Top 3 Dividend King Stocks to Buy and Hold In August

Historically, August has not been kind to tech stocks and growth stocks. Many have already bucked that trend, due to Azure and Meta’s cloud + AI revenue allowing them to beat earnings estimates massively.

However, numerous other data center companies have cratered already. This earnings season wraps up near the end of August, and by then, you’re likely to see plenty of drama. If a big company like Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) disappoints like AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) just did, this may be the spark that could cause a downturn. In turn, this can push investors into dividend stocks.

Buying ahead of September also puts you ahead of interest rate cuts that the market has baked in. Lower interest rates will drive down Treasury yields, leading to more interest in stable dividend stocks that make good replacements. Dividend Kings will undoubtedly be at or near the top of investors’ lists when doing that.

Dividend Kings imply companies that have raised their dividends for 50+ consecutive years. There are only 54 such stocks. Here are three high-yielding stable ones to look into.

Altria (MO)

Altria (NYSE:MO) gives you the highest yield among Dividend King stocks, arguably one of the most stable. This company sells tobacco products, and its cigarettes have a more premium reputation, which gives it more pricing power. It hasn’t fully bucked the trend of the newer generation forgoing cigarettes for vapes and other products, but it has been able to mitigate it successfully with price increases.

Hence, MO stock has bottomed out and is racing back towards its highs. It is up over 50% in the past five years and 27% in the past year. And that’s excluding dividends.

The margins of this company exceed those of some of the most profitable software companies. Q2 2025 net margin is at almost 45%, better than 93.75% of tobacco companies.

The margin growth has allowed it to increase its earnings despite declining revenue. It has the firepower to sustain this strategy, especially as interest rate cuts are expected to free up debt servicing money, which it can use to expand and return even more cash to shareholders.

MO stock has a 6.42% dividend yield, which has been hiked for 55 consecutive years. The forward payout ratio is at 72.96%, so you’re well-covered.

Northwest Natural (NWN)

Northwest Natural (NYSE:NWN) is a utility company in the Northwestern United States. It has expansive pipelines for delivering natural gas to households and industries in the area. Beyond gas, it also has water and wastewater utilities through its subsidiary, NW Natural Water Company.

I’m very bullish on most utility companies in this environment, as tariffs have virtually no impact on them, and there are many tailwinds they can ride on. For example, the data center build-out is expected to continue straining the power grid in the Northwest. In turn, this should lead to an uptick in natural gas demand, especially from industries and power plants.

NWN generates revenue mainly through regulated rates approved by state utility commissions. This also means that downturns are unlikely to hurt it, since the services are essential, and even if customers can’t pay for gas, occasionally the state can step in to mitigate the hardship.

This has allowed NWN stock to be one of the most consistent and stable holdings.

Northwest Natural’s customer growth rate was 10.6% (trailing twelve months), and it reported adjusted EPS for the first half of 2025 at $2.28. In H1 2024, EPS was $1.60.

It comes with a 4.89% forward dividend yield and a payout ratio of 64.89%. There have been 69 consecutive years of dividend growth.

Black Hills (BKH)

Black Hills (NYSE:BKH) is quite similar to Northwest Natural, as it is also a publicly traded utility company. However, BKH operates as a more broadly diversified energy provider, while NWN is primarily a natural gas distributor with recent expansions into water and renewables.

Black Hills is involved in the production and distribution of natural gas, coal, wind, solar, and it even has a coal mining business. The beta here is higher for that reason.

Regardless, this doesn’t mean BKH stock is not a great long-term buy. The stock is nearly 30% below its pre-pandemic high and could deliver gains on top of dividends as it recovers.

The Q2 2025 results show upward momentum in earnings and revenue. EPS increased 15.2% to $0.38, with revenue growth of 9% to $439 million. Interest rate cuts will boost it even more, as net interest loss was posted at almost $182 million in FY 2024. This was a huge chunk of the company’s $503.1 million in operating income.

Anyhow, the remaining profits are still enough to comfortably cover dividends, with a forward payout ratio of 62.69%. The dividend yield is 4.48%, with 54 consecutive years of dividend hikes.

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