Strong businesses with high dividend payouts, competitive advantages, and future growth potential can be phenomenal long-term investments.
The beauty of earning passive income is that it allows investors to generate income for doing almost nothing. Quality dividend stocks can grow their payouts each year, even during recessions.
The following 3 dividend stocks have high dividend yields, making them ideal choices for passive income investments.
Hormel Foods (HRL)
Hormel Foods was founded in 1891 in Minnesota. Since that time, the company has grown into a $13 billion market capitalization juggernaut in the food products industry with about $12 billion in annual revenue. The company sells its products in 80 countries worldwide, and its brands include Skippy, SPAM, Applegate, Justin’s, and more than 30 others.
In addition, Hormel is a member of the Dividend Kings, having increased its dividend for 60 consecutive years.
Hormel posted fourth quarter and full-year earnings on December 4th, 2025. The company saw 32 cents in adjusted earnings-per-share for the quarter, beating estimates by two cents. Revenue was up 1.6% year-over-year and missed estimates by $30 million, coming in at $3.19 billion.
Adjusted operating margin was 7.7% of revenue, while cash flow from operations was $323 million. Volumes in the fourth quarter were flat in the retail segment, down 5% in foodservice, and down 7% in the international segment.
Hormel raised its dividend for the 60th consecutive year, this time adding 0.9% to a new payout of $1.20 per share annually.
Hormel’s main competitive advantage is its ~40 products that are either #1 or #2 in their category. Hormel has brands that are proven, and that leadership position is difficult for competitors to supplant.
MPLX LP (MPLX)
MPLX LP is a Master Limited Partnership that was formed by the Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) in 2012. In 2019, MPLX acquired Andeavor Logistics LP.
The business operates in two segments: Logistics and Storage, which relates to crude oil and refined petroleum products; the other segment is Gathering and Processing, which relates to natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs).
On October 28th, 2025, MPLX announced a quarterly distribution of $1.0765 per unit, which marks a 12.5% raise.
In early February, MPLX reported (2/3/26) financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. Adjusted EBITDA grew 2% while distributable cash flow (DCF) per share dipped -2% over the prior year’s quarter. The MLP reported higher tariff rates but lower NGL prices.
MPLX maintained a decent consolidated debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 3.7x and a healthy distribution coverage ratio of 1.3x. The recently acquired assets in the Utica and Permian basins have begun to generate cash flows.
Pipelines tend to have a stronghold in terms of extracting economic rents. Building pipelines requires years of approvals and ongoing regulation. As such, the incumbent positions enjoy “toll-booth” type business models, with a good portion of their revenue fixed via fee-based and “take or pay” agreements. MPLX in particular has a strong position in the Marcellus / Utica region, with long-term contracts from Marathon.
MPLX units currently yield 7.5%.
HP Inc. (HPQ)
Hewlett-Packard’s story dates back to 1935 with two men in a one-car garage making a huge impact on electronic test equipment, computing, data storage, networking, software and services that has lasted for more than eight decades.
HP reported its fourth quarter (fiscal 2025) results on November 25th, 2025. The company reported revenue of $14.6 billion for the quarter, which beat the analyst consensus estimate by a solid $150 million, and which was up 4% from the previous year’s quarter. This was a bit better than the performance of the company during the previous quarter, when revenues had grown at a slightly slower rate.
Non-GAAP earnings-per-share totaled $0.93 during the fourth quarter, which was just ahead of the analyst consensus estimate. HP Inc. saw its operating margin decline over the last year.
The company currently forecasts adjusted earnings-per-share in a range of $0.73 to $0.81 for the first quarter of the current fiscal year, which would mean a weaker result versus the most recent quarter.
For the current year, HP is expected to generate earnings-per-share of around $3.05, with management forecasting free cash flow at around $2.8 billion.
On November 26th, 2025, HP announced that it was raising its quarterly dividend 3.7% to $0.30 per share, extending the company dividend growth streak to 15 years. HPQ stock currently yields 6.2%.
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