Generating passive income from dividends is a wonderful way to supplement Social Security in retirement. However, you want to make sure that the dividend stocks you buy have what it takes to keep paying year after year. Enterprise Products Partners (EPD +0.22%) is a conservative option in the highly volatile energy patch. Southern Company (SO 1.07%) is a reliable dividend payer in the utility sector. Either one or both could be the foundation for your passive income portfolio. Here's why.
Enterprise Products Partners sidesteps commodity risk
Oil and gas prices are highly volatile, so it may seem surprising to see an energy business like Enterprise offered up as a reliable income stock. The key is that this North American midstream giant charges energy companies fees for using the energy infrastructure it owns. The list of infrastructure it owns includes pipelines, storage assets, and transportation facilities, among other things. The fee-based nature of the business means that the volume of energy moving through Enterprise's system is more important than the price of the commodities being moved. Demand for energy tends to be strong regardless of oil prices.
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The resilience of Enterprise's business is highlighted by its streak of 27 annual distribution increases. That's basically as long as the master limited partnership (MLP) has been publicly traded. Moreover, its distribution was covered by distributable cash flow by a very solid 1.7x in 2025, so there's a lot of room for adversity before the distribution would be at risk. Even the most conservative investors will find Enterprise and its 5.6% yield attractive.
NYSE: EPD
Key Data Points
Southern Company is boring and reliable
Southern Company's dividend has been increased or held steady for 78 years, with increases in each of the last 24 years. That's an impressive streak that shows the company can keep paying you well even when times are tough. The utility's dividend yield is 3.2% right now, which is notably higher than the 2.6% average for utilities.
NYSE: SO
Key Data Points
Southern is one of the largest regulated utilities in the United States. It owns electric and natural gas assets and generally operates in a conservative manner. That said, increasing demand for electricity is expected to lead to fairly strong earnings growth of around 8% a year, on average, through 2030. Given that backdrop, dividend growth seems highly likely to continue for years to come.
You don't need to take on extra risk
Enterprise and Southern both offer attractive yields backed by strong dividend histories. They prove that you can find attractive yields without taking on undue risk, which is exactly what you should be looking to do when building the foundation of your passive income portfolio.
