A high dividend yield is exciting until it gets cut. The biggest yields often belong to the companies the market trusts least, so the headline number can't tell you whether a dividend is a bargain or a warning. We took the most popular high-yield US stocks and ranked them by how safe the dividend actually is, using payout coverage, free cash flow, and dividend history straight from SEC EDGAR filings. The safest are first.
How we ranked them
Every stock below yields at least 4% (roughly 3× the S&P 500 average). We then scored each one with our 0-100 dividend score, which weighs three things from each company's filings:
- Payout ratio, dividends as a share of earnings. Lower leaves room to keep paying through a downturn.
- Free-cash-flow coverage, free cash flow divided by the dividend. Above 1.0× means the payout is funded by real cash, not borrowing.
- Dividend-growth streak, consecutive years of raising the payout, a strong signal of how the company treats the dividend.
The result shows why the score matters: two stocks can both yield around 6% and score 94 versus 58. Same income, very different risk. Here is each one, safest first, with why its dividend is, or isn't, as solid as the yield suggests.
10 popular high-yield dividend stocks, ranked by safety
1. Comcast (CMCSA), 5.4% yield, score 94
The safest high yield on the list, and the benchmark every other name here is measured against. Comcast's cable, broadband and NBCUniversal businesses generate enormous, recurring free cash flow, enough to cover the dividend more than four times over, which is why the dividend score is the highest here. It has raised the payout for at least 17 straight years, and a low payout ratio leaves plenty of room to keep raising even if one division has a soft year. The risk to watch is competitive: broadband subscriber growth has slowed, but that pressures the share price (and props up the yield) far more than it threatens the dividend itself. If you want a 5%+ yield you can mostly stop worrying about, this is it.
2. HP (HPQ), 4.7% yield, safety 88
A high yield funded by steady, unglamorous cash flow from PCs and printers. HP Inc. has raised its dividend every year since it split from Hewlett-Packard in 2015, and free cash flow covers the payout about 3.5 times, so the near-5% yield rests on real cash rather than financial engineering. Growth is the catch: the PC market is mature and printing is in slow secular decline, so don't expect rapid dividend increases on top of the yield. What you get instead is a lot of current income from a cash-generative, shareholder-friendly business that also buys back stock aggressively. A reliable income holding as long as you're realistic about the growth.
3. Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), 4.6% yield, safety 82
Big pharma with one of the most impressive records here: 17 straight years of increases and, remarkably, more than 90 consecutive years of paying a dividend. The market keeps the share price low and the yield elevated because of patent-cliff worries (several big drugs lose exclusivity this decade), but coverage of 2.3 times and that long history make the dividend itself dependable while the company works to refill its pipeline. The key insight: the thing depressing the stock (pipeline risk) is largely separate from the thing protecting the dividend (current cash flow). A solid choice if you can stomach the pharma overhang.
4. PepsiCo (PEP), 4.0% yield, safety 63
A consumer-staples cornerstone (Pepsi, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, Quaker) and a genuine Dividend King: it has raised the payout for 53 consecutive years, through every recession since the early 1970s. The yield only recently crossed 4% as the stock pulled back on slowing volumes, which is exactly why it makes this list. Coverage is tighter here, around 1.1 times free cash flow, which is what holds the dividend score in the 60s rather than the 90s, but a half-century streak tells you how seriously management guards the dividend. You're trading some coverage cushion for a brand-name staple and an almost unbroken history of raises.
5. Altria (MO), 6.1% yield, safety 63
The Marlboro maker pairs a 6% yield with serious pricing power, and is itself a Dividend King with 56 years of increases. Free cash flow still covers the dividend and the streak is fully intact, so this is a dependable payer today. The catch is structural: US cigarette volumes decline every year, so Altria leans on price hikes and its stakes in other businesses to keep growing, and a high payout ratio leaves less margin for error than at Comcast or HP. It's a high, well-defended yield that comes with a real secular question mark you should be comfortable owning.
6. Kimberly-Clark (KMB), 4.9% yield, safety 63
Another Dividend King, with 53 consecutive years of increases behind brands like Kleenex, Huggies, Scott and Cottonelle. These are the kind of everyday products people keep buying in any economy, which is what makes the dividend so durable across decades. Coverage is on the tighter side at roughly 1.1 times, so the dividend score sits in the 60s, and growth is slow: this is a defensive, steady-eddie payer rather than a fast riser. If you want a near-5% yield from a recession-resistant staple with a five-decade record, Kimberly-Clark fits.
7. AT&T (T), 5.1% yield, safety 62
A special case worth understanding. AT&T was a 30-plus-year dividend raiser until it cut the payout by roughly 46% in 2022 after spinning off WarnerMedia, and it has held the dividend flat ever since, so unlike everything else here it has no active growth streak. The bull case is that the rebased dividend is now well covered (about 2.2 times) and far more sustainable than the stretched one it replaced, as management directs cash toward paying down debt and building fiber. You're buying a roughly 5% yield that is stable but, for now, not growing, with a cut already in the rear-view mirror.
8. Realty Income (O), 5.2% yield, safety 58
"The Monthly Dividend Company," a retail-focused REIT that pays every single month and has raised the dividend for more than 30 consecutive years, with over 660 straight monthly payments to its name. REITs are legally required to distribute most of their income, so their payout ratios always look high on an earnings basis, read coverage in funds-from-operations terms instead, and the decades-long monthly streak is the real safety signal. The score sits in the 50s mainly because of that structurally high payout and interest-rate sensitivity, not because the dividend is in danger. A favorite of income investors who like getting paid monthly.
9. Verizon (VZ), 5.7% yield, safety 56
Nineteen consecutive years of dividend increases and a near-6% yield make Verizon one of the most popular income stocks in the market. The reason the dividend score lands in the mid-50s rather than higher is the balance sheet: years of spectrum and 5G investment have left Verizon with heavy debt, and the dividend, while covered by cash flow, has less cushion than a Comcast or HP. The wireless business itself is stable and cash-generative, so the payout is not on the edge, but leverage is the thing to keep an eye on. A high, long-standing yield with a balance-sheet caveat.
10. Pfizer (PFE), 6.0% yield, score 58
The highest yield here and the lowest dividend score, a pairing that is itself the lesson. Pfizer has actually raised its dividend for 16 straight years (rebuilding after a 2009 cut tied to the Wyeth acquisition), but after the COVID windfall faded, earnings dropped sharply and free-cash-flow coverage now sits right around 1 times. That leaves little margin, which is why the score is the weakest on this list even though the streak is long. Management has been clear it intends to defend the dividend, but this is the one name here where a high yield genuinely comes with elevated risk, exactly what the score is telling you.
Why a high yield isn't automatically risky
Yield is just the annual dividend divided by the share price, so it can be "high" for opposite reasons: a strong, growing payout (good), or a falling price because the market doubts the dividend (bad). What separates them is coverage. Comcast generates more than 4× its dividend in free cash flow, a completely different situation from a company straining to fund the same yield. A high payout you can rely on beats a higher one you can't.
How to check a dividend's safety yourself
Three numbers do most of the work, and all three come from the filings:
- Payout ratio, below ~60% leaves a cushion; consistently above ~90% is a warning.
- FCF coverage, above 1.0× means real cash funds the dividend (often more honest than the earnings payout ratio).
- Growth streak, a long, unbroken history is one of the strongest safety signals. Several names here (PepsiCo, Kimberly-Clark, Altria) are Dividend Kings with 50-plus-year records.
Intrinsiqq computes the coverage figures for every US stock from SEC filings and folds them into one dividend score, so you don't have to read 10-Ks yourself. Looking for compounders instead of income? See our companion guide to the best dividend growth stocks, or work out what reinvesting the payments adds over a full holding period with the dividend reinvestment calculator.
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Yield, payout ratio, FCF coverage, growth streak, and a 0-100 dividend score, computed from SEC filings, no account needed.
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