High-yield dividend stocks can help you generate a bountiful cash income stream from the stock market. A high dividend yield, however, can often indicate that a stock is either a higher-risk investment or has poor growth prospects.
But not always.
Here are three outstanding dividend stocks that offer a rare wealth-building combination of low risk, attractive yields, and intriguing growth potential.
If you're searching for yield, check out these top dividend stocks. Image source: Getty Images.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners
Infrastructure lends itself well to the payment of dividends. These assets typically generate strong recurring cash flow for their owners, which can then be harvested or reinvested at often attractive rates of return. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP -1.34%) was built around this idea -- and it now possesses one of the highest-quality infrastructure portfolios in the world.
Brookfield owns a wide variety of cash-generating assets, including ports, toll roads, electricity transmission lines, railroads, natural gas pipelines, cell towers, and data centers, among others. The revenue produced by these infrastructure assets is typically secured by long-term contracts. This helps to protect Brookfield's profits during times of economic distress, such as the current coronavirus-related market environment. Thus, Brookfield is able to continue to crank out dividends when many other companies are forced to reduce, or even eliminate, their cash payouts to investors.
Brookfield's limited partnership units currently yield a sizable 4.8%. Better still, Brookfield seeks to grow its cash distribution by 5% to 9% annually, via a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. With both Democrats and Republicans supporting enormous investments in infrastructure as part of the country's economic recovery plan, there's a good chance that Brookfield could exceed its growth targets in the coming years.
Altria
If you love high-yield dividend stocks, then it's hard not to be tempted by Altria (MO 0.18%). The tobacco titan currently yields a hefty 8.8%. And, importantly, it has the means to support its sizable cash payouts well into the future.
Although cigarette smoking rates have declined steadily for decades, Altria has been able to increase its profits by raising prices and cutting costs. This allows the tobacco giant to continue to generate massive amounts of free cash flow, to the tune of $7.6 billion in 2019 alone.
Altria is also using its tobacco profits to expand into new markets, such as cannabis, to diversify its revenue streams and position itself for future growth. In March 2019, Altria paid $1.8 billion to acquire a 45% stake in Canadian marijuana producer Cronos Group (CRON 1.56%). With Altria's financial might, regulatory expertise, and vast distribution behind it, Cronos is poised to become a powerful force in a global cannabis market that could generate $200 billion in annual sales by 2030, according to investment bank Stifel.
Best of all, Altria's shares can currently be had for less than nine times analysts' earnings estimates for 2020. That's quite a bargain for one of the best high-yield dividend stocks in the market.
Verizon
Telecommunications leader Verizon Communications (VZ -0.83%) is another great high-yield stock. Its best-in-class wireless network helps to form a competitive moat around its business. Competitors are often forced to offer hefty -- and thereby, unsustainable -- discounts to try to lure away Verizon's wireless customers. Yet even with these highly promotional efforts by its rivals, Verizon's customer retention rates have remained strong. Moreover, thanks to T-Mobile's recent merger with Sprint, Verizon could now face less aggressive discounting by its rivals, which could help to further increase its customer loyalty metrics.
In turn, Verizon's massive wireless subscriber base represents a reliable, recurring stream of cash flow -- to the tune of $35.7 billion and $17.8 billion in operating and free cash flow, respectively, in 2019 -- which the telecom titan passes on to investors via a steadily rising dividend. Its shares currently yield a solid 4.5%.
Verizon has grown its cash payout to investors for 13 straight years. The telecom leader has an enormous growth opportunity before it in 5G technology, which promises to greatly improve mobile internet speeds and enable new technological advancements such as smart cities and self-driving vehicles. With the 5G revolution set to fuel its long-term growth, you can expect Verizon to continue to reward its shareholders with rising cash dividends in the decade ahead.
