These Five Stocks Just Raised their Dividends

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If you’re looking to protect your portfolio from incessant volatility, jump into dividend stocks.

For one, dividend stocks can help smooth out the ride when markets drop. Two, companies that consistently pay dividends tend to be safer, high-quality businesses with a history of weathering downturns. Three, it allows you to collect passive income throughout the year.

So, if it’s safety you’re after here are five hot stocks that just raised their dividends again.

Oracle 

Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) just increased its dividend by 25% to 50 cents and is payable on April 23 to shareholders of record as of April 10. The new dividend, which is $2 annualized, represents a yield of about 1.5% using the stock’s current price of $134.64. Better, the company has consistently increased its dividend over the last 10 years and is likely to increase it even more.

We also have to consider the stock is severely oversold at support last tested in mid-2024. While the stock slipped on disappointing company forecasts, investors are overlooking its healthy backlog of revenue. In fact, its backlog soared 62% year over year to $130 billion as demand for its cloud offerings continues to grow.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank have a buy rating on Oracle stock with a $200 price target. The firm believes Oracle is one of the strongest cloud service providers.

Applied Materials 

With a yield of 1.27%, Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) raised its dividend by 15% to 46 cents per share. Its latest dividend will be paid on June 12 to shareholders of record as of May 22.  The company also targets sending more than 80% of its free cash flow back to shareholders.

The company recently boosted its stock buybacks to $10 billion. Its stock was upgraded to a buy rating with a price target of $195 by analysts at Jefferies. President and CEO Gary Dickerson just paid $6.9 billion for 50,000 AMAT shares at an average price of $137.30. The last time he bought the stock was in September 2013 when he picked up 30,000 shares.

Equity Residential

With a yield of 4.14%, Equity Residential (NYSE:EQR) is one of the largest multifamily REITs on the market.  It has about 312 properties across the U.S., including 84,018 rental units. It just paid out a dividend of $0.6925 on April 17 to shareholders of record as of March 31.

Recent earnings were also healthy.

In its fourth quarter, funds from operations (FFO) of $1 was in line with expectations. Revenue of $766.78 million, up 5.4% year over year, beat by $11.85 million.

“Our 2024 operating results were solid and generally consistent with our expectations,” said President and CEO Mark J. Parrell. “We expect a steady improvement in our same-store revenue results as we go through 2025 driven by higher lease rate growth, continued elevated occupancy levels and significant contributions from other income in 2025.”

Toll Brothers 

Oversold, Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL) also just raised its dividend by 9% to 25 cents per share. That will be paid out on April 25 to shareholders of record as of April 11. It’s also the fifth consecutive year the company raised its dividend. The luxury real estate sector is still in high demand.

Even with higher interest rates, affluent buyers are still buying. “People with the means to buy high-end homes are jumping in now because they feel confident prices will continue to rise,” said David Palmer, a Redfin Premier agent, as quoted by Kiplinger.com. “They’re ready to buy with more optimism and less apprehension. It’s a similar sentiment on the selling side.”

Technically, the stock is just starting to pivot from lows last tested in late 2023. From its current price of $94.21, we’d like to see the Toll Brothers’ stock retest $130 initially.

EPR Properties  

With a yield of just over 7.26%, EPR Properties (NYSE:EPR) is a REIT that invests in amusement parks, movie theaters, ski resorts, and other entertainment properties. It just raised its monthly dividend by 3.5% to $0.295 per share.

It just paid out its latest monthly dividend of $0.295 on April 15 to shareholders of record as of March 31. Annualized, the dividend comes out to $3.54, which is 3.5% higher than a year earlier.

Recent earnings were solid, too. Its fourth-quarter funds from operations (FFO) of $1.23 beat by a penny. Revenue of $177.23 million, up 3.1% year over year, beat by about $16 million.

“For the year, we deployed more than $263 million into accretive investments to grow our portfolio of differentiated experiential real estate. We also continued to make progress reducing our theatre and education investments and recycling those disposition proceeds into other experiential assets. Supported by our strong liquidity position and balance sheet, we have a solid pipeline of relationship-driven investment opportunities and maintain our commitment to prudent capital allocation,” said Chairman and CEO Greg Silvers in an earnings release.

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