5 High-Yielding Dividend Kings Retirees and Boomers Can Buy Today and Safely Hold Forever

The post 5 High-Yielding Dividend Kings Retirees and Boomers Can Buy Today and Safely Hold Forever appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

While many Baby Boomers have enjoyed a long bull market over the past 35 years, there comes a point when income becomes more critical than stock appreciation. The reason is simple: those who leave their careers to enjoy a well-deserved retirement lose the benefits of a regular salary and their jobs, such as 401(k) matching and company-paid healthcare. In addition, many Boomers use their retirement years to travel and enjoy the rewards they have worked hard to achieve throughout their lives. Choosing investments wisely is imperative, and at 24/7 Wall St., we continually seek the best ideas for Baby Boomers and retirees.

Companies that have raised dividends for shareholders for 50 years or more are the kinds of investments passive income investors need to own. Dependability is crucial for individuals seeking to increase their annual income through dividend stock investments. The Dividend Kings are the 56 companies that have raised their dividends for at least 50 years, a testament to their dependability and reliability. Those are two “must-have” items for investors who rely on passive income to boost their overall income. Unlike the Dividend Aristocrats, the Dividend Kings do not have to be members of the S&P 500.

With the stock market trading at elevated levels and a massive rotation out of technology into safer areas seemingly underway, we decided to look for Dividend Kings that investors seeking dependable income and some growth could buy today and safely hold forever. We screened for high yields, stocks with wide moats, and, importantly, those that have products or services that will always have a degree of consumer demand. Five checked all the boxes, and all are among the highest-yielding in the group.

Why we recommend the Dividend Kings

Companies that have paid and raised dividends for 50 years or more are the kinds of stocks growth and income investors want to buy and hold in stock portfolios forever. These stocks are mostly conservative, and should we see a dramatic market correction, they will likely hold their ground much better than volatile technology names.

Altria

Altria (NYSE: MO) is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of cigarettes and other tobacco-related products. This tobacco stock offers value investors a solid entry point and a 5.88% dividend. Altria manufactures and sells smokable and oral tobacco products in the United States primarily to wholesalers, including distributors and large retail organizations, such as chain stores.

The company primarily sells cigarettes 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

Altria used to own over 10% of Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD), the world’s largest brewer. In March of 2024, 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.

Altria increased its quarterly dividend in the fall of 2025 by 3.9%, from $1.02 to $1.06 per share, marking its 57th consecutive dividend increase.

Hormel Foods

Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL) is an American food processing company founded in 1891 in Austin, Minnesota. Hormel offers dual pricing power through both branded products and private-label manufacturing, and it has a reliable 4.77% dividend. It develops, processes, and distributes a range of meat, nuts, and other food products to retail, foodservice, deli, and commercial customers in the United States and internationally. Shares are down 12% already in 2026.

The company operates through three segments: Retail, Food Service, and International. It provides various perishable products, including fresh meats, frozen items, refrigerated meal solutions, sausages, hams, guacamole, and bacon, and shelf-stable products, including canned luncheon meats, nut butter, snack nuts, chili, shelf-stable microwaveable meals, hash, stews, tortillas, salsas, tortilla chips, nutritional food supplements, and others. It sells its products under these brands:

• Hormel
• Always Tender
• Applegate
• Austin Blues
• Bacon 1
• Black Label
• Bread Ready
• Burke
• Café H
• Ceratti
• Chi-Chi’s
• Columbus
• Compleats
• Corn Nuts
• Cure 81
• Dan’s Prize
• Di Lusso
• Dinty Moore
• Don Miguel
• Doña Maria
• Embasa
• Fast N Easy
• Fire Braised
• Fontanini
• Happy Little Plants
• Herdez
• Hormel Gatherings
• Hormel Square Table
• Hormel Vital Cuisine
• House of Tsang
• Jennie-O
• Justin’s
• La Victoria
• Layout
• Lloyd’s
• Mary Kitchen
• Mr. Peanut
• Natural Choice
• Nut-rition
• Old Smokehouse
• Oven Ready
• Pillow Pack
• Planters
• Rosa Grande
• Sadler’s Smokehouse
• Skippy
• Spam
• Special Recipe
• Thick & Easy
• Valley Fresh
• Wholly

Hormel is a Dividend Aristocrat with over 50 years of dividend increases and is a consumer staples company focused on protein-based packaged foods. Its yield is historically high, and the Hormel Foundation’s oversight ensures dividend reliability. Reports indicate that it is restructuring its portfolio and cutting costs to improve performance.

Kimberly-Clark

This American multinational personal care company primarily produces paper-based consumer products. Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ: KMB) stock declined 23% in 2025, pushing it close to a 12-year low, and its dividend has increased for 53 consecutive years. The current yield is a rich 4.9%. The company manufactures and markets personal care and consumer tissue products worldwide.

It operates through three segments. The Personal Care segment offers a diverse range of products, including:

• Disposable diapers
• Swim pants, training and youth pants, baby wipes
• Feminine and incontinence care products, as well as related products under the Huggies, Pull-Ups, Little Swimmers, GoodNites, DryNites, Sweety, Kotex, U by Kotex, Intimus, Depends, Plenitud, Softex, Poise, and other brand names

The Consumer Tissue segment provides facial and bathroom tissues, paper towels, napkins, and related products under the brand names:

• Kleenex
• Scott
• Cottonelle
• Viva
• Andrex
• Scottex
• Neve

The K-C Professional segment offers wipers, tissues, towels, apparel, soaps, and sanitizers under the Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech, and KleenGuard brands.

In 2025, Kimberly-Clark announced it would acquire Kenvue (NYSE: KVUE) in a $48.7 billion deal, with the transaction expected to close in the second half of 2026. The acquisition will create a combined consumer health and wellness company, with Kenvue shareholders receiving $3.50 in cash plus 0.14625 shares of Kimberly-Clark.

Piper Sandler has an Overweight rating with a $114 target price.

Sonoco Products

While very off the radar of most investors, this company makes products that are constantly in demand, and it pays a solid 4.20% dividend. Sonoco Products (NYSE: SON) is a global designer, developer, and manufacturer of a variety of highly engineered and sustainable packaging serving multiple end markets.

Products in its Consumer Packaging segment consist of rigid packaging (paper, metal, and plastic) and primarily serve the consumer staples market, focusing on food, beverage, household, personal, and pharmaceutical products. The company’s rigid paper containers are manufactured from 100% recycled paperboard provided primarily from Sonoco’s global paper operations.

Products within the Industrial Paper Packaging segment consist primarily of goods produced from recycled fiber, including:

• Paperboard tubes
• Cores
• Cones and cans
• Partitions
• Paper-based protective materials
• Uncoated recycled paperboard for high-end applications, such as folding cartons, can board, and laminated structures

Genuine Parts

Investors seeking a solid investment should consider purchasing Genuine Parts (NYSE: GPC) shares, as its products remain in high demand, and it has raised the dividend for 69 consecutive years. This global provider of automotive and industrial replacement parts and value-added solutions trades at a very cheap 11.77 times forward earnings estimates and has a 4.1% dividend yield. Founded in 1928, Genuine Parts sells automotive and industrial parts across more than 3,000 locations in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Its Automotive segment distributes replacement parts (other than collision parts) for all makes and models of automobiles, trucks, and other vehicles in North America, Europe, and Australasia. Its main automotive customers are repair and maintenance shops, and its main industrial customers are businesses operating distribution, manufacturing, and production equipment.

The Industrial segment distributes a wide variety of industrial bearings, mechanical and fluid power transmission equipment, including:

• Hydraulic and pneumatic products
• Material handling components
• Related parts and supplies

Its industrial business offers replacement parts and solutions to customers in the maintenance, repair, and operation sector, as well as to original equipment manufacturers.

Raymond James has a Strong Buy rating on the shares with a $145 price target.

The post 5 High-Yielding Dividend Kings Retirees and Boomers Can Buy Today and Safely Hold Forever appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..