3 Stocks to Earn Dividends Every October

Many companies dole out dividends in March, June, September and December. If all your payments land in that timetable, your income stream can dry up for long stretches.

To keep the cash flowing right through vacation, we sorted through payment dates to identify when companies pay out. We focused on firms with steady businesses, sturdy balance sheets and a commitment to uphold their payouts. Check out these offerings that deliver treats every October, listed in alphabetical order.

Cardinal Health

Symbol: CAH
Price: $84
Yield: 2.2%
Annual dividend rate: $1.80
Price-earnings ratio: 15
Also pays in: January, April, July

Drug distributor Cardinal runs a high-volume, low-profit-margin business that faces heavy pressure from rivals. But Cardinal is taking measures to fire up its growth.

The firm recently acquired Johnson & Johnson's Cordis unit, which makes stents and other cardiology devices. Cardinal expects Cordis to bolster the firm's international sales and boost annual earnings by more than 20 cents per share, or $65 million. Moreover, Cardinal has teamed up with CVS Health (its biggest customer) to buy generic drugs, helping Cardinal negotiate better deals that could lift its profits.

Wall Street estimates that profits will climb 8% in the fiscal year that ends in June 2017. As the business improves, the shares should hit $97 over the next year, says Credit Suisse, which rates the stock "outperform."

Coca-Cola

Symbol: KO
Price: $44
Yield: 3.2%
Annual dividend rate: $1.40
Price-earnings ratio: 22
Also pays in: December, April, July

Yes, people are drinking less soda, but the soft drink giant can still thrive.

Price increases and expanding sales of bottled water (Dasani), energy drinks (Powerade), juices (Minute Maid, Simply Orange) and other products in its lineup are offsetting some of the decline in soda sales.

Coca-Cola is also slimming down. The firm is exiting the capital-intensive bottling business almost entirely, transferring 84,000 employees from its workforce of 123,000 to independent bottlers. The shift will shave about $10 billion from Coca-Cola's revenues by the end of 2017, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. But the move will save billions of dollars in overhead and bolster profit margins. Wall Street expects Coca-Cola to report earnings of $8.7 billion in 2017, up 5% from 2016. That ought to please one of the company's biggest cheerleaders, Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owns about 9% of Coke's outstanding shares.

General Electric

Symbol: GE
Price: $31
Yield: 3.0%
Annual dividend rate: $0.92
Price-earnings ratio: 21
Also pays in: January, April, July

Few, if any, rivals can match GE's global scale and expertise in assembling products such as aircraft engines, gas and wind turbines, locomotives, and health care imaging machines.

Plus, GE is no longer shackled by its huge financial-services business, which it has mostly sold off. Armed with a stronger balance sheet, GE can now spend more heavily on dividends and stock buybacks, along with acquisitions that could lift its bottom line.

At 21 times estimated profits, GE's stock looks pricey and may not have much appreciation potential in the near term. But the dividend appears to be secure, and analysts estimate that GE will boost the payout to $1.00 per share in 2017 -- a healthy 9% raise.

Daren Fonda is an associate editor at Kiplinger.