3 High-Yield Dividend Stocks Under $50 That Analysts Love

Going for the trifecta as a dividend investor — high yield, fits your budget, and bullish analyst views — can be a tall order. Fortunately, there is no shortage of dividend stocks to choose from, and we’ve spotted a trio of them that fit the bill. Consider Icahn Enterprises (NYSE: IEP), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET). Each is a high-yield dividend stock, with yields ranging between 4% and almost 24%,trading below $50 per share. Perhaps the best part is that analysts widely believe their share prices have room to run.

High-yield dividend stocks offer investors a  steady income stream coupled with potential capital preservation throughout market volatility. By choosing larger companies with a proven history earnings and less severe volatility than smaller stocks, investors set themselves up for potentially getting the best of both worlds. But not just any high-yield dividend stock will do. Let’s find out more about what has Wall Street on the bullish bandwagon for the following three stocks. 

Icahn Enterprises (IEP) 

Icahn Enterprises, a master limited partnership focused on sectors like energy, auto and real estate, among others, trades for $8.31 per unit. Top holdings include CVR Energy, Dana Inc., JetBlue, Bausch Health and American Electric Power. IEP makes a quarterly distribution of $0.50 per unit, with a dividend yield of 23.8%, which is welcome considering the depositary unit price has been relatively flat year-to-date. In its most recent quarter, Icahn Enterprises reported a wider loss than anticipated, blaming its exposure to languishing healthcare stocks.

In Q1, IEP suffered a loss of $422 million, or $0.79 per depositary unit, vs. a loss of $38 million, or $0.09 per unit, in the year-ago quarter. On the bright side, IEP’s balance sheet is buttressed with $2.2 billion in cash and equivalents plus inventories of a cool $1 billion. 

While Icahn’s investment fund has been through some challenging times, the worst of it appears to be in the rearview mirror, including a recent settlement made with securities watchdog the SEC. Wall Street analysts tend to agree, with an average rating of “buy” attached to the stock, including analyst firm Jefferies. The average price target of $12 per unit reflects upside potential of almost 50%. 

AT&T (T)

Telecommunications stock AT&T (NYSE: T) also makes the cut as a high-dividend stock trading below $50 per share. With an average Wall Street analyst rating of “overweight,” AT&T is one of those stocks that can be found in many institutional investor portfolios. The company pays a dividend yield of 4% and recently declared a quarterly distribution of $0.2775 per share.

AT&T is famous for prioritizing shareholder value and has been paying cash dividends since the 1980s. But it has also made dividend cuts, the most recent of which was just a few years ago in 2022. AT&T stock is up approximately 18% year-to-date in a highly volatile market climate. With ana average price target of just over $30 per share, analysts are convinced AT&T is currently undervalued and has further room for upside.

Energy Transfer (ET) 

Oil and gas stock Energy Transfer LP is trading for $17 per share and boasts a dividend yield of 7.4%. Energy Transfer has inked some key contracts that should keep the revenue flowing for years. Most recently, ET was selected by Kyushu Electric for a 20-year deal to deliver as much as 1 million metric tons of liquified natural gas (LNG) to the Japan-based company.

Wall Street analysts have an average recommendation of “buy” on ET stock with an average target price of over $22 per share, reflecting 22% upside potential.