The bear market in stocks over the past year has created an excellent opportunity for investors seeking dividend income. With stock prices falling, dividend yields are rising. That's enabling investors to earn more passive income from new investments. Meanwhile, many companies are supercharging their yields by increasing their dividends.
Four top-notch dividend stocks that offer attractive payouts these days are Brookfield Infrastructure Partners (BIP 0.35%), Crown Castle (CCI 0.32%), Clearway Energy (CWEN +0.74%) (CWEN.A +0.74%), and Williams Companies (WMB 0.11%). They all offer dividend yields above 4% -- more than double the S&P 500's average -- and should continue growing their payouts in the future.
An attractive value proposition
Units of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners have declined by about 17.5% over the past year. That's a steeper decline than its corporate twin, Brookfield Infrastructure Corporation (BIPC +0.00%), experienced; it shed roughly 7% of its value. So the partnership units offer a much higher dividend yield of 4.7% despite the two being economically equivalent entities.
NYSE: BIP
Key Data Points
Both companies recently increased their payouts by 6%, marking Brookfield Infrastructure's 14th straight year of dividend growth. That upward trend in the payout is likely to continue. Brookfield expects to grow its funds from operations (FFO) by 12% to 15% on a per-share/unit basis this year, powered by organic growth drivers and its capital recycling strategy.
Those two catalysts should continue powering healthy growth in the future. That should enable Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to keep increasing its attractive payout. Add in its greater upside potential compared to its corporate twin, and the partnership offers an enticing value proposition these days.
Plugged into a powerful long-term growth trend
Crown Castle's stock price has fallen about 24% over the past year. That has helped push its dividend yield up to 4.9%. The communications infrastructure REIT has also continued increasing that payout. It gave investors a 6.5% raise last fall, continuing its streak of growing the dividend every year since becoming a REIT.
While Crown Castle is facing some growth-related headwinds this year, it still expects its adjusted FFO per share to increase by 4%. Meanwhile, it anticipates the rollout and expansion of 5G networks in the country to drive growing demand for communications infrastructure for the next decade. That leads the REIT to target delivering dividend growth of 7% to 8% per share over the long term.
NYSE: CCI
Key Data Points
High-end growth ahead
Shares of Clearway Energy have fallen about 7% over the past year, which has helped nudge its dividend yield up to 4.9%. The company has also steadily increased its dividend payment by about 2% each quarter and 8% over the past year.
Clearway Energy expects to continue growing its dividend at a healthy rate in the future. Its current expectations are that it will deliver dividend growth in the upper end of its 5% to 8% long-term targeted growth range through 2026.
Powering that high-end outlook is last year's $1.3 billion sale of its thermal business. That's giving Clearway the capital to invest in several higher-returning renewable energy investment opportunities over the next few years to supply it with more recurring cash flow to grow the dividend.
NYSE: CWEN
Key Data Points
Plenty of gas to continue growing the dividend
Williams Companies' stock price has declined by about 5% over the last year, helping drive its dividend yield toward 6%. The natural gas pipeline company has further bolstered its yield by increasing its payout. It recently gave investors a 5.3% raise and has grown the dividend at a 6% compound annual rate since 2018.
Williams should have no problem continuing to grow its dividend. It currently has several expansion projects in its backlog that position it for continued growth over the next couple of years. It's poised to deliver a breakout year in 2025, when several projects will start generating cash. The company expects to grow its earnings at a 5% to 7% annual rate in the coming years, which should give it plenty of fuel to continue increasing its dividend.
NYSE: WMB
Key Data Points
Great ways to boost your income in 2023
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Crown Castle, Clearway Energy, and Williams Companies have seen their share prices fall over the past year. Their dividend yields have gone in the opposite direction, also driven by continued payout increases. Those higher yields make them attractive options for income-seeking investors to buy this month because they can generate a lot more income per dollar invested.
