds both internally and externally including a weight-loss trend that has hurt demand for some of its food products. However, Kraft Heinz has some notable tailwinds too, not least the fact that it generates close to 75% of its revenue in the United States, counting Walmart (NYSE: WMT) as a major customer. 

With recently appointed Carlos Abrams-Rivera at the helm, Kraft Heinz has been shifting its strategy toward rising capital expenditures and expanding distribution channels. In May 2025, the company announced the evaluation of “strategic potential transactions to unlock shareholder value,” adding intrigue to the investment. In the same announcement, Kraft Heinz revealed that Berkshire Hathaway would be giving up its seats on the board of directors. As a defensive play, Kraft Heinz offers investors a mix of stability through its dividend and volatility in the share price.

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