Dividend stocks provide investors with stable income and improve overall returns on their portfolio.
However, picking the right dividend stock from a vast open trading company can be difficult. To this end, the advice of top Wall Street analysts can help investors make the right decisions, as these experts choose stocks of companies that can provide strong financial support for consistent dividend payments.
These are three Dividend Payment Stockshighlight The highest professional person on Wall Street As Tipranks tracked, Tipranks’ platform ranks analysts based on its past performance.
McDonald’s
fast food chain McDonald’s ((MCD) Recent reports Fourth quarter revenue Consistent with market expectations. But the company’s revenue lags behind street estimates as U.S. restaurant sales are affected by E. coli. Late October. That is, MCD stock has risen on earnings due to strong international sales and the improvement in the company’s performance in 2025.
Earlier this month, McDonald’s announced Cash dividend MCD shares are $1.77 per share and should be paid on March 17. The annual dividend per share is $7.08, and the dividend yield on MCD stock is 2.3%. It is worth noting that McDonald’s is a dividend aristocrat and has increased its dividend for 48 consecutive quarters.
Follow Q4 results, Jefferies analyst Andy Barish Reaffirm the buy rating for MCD stock and raise the price target from $345 to $349. While the decline in U.S. store sales in Q4 2024 is largely expected, analysts believe it seems to be favorable for continued transportation and continued momentum in Q1 2025.
Additionally, Barish believes recent traffic trends suggest that McDonald’s value messaging is attracting attention, and the McValue menu is expected to be the same as other growth drivers as digital sales, delivery, driving channels and core menu plans. Analysts continue to expect sales growth in our same-stores to be 2.3% and 2.6% in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
Barish noted the basic transportation trends in the domestic market and the improvement of stable same-store sales trends in the international market, and Barish believes that MCD “better surpass its peers over 25 through the attractive value propositions it gains from global brands of scale. ”
Barish ranks 566th among the more than 9,300 analysts tracked by Tipranks. His ratings are 57% profitable with an average return of 10.4%. look McDonald’s stock chart On Tipranks.
Ares Capital
We’re going to the second dividend pick of the week, Ares Capital ((arcc). It is a business development company that provides financing solutions for intermediate market entities. Earlier this month, Ares Capital announced Q4 2024 results And announced a dividend of 48 cents per share for the first quarter, which should be paid on March 31. ARES stock has a dividend yield of 8.2%.
In response to Q4 Print RBC Capital analyst Kenneth Lee Reaffirm the buy rating of ARCC stock and raise the price target from $23 to $24. Analysts noted that the company’s fourth-quarter results were somewhat different from his expectations. While the net asset value per share is $19.89, far exceeding RBC’s estimates, core earnings per share are slightly above 55 cents of core earnings per share, slightly below RBC’s 58 cents of forecast.
On the positive side, Lee noted that portfolio activity was much better than expected. Meanwhile, the leverage ratio of 1.03 times was lower than expected, partly due to equity raised this quarter. The analyst stressed that ARCC’s credit performance remains stable in the current economic context. Specifically, Lee noted that the non-coping rate rose from 1.3% in 2024 to 1.7% (amortized cost basis), but the average interest rate of 2.8% that the company has witnessed since the big financial crisis remains low.
Lee estimated its 2025 Core EPS at $2.10 from $2.13, while the 2026 Core EPS estimated to $2.14 from $2.16 to reflect assumptions about a decline in return on assets, partly offset by a drop in debt costs.
Overall, Lee is bullish on ARCC as he agrees with the company’s “strong record of managing risks in the cycle, supporting a good dividend and scale advantage.”
Lee ranks 15th among the more than 9,300 analysts tracked by Tipranks. His ratings succeeded 74% of the time, with an average return of 19.1%. look Ares Capital’s ownership structure On Tipranks.
Energy transfer
Let’s take a look Energy transfer ((wait), a midstream energy company Fourth quarter results And adjust the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, losing expectations. Nevertheless, it plans to spend $5 billion on growth projects this year, including increased capacity. In the growing demand for electricity to support data centers, capital expenditures are increasing.
Meanwhile, Energy Transfer announced quarterly cash allocations to $0.3250 for the 4th quarter of 2024, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 3.2%. ET stocks produced 6.7%.
Response to Q4 results, Ruisui analyst Gabriel Moreen Reiterate the buy rating for ET stocks at $24. The analyst said he was not overly concerned about the guidance mistakes in the fiscal 25th year, as he believed the main story was the company’s famous CAPEX guidance guide this year.
Moreen noted that the capital expenditure outlook is higher than the company’s annual “run rate” expectations of $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion, and appears to have improved. Nevertheless, analysts are constructive in this capital expenditure guidance, given that most planned spending will target projects with extensive experience in energy transfers such as Hugh Brinson Pipeline, NGL exports, transportation and storage, and the Permian gathering of the development company and Handle footprints.
Although the adjusted EBITDA guidelines for 2025 lost expectations, Moreen believes ET has a good track record in optimization, which could translate into some earnings upside. Overall, analysts are optimistic about the future of energy transfer and expect their strong CAPEX to translate into strong revenue growth after 2026.
Moreen ranked 62nd among the more than 9,300 analysts tracked by Tipranks. His ratings are 78% of the time and the average return is 16.4%. look Energy transfer insider trading activities On Tipranks.
