My November Investment Plan: Buy the Highest-Yielding S&P 500 Stocks

Investors love dividend stocks, especially those with high yields, because they provide a substantial income stream and offer significant total return potential. Total return includes interest, capital gains, dividends, and distributions realized over time. In other words, the total return on an investment or a portfolio consists of income and stock appreciation. At 24/7 Wall St., we consistently emphasize the potential of total return to our readers. It is one of the most effective ways to enhance the prospects of overall investing success. Once again, total return refers to the collective increase in a stock’s value, including dividends.

With the prospect of a December rate cut looking 50/50, now is still the time for investors to buy quality, high-yield dividend stocks, as the stock market remains very overbought and volatility could continue to spike.

Having more passive income can help cover rising costs, such as mortgages, insurance, taxes, and other expenses, making it easier for investors to save for future needs as they prepare for retirement. Dependable recurring dividends from quality, high-yield stocks are a recipe for success. Five of the highest-yielding S&P 500 stocks offer incredible, dependable yields from quality blue-chip companies you can buy and hold forever. All are rated Buy at top Wall Street firms.

Why do we cover the highest-yielding S&P 500 dividend stocks?

Since 1926, dividends have contributed approximately 32% of the total return for the S&P 500, while capital appreciation has contributed 68%. Therefore, sustainable dividend income and capital appreciation potential are essential for total return expectations. A study by Hartford Funds, in collaboration with Ned Davis Research, found that dividend stocks delivered an annualized return of 9.18% over the past 50 years (1973 to 2023). Over the same timeline, this was more than double the annualized return for non-payers (3.95%).

Altria

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of cigarettes and other tobacco-related products. This stock offers value investors a compelling entry point and a generous 7.20% dividend yield. Altria manufactures and sells smokable and oral tobacco products in the United States.

The company provides cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand, as well as:

• Cigars and pipe tobacco, principally under the Black & Mild and Middleton brands
• Moist smokeless tobacco and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands
• on! Oral nicotine pouches
• e-vapor products under the NJOY ACE brand

It sells its tobacco products primarily to wholesalers, including distributors and large retail organizations, such as chain stores.

Altria used to own over 10% of Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A. (NYSE: BUD), the world’s largest brewer. Last year, the company sold 35 million of its 197 million shares through a global secondary offering. That represents 18% of its holdings but still leaves 8% of the outstanding shares in its back pocket. Altria also announced a $2.4 billion stock repurchase plan partially funded by the sale.

Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating with a $72 target price.

Dow

The chemical giant has already cut its dividend earlier this year, which remains at 6.28% and presents a value play at current trading levels. Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) serves as a holding company for Dow Chemical and its subsidiaries.

The company conducts its operations through six global businesses, which are organized into these segments:

• Packaging & Specialty Plastics
• Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure and Performance Materials & Coatings
• Packaging & Specialty Plastics segment consists of two integrated global businesses: Hydrocarbons & Energy and Packaging and Specialty Plastics. This segment employs a polyolefin product portfolio.
• Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure segment consists of two customer-centric global businesses: Industrial Solutions and Polyurethanes & Construction Chemicals that develop intermediate chemicals that are essential to manufacturing processes, as well as downstream, customized materials and formulations that use advanced development technologies.
• The Performance Materials & Coatings segment consists of two global businesses: Coatings & Performance Monomers and Consumer Solutions.

Wells Fargo has an Overweight rating with a target price of $30.

UPS

The delivery giant announced it is cutting its shipping volume for Amazon by more than 50% by the second half of 2026. United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) said the move is part of a broader strategy to focus on more profitable and less risky business segments. The company offers a range of integrated logistics solutions to customers in more than 200 countries and territories, and it pays a dividend of 7.02%.

Its segments include:

• U.S. Domestic Package
• International Package

Its U.S. Domestic Package segment offers a range of domestic air and ground package transportation services in the United States. Its air portfolio offers time-definite, same-day, next-day, two-day, and three-day delivery alternatives as well as air cargo services. Its ground network enables customers to ship using its day-definite ground service. UPS SurePost provides residential ground service for customers with non-urgent, lightweight residential shipments.

The International Package segment comprises its small package operations in Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Africa, Canada, Latin America, and Asia. It offers a selection of guaranteed day- and time-definite international shipping services. Its supply chain solutions encompass forwarding, logistics, and other related businesses.

Citigroup has a Buy rating with a $120 target price.

Realty Income

This top company is a real estate investment trust that invests in free-standing, single-tenant commercial properties. Realty Income Corp. (NYSE: O) has a 5.71% dividend and is an ideal stock for growth and income investors seeking a safer, contrarian investment for the remainder of 2025. This S&P 500 company provides stockholders with dependable monthly income.

Realty Income, known as the “monthly dividend company,” has an A credit rating. Long-term leases and a 98.2% median occupancy rate over 24 years ensure stable cash flow. The company has raised its dividend for 30 consecutive years, including 109 straight quarters, making it a Dividend Aristocrat.

The company acquires and manages freestanding commercial properties that generate rental income under long-term net-lease agreements with its commercial clients. It is engaged in a single business activity: leasing property to clients, generally on a net basis. This business activity spans various geographic boundaries and encompasses a range of property types and clients across multiple industries.

Realty Income owns or holds interests in approximately 15,621 properties in all 50 United States and:

• United Kingdom
• France
• Germany
• Ireland
• Italy
• Portugal
• Spain

With clients doing business in 89 industries, its property types include: retail, industrial, gaming, and others, such as agriculture and office. Its primary industry concentrations include:

• Grocery stores
• Convenience stores
• Dollar stores
• Drug stores
• Home improvement stores
• Restaurants
• Quick service

UBS has a Buy rating with a target price of $66.

Verizon

Shares of this American multinational telecommunications company continue to offer tremendous value. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) trades at  9.13 times its estimated 2026 earnings, is up almost 10% in 2025, and offers a hefty 6.85% dividend. Verizon provides a range of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and government entities worldwide through two segments:

• Verizon Consumer Group
• Verizon Business Group

The Consumer segment provides wireless services across the United States through Verizon and TracFone networks, as well as through wholesale and other arrangements. It also provides fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband through its wireless networks and related equipment and devices, such as:

• Smartphones
• Tablets
• Smartwatches and other wireless-enabled connected devices

The segment also offers wireline services in the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States through its fiber-optic network, Verizon Fios product portfolio, and copper-based network.

The Business segment provides wireless and wireline communications services and products, including:

• FWA broadband
• Data
• Video and conferencing
• Corporate networking
• Security and managed network
• Local and long-distance voice

Network access services to deliver various IoT services and products to businesses, government customers, and wireless and wireline carriers in the United States and internationally.

Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating and a price target of $49.

Is a Market Correction Coming? Better Grab Five of the Safest Dividend Kings Now