3 Ultra-High-Yield Dividend Stocks to Buy in April

March winds bring April showers. And April showers bring… a great opportunity to buy ultra-high-yield dividend stocks. I suppose they bring mayflowers too, but mayflowers won’t make you a lot of money over the long run.

Seriously, there are several great ultra-high-yield dividend stocks to buy in April. These three especially stand out.

1. Ares Capital

Ares Capital (ARCC 0.27%) offers such a high dividend yield, at 8.68%, that you might wonder if it’s sustainable. Don’t worry: It is. The company has paid a stable to growing dividend for 15 consecutive years and remains strong financially.

Perhaps the best thing about Ares Capital, at least from an income investor’s perspective, is that management has a huge incentive to keep paying dividends. Ares is a business development company (BDC). BDCs must return at least 90% of earnings to shareholders as dividends to be exempt from federal income taxes.

The company isn’t just a run-of-the-mill BDC, though. Ares Capital ranks as the largest publicly traded BDC. Its portfolio is more diversified than most of its peers. Ares also boasts the highest base dividend per share and net asset value per share growth among large publicly traded BDCs over the past 10 years.

Does this stock offer anything to attract investors who aren’t as focused on income? Yep. Ares Capital has delivered a total return since its initial public offering in 2004 that has trounced the S&P 500‘s total return during the same period.

2. Energy Transfer

What’s better than a stock with an ultra-high-yield dividend? A stock with a juicy distribution that the company’s management plans to increase in the future. That’s what you get with Energy Transfer (ET -0.59%).

Energy Transfer is a limited partnership (LP) with a forward distribution yield of 6.95%. The company intends to grow its distribution by 3% to 5% each year. It recently boosted the payout by 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The ability to fund such a generous distribution stems from Energy Transfer’s rock-solid business. The company is a leader in the North American midstream energy industry. It operates over 130,000 miles of pipeline across the U.S. that transport crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and other refined products.

PJM, a regional transmission organization focused on wholesale electricity, projects that summer peak power demand will jump 19% over the next five years due to data centers, electrification trends (including vehicles and buildings), and manufacturing. Energy Transfer is investing in capital projects to take advantage of this rising demand.

3. Pfizer

The stock market remains highly volatile as April begins. During turbulent environments, many investors look for safe havens. Healthcare stocks are typically among the most attractive alternatives. That’s one reason why I think buying shares of giant drugmaker Pfizer (PFE 0.57%) is a smart move right now.

Pfizer offers a forward dividend yield of 6.82%, one of the highest yields to be found in the healthcare sector. Even better, its management team remains committed to maintaining and growing the dividend over the long term. That’s exactly what income investors like to hear.

Of course, what management teams say they want to do doesn’t always translate to what they actually deliver. However, I have a high level of confidence in Pfizer’s case. The company has survived and thrived since 1849. It also has the financial strength (revenue of $63.6 billion and profit of $17.7 billion last year) to keep plugging away.

Granted, Pfizer faces patent expirations over the next few years for several of its top products. The good news, though, is that the company’s lineup features multiple strong growth drivers. Its pipeline also includes 115 candidates, five of which await regulatory approvals and 32 in late-stage testing. I view Pfizer’s ultra-high dividend as a pretty safe bet.