5 of the Highest-Yielding S&P 500 Stocks You Can Buy Now and Hold Forever

The S&P 500, or Standard & Poor’s 500, is a stock market index that tracks the performance of the 500 biggest companies in the United States. It is considered a top indicator of the U.S. stock market’s health. The venerable index is a market-capitalization-weighted index of the 500 leading publicly traded companies in the United States. Typically, larger companies significantly impact the index. The highest-yielding stocks in the index could be companies that can remain forever once added to a portfolio.

Investors love dividend stocks, especially the high-yield variety, because they offer a significant income stream and have massive total return potential. Total return includes interest, capital gains, dividends, and distributions realized over time. In other words, the total return on an investment or a portfolio consists of income and stock appreciation. For example, if you buy a stock at $20 that pays a 3% dividend and rises to $22 in a year, your total return is 13%. That is, 10% for the increase in stock price and 3% for the dividends paid.

We screened the S&P 500 looking for the highest-yielding stocks. Five stood out as perfect additions to a growth and income portfolio. Best of all, investors can buy them to hold forever to collect their hefty dividends and get some growth to fight inflation. All five are rated Buy at top Wall Street firms.

Dow

This company was spun out from DuPont in 2019, removed from the Dow Jones industrial average in November, and offers investors growth and income potential with a hefty 7.55% dividend. Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) is a leading materials science company, formed by the merger of Dow and DuPont in 2017 and subsequent spin-off in 2019.

The company is organized into three principal divisions:

• Performance Materials & Coatings
• Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure
• Packaging & Specialty Plastics

The company’s segments include Agricultural Sciences, which provides crop protection, seed/plant biotechnology products and technologies, urban pest management solutions, and healthy oils.

Consumer Solutions consists of:

• Consumer Care
• Dow Automotive Systems
• Dow Electronic Materials
• Consumer Solutions-Silicones businesses

Infrastructure Solutions consists of:

• Dow Building & Construction
• Dow Coating Materials
• Energy & Water Solutions
• Performance Monomers and Infrastructure Solutions-Silicones businesses

Performance Materials & Chemicals consists of Chlor-Alkali and Vinyl, Industrial Solutions and Polyurethanes businesses.

Performance Plastics consists of Dow Elastomers, Dow Electrical and Telecommunications, Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics

Altria

This tobacco company offers value investors a great entry point and a rich 7.03% dividend. Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) manufactures and sells smokable and oral tobacco products in the United States through its subsidiaries.

The company provides cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand, as well as:

• Cigars and pipe tobacco, principally under the Black & Mild and Middleton brands
• Moist smokeless tobacco and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands
• on! Oral nicotine pouches
• e-vapor products under the NJOY ACE brand

It sells its tobacco products primarily to wholesalers, including distributors and large retail organizations, such as chain stores.

Altria used to own over 10% of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer. Last year, the company sold 35 million of its 197 million shares through a global secondary offering. That represents 18% of its holdings but still leaves 8% of the outstanding shares in its back pocket. Altria also announced a $2.4 billion stock repurchase plan partially funded by the sale.

LyondellBasell

This blue-chip chemical giant offers a very dependable 7% dividend. LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (NYSE: LYB) operates as a chemical company in:

• The United States
• Germany
• Mexico
• Italy
• Poland
• France
• Japan
• China
• The Netherlands
• Internationally

The company operates in six segments:

• Olefins and Polyolefins-Americas
• Olefins and Polyolefins-Europe, Asia, International
• Intermediates and Derivatives
• Advanced Polymer Solutions
• Refining
• Technology

It produces and markets olefins and co-products, polyethylene and polypropylene, propylene oxide and derivatives, oxyfuels and related products, and intermediate chemicals, such as styrene monomer, acetyls, ethylene oxide, and ethylene glycol.

In addition, the company produces and markets compounding and solutions, including:

• Polypropylene compounds
• Engineered plastics, masterbatches
• Engineered composites, colors, and powders
• Advanced polymers, including catalloy and polybutene-1
• Refines heavy, high-sulfur crude oil, other crude oils, and refined products, including gasoline and distillates

Further, it develops and licenses chemical and polyolefin process technologies; manufactures and sells polyolefin catalysts; and serves food packaging, home furnishings, automotive components, and paints and coatings applications.

Crown Castle International

This top cell tower company offers incredible growth and income possibilities with a fat 6.46% dividend. Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE: CCI) owns, operates, and leases shared communications infrastructure.

Its core business is providing access, including space or capacity, to its shared communications infrastructure via long-term contracts in various forms, including
lease, license, sublease, and service agreements.

The company has two segments, Towers and Fiber, which include both small cells and fiber solutions

The Towers segment provides access, including space or capacity, to the Company’s more than 40,000 towers, which are geographically dispersed throughout the United States. The segment also reflects certain ancillary services relating to the Company’s towers, predominantly site development and installation services.

The Fiber segment provides access, including space or capacity, to the Company’s approximately 115,000 small cells on air or under contract and 90,000 route miles of fiber primarily supporting small cells and fiber solutions geographically dispersed throughout the United States.

Verizon

This top telecommunications company offers tremendous value, trading at 8.75 times estimated 2025 earnings and paying investors a strong 5.92% dividend. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) provides communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental entities worldwide. It operates in two segments: Consumer and Business.

The Consumer segment provides wireless services across the wireless networks in the United States under the Verizon and TracFone brands and through wholesale and other arrangements.

It also provides fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband through its wireless networks and related equipment and devices, such as:

• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Smartwatches and other wireless-enabled connected devices

The segment also offers wireline services in Mid-Atlantic, including the District of Columbia, and Northeastern United States through its fiber-optic network, Verizon Fios product portfolio, and a copper-based network.

The Business segment provides wireless and wireline communications services and products, including:

• FWA broadband
• Data
• Video and conferencing
• Corporate networking
• Security and managed network
• Local and long-distance voice

Network access services to deliver various IoT services and products to businesses, government customers, and wireless and wireline carriers in the United States and internationally.

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