Just Set It and Forget It With These Dividend Stocks

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Just Set It and Forget It With These Dividend Stocks.

investing ideas :: 10hrs ago :: source - 24/7 wallstreet

By David Moadel

Quick Read

AT&T (T) stock is a low-beta asset with a nearly 4% dividend yield.
Altria (MO) stock gained nearly 60% in five years and isn’t prone to sky-high volatility.
Home Depot (HD) stock moves about as fast as the S&P 500, and its 2.48% yield makes it hard to resist.
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Seasoned investors know it, but some traders might have to learn this lesson the hard way. When you churn through your portfolio with frequent trades and a high turnover rate, you're likely to underperform a patient set-it-and-forget-it strategy.

For most investors, it's better to simply buy and hold a handful of dividend leaders instead of constantly chasing new stock-market trends. As long as you concentrate on high-quality businesses, share-price growth, and respectable yield, you could set yourself up nicely with a veritable passive-income machine.

Ultimately, you may want to diversify your portfolio into dozens or even hundreds of stocks (with the help of exchange traded funds (ETFs)). To get you started with a few prime set-it-and-forget-it dividend picks, however, I'll give you three carefully selected stocks today for your consideration.

AT&T (T)

If you're going to buy, hold, and forget about a stock, it makes sense to invest in a long-established market leader like AT&T (NYSE:T). This telecommunications firm has been around for a very long time, and AT&T stock isn't prone to bouts of extreme volatility.

We can actually quantify this with a metric called beta. AT&T stock has a five-year monthly beta of 0.61, which means that the stock has historically moved 61% times as fast (both up and down) as the S&P 500.

Yet, even if AT&T stock is a comparatively slow mover, it still has growth potential. Over the past five years, the stock is up 32%, which isn't bad at all.

What's really appealing about AT&T stock, though, is that it's an outstanding passive income source. Impressively, this stock pays a 3.98% annual dividend yield.

Even if you're a passive investor, you can still take full advantage of what AT&T has to offer. If your broker allows you to automatically reinvest the dividends into more AT&T shares, then you could leverage the magic of compounding for a maximum wealth-building effect.

Altria (MO)

Our second set-it-and-forget-it pick is, of all things, a tobacco grower. It's a huge company called Altria (NYSE:MO), which still makes a boatload of money from tobacco products but is also pivoting toward smoke-free alternatives.

If you're willing to keep an open mind, then you could reap substantial rewards over time with Altria stock. The company pays a hefty 6.08% annual dividend yield, so this is a passive income generator to consider in 2026.

The share price is also likely to increase if you wait long enough. It's reassuring that, during the past five years, Altria stock gained nearly 60% and that doesn't include the dividend distributions.

Furthermore, you won't have to lose sleep at night worrying about MO stock making huge swings. Altria's five-year monthly beta is quite low at just 0.5 or 50%, indicating that this tobacco-market investment is a safety play you can count on.

Home Depot (HD)

Selection number three isn't a fixer-upper at all; it's more like a sturdy home you can live in for decades. Truly, home improvement supply store chain Home Depot (NYSE:HD) is a premier business with a track record of rewarding its loyal shareholders.

The HD stock price is up 47% over the past five years, and its 1.05% five-year monthly beta means it has moved nearly in tandem with the stock market overall. To put it another way, you can just leave Home Depot in your portfolio and relax.

Granted, Home Depot is a "cyclical" business, meaning that its financial condition depends largely on how the broader economy is doing. Nevertheless, it's a positive sign that Home Depot continues to pay quarterly dividends throughout the ups and downs of the economy.

Speaking of dividends, Home Depot stock's 2.48% really sweetens the deal for investors. It's yet another reason to grab some HD shares and let them provide you with fantastic long-term value.

More Stocks to Consider

We're off to a terrific start with AT&T, Altria, and Home Depot stocks, but I don't want to leave you just yet. So you can continue your journey into the world of dividend-paying set-it-and-forget-it stocks, here are a few more to consider:

Dow (NYSE:DOW)
United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS)
International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM)
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)
Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO)

These are all blue-chip dividend deliverers that deserve your time and attention. The next step is to investigate further into dividend stocks that you won't need to watch constantly -- and of course, you'll want to watch this space for frequent updates, investment concepts, and much more.

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