When dividend stocks go up in price, their yields go down. The dividend yield on the S&P 500 started 2019 at more than 2% but finished the year at 1.8%. Yes, the market keeps setting new all-time highs, but the rally that seems to never end also makes it difficult to find excellent dividend stocks with generous or even decent payouts.
High-quality dividend stocks with better-than-average yields do exist, however. We're here to help you find them.
We scoured the S&P 500 for dividend stocks with yields of at least 2%. From that pool, we focused on stocks with an average broker recommendation of Buy or better.
Here are the 13 best blue-chip dividend stocks for 2020, then, based on the strength of their analyst ratings.
Mondelez International
Market value: $79.3 billion
Dividend yield: 2.1%
Average broker recommendation: 8 Strong Buy, 8 Buy, 6 Hold, 0 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
The packaged food business is notoriously competitive, and even analysts who call
"The company is investing heavily back into the business and remains in the early stages of executing its playbook behind the business emphasizing reinvestment across the world and particularly behind its local jewels (local brands with strong presence in their markets), say Stifel analysts, who rate MDLZ a hold.
Mondelez, which was spun off from what was then known as
And while Mondelez does compete in a difficult business, some analysts are more bullish than Stifel, including Buckingham analyst
Of the 22 analysts covering MDLZ tracked by
CVS Health
Market value: $96.6 billion
Dividend yield: 2.7%
Average broker recommendation: 13 Strong Buy, 5 Buy, 10 Hold, 0 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
Analysts think
JPMorgan analysts put CVS atop their best health-care stocks to buy as the sector becomes more consumer-centric. Patients are taking a greater role in their health and are increasingly paying for their own care. CVS's combination of retailer, pharmacy benefits manager and health insurer makes it the company best positioned to capitalize on this trend, says JPM, which rates shares at Overweight (Buy).
Morgan Stanley
Market value: $82.7 billion
Dividend yield: 2.7%
Average broker recommendation: 12 Strong Buy, 8 Buy, 7 Hold, 1 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
Morgan Stanley (MS, $51.12) -
Goldman Sachs finished 2019 up nearly 38%, while Morgan Stanley lagged with a roughly market-matching gain of 29%. Where MS really stands out, from a valuation perspective, is price/earnings-to-growth (PEG), which factors growth expectations into the company's P/E. Morgan Stanley trades at a PEG of 1.4, where anything over 1 is considered overpriced - but GS trades at nearly twice that, with a PEG of 2.7.
MS shares, at a 2.7% yield, also offer more income than Goldman's 2.2% at the moment.
Longer-term, analysts see Morgan Stanley delivering average annual earnings growth of more than 10%. Goldman Sachs, its closest peer, has a growth forecast of 8.4% over the next three to five years.
Broadcom
Market value: $125.7 billion
Dividend yield: 4.1%
Average broker recommendation: 17 Strong Buy, 5 Buy, 13 Hold, 0 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
Semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom's (AVGO, $316.02) recent payout growth has sizzled compared to even the best dividend stocks. Since 2014, the payout has exploded by more than 1,000%, from 29 cents per share quarterly to its current $3.25.
The
JPMorgan analyst
Twenty-two analysts tracked by
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Market value: $150.5 billion
Dividend yield: 2.8%
Average broker recommendation: 8 Strong Buy, 2 Buy, 6 Hold, 0 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
You'll typically find at least a few Big Pharma names in most annual lists of the best dividend stocks. Pharmaceutical companies are known for their good-to-great dividends, and
Analysts are largely optimistic about Bristol-Myers following its $74 billion merger with fellow pharmaceutical giant Celgene (CELG), which closed in
Celgene's blockbuster drugs include a pair of multiple myeloma treatments: Pomalyst and Revlimid, the latter of which also treats mantle cell lymphoma and myelodysplastic syndromes.
The rollup strategy has served BMY well since Bristol-Myers merged with Squibb three decades ago. A long track record of successful acquisitions has kept the pharma company's pipeline primed with big-name drugs over the years. Among the better-known names today are Coumadin, a blood thinner, and Glucophage, for type 2 diabetes.
It's also worth mentioning that Bristol-Myers is one of the best stocks of all time.
BlackRock
Market value: $78.0 billion
Dividend yield: 2.6%
Average broker recommendation: 7 Strong Buy, 7 Buy, 3 Hold, 0 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
Analysts see a decent runway for shares of BlackRock (BLK, $502.70) over the next 12 months or so.
Citigroup calls BLK a Buy, citing its "customization and technology differentiation" in the wealth management industry. Its analysts affixed a 12-month price target of $565 on the stock in mid-December, giving shares in the world's largest asset manager - responsible for BlackRock mutual and closed-end funds (CEFs), as well as iShares exchange-traded funds (ETFs) - implied upside of 13%.
Meanwhile, BlackRock's earnings are forecast to grow at an average annual pace of almost 10%, while shares trade at a reasonable a forward-looking price-to-earnings ratio of only 16.5. It's clear
On the dividend front: BLK has hiked its payout every year without interruption for a decade and is expected to lift it again in 2020.
Citigroup
Market value: $174.4 billion
Dividend yield: 2.6%
Average broker recommendation: 12 Strong Buy, 10 Buy, 4 Hold, 1 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
Analysts expect good things from Citigroup (C, $79.89), the nation's fourth-largest bank by assets, and the biggest of the financial-sector dividend stocks on this list.
"C reported solid 3Q19 results. Credit metrics remain strong, Branded Cards continue to deliver revenue and profit growth, and operating efficiency was in-line with our expectations,"
Wells Fargo analysts say that the extension of Citigroup's information-sharing agreement with hedge fund
All told, 22 analysts rate Citigroup a Buy or better, versus four Holds and one Sell.
McDonald's
Market value: $148.8 billion
Dividend yield: 2.5%
Average broker recommendation: 18 Strong Buy, 8 Buy, 9 Hold, 0 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
Not bad for a stock with a market value of about $150 billion.
"We believe the high-quality chicken sandwich market is a place MCD wants to become more relevant and anticipate a mid-year national launch,"
As for the dividend, you can't beat MCD for reliability.
NextEra Energy
Market value: $118.4 billion
Dividend yield: 2.1%
Average broker recommendation: 9 Strong Buy, 6 Buy, 2 Hold, 1 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
NextEra Energy (NEE, $242.16) - an electric utility with wind, natural gas, nuclear, pipeline and storage assets - isn't a sexy stock by any means. But it had one heckuva 2019. Shares gained 39% last year to trump not only the utility sector's 22%, but the S&P 500, which is quite a feat during a roaring bull market.
Analysts remain bullish on NextEra Energy's infrastructure programs in
Guggenheim's
NEE has a long-term growth forecast of almost 8% a year for the next three to five years, which is pretty hot for a utility stock. The dividend is no slouch, either. While the stock yields just 2.1%, the payout has jumped 72% over the past five years.
Schlumberger
Market value: $55.7 billion
Dividend yield: 5.0%
Average broker recommendation: 17 Strong Buy, 8 Buy, 7 Hold, 0 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
Oilfield services companies have been struggling ever since oil prices crashed in 2014. But some of them, such as Schlumberger (SLB, $40.20), are coming back, analysts say.
"International oilfield-service markets are firmly in recovery mode, signaling the start of a much needed multiyear growth cycle,"
Analysts at
The drop in oil prices has resulted in SLB's dividend being stuck at 50 cents a share quarterly since
The flip side? Share-price declines have turned many energy plays into high-yielding dividend stocks ... and perhaps a pickup in growth after years of lackluster performance will enable the board to start padding the payout once more.
ConocoPhillips
Market value: $71.4 billion
Dividend yield: 2.6%
Average broker recommendation: 11 Strong Buy, 9 Buy, 3 Hold, 0 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
The leaner profile is supposed to help
If you're looking for dividend stocks to hold you the next decade, and not just 2020, JPMorgan's
Prologis
Market value: $56.3 billion
Dividend yield: 2.4%
Average broker recommendation: 10 Strong Buy, 4 Buy, 2 Hold, 1 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
A quick snapshot:
Stifel, which has shares at Buy, notes that "industrial fundamentals within the
Analysts expect
Merck
Market value: $231.6 billion
Dividend yield: 2.7%
Average broker recommendation: 12 Strong Buy, 3 Buy, 3 Hold, 0 Sell, 0 Strong Sell
Pharma giant
That's partly due to Keytruda, MRK's blockbuster cancer drug that's approved for more than 20 indications, as well as the company's vaccines business not being properly valued by the market.
"Our (sum of the parts) valuation analysis indicates a highly inexpensive valuation when incorporating a premium for the company's Animal health and Vaccines franchises," says JPMorgan, which has MRK at Overweight.
While shares lagged the broader market in 2019, they trade at around 16 times next year's earnings estimates. The S&P 500, meanwhile, trades for nearly 20.
And MRK's dividend, which had been growing by a penny per share for years, is starting to heat up.
Dan Burrows is a Contributing Writer for Kiplinger.