3 Retirement Stocks For Income Investors

Retirees need a few key things from their investment portfolios. First, retirement investing is all about income. That’s because in retirement your passive income stream needs to exceed your living expenses to create a truly sustainable retirement.

In addition, safety and growth are important as well when choosing which securities to invest in for retirement.

This is why we often recommend high yield stocks to income investors. The following 3 Dividend Champions are among the right retirement stocks for income investors.

Essex Property Trust (ESS)

Essex Property Trust was founded in 1971. The trust invests in West Coast multi-family residential proprieties where it engages in development, redevelopment, management and acquisition of apartment communities and a few other select properties.

Essex has ownership interests in several hundred apartment communities consisting of over 60,000 apartment homes. The trust has about 1,800 employees and produces approximately $1.6 billion in annual revenue.

Essex is concentrated on the West Coast of the U.S., including cities like Seattle and San Francisco.

On July 30, 2025, Essex Property Trust, Inc. reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2025. Essex Property Trust Inc (ESS) reported strong Q2 2025 results, with core FFO per share $0.07 above guidance.

Same-store portfolio blended rate growth was 3%, and same-property revenue growth midpoint increased by 15 basis points to 3.15% for the year.

Same-property expense midpoint was reduced by 50 basis points to 3.25%, driven by lower property taxes, leading to a 40 basis point improvement in same-property NOI growth, now expected at 3.1% midpoint. Full-year core FFO per share guidance rose by $0.10 to $15.91, with Q3 forecasted at $3.94 midpoint. Financially, net debt to EBITDA was 5.5 times, with $1.5 billion in available liquidity.

ESS has a 3.9% current dividend yield.

New Jersey Resources (NJR)

New Jersey Resources provides natural gas and clean energy services, transportation, distribution, asset management and home services through its five main subsidiaries. The company owns both regulated and non-regulated operations.

NJR’s principal subsidiary, New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG), owns and operates natural gas transportation and distribution infrastructure serving over half a million customers.

NJR Clean Energy Ventures (CEV) invests in and operates solar projects, to provide customers with low-carbon solutions.

NRJ Energy Services manages a portfolio of natural gas transportation and storage assets, as well as provides physical natural gas services to customers in North America.

New Jersey Resources was founded in 1952 and has paid a quarterly dividend since. The company has increased its annual dividend for 28 consecutive years.

New Jersey Resources reported third quarter 2025 results on August 4th, 2025, for the period ending June 30th, 2025. Consolidated net financial earnings (NFE) amounted to $6.2 million, compared to net financial loss of $(8.9) million in Q3 2024 and NFE per share of $0.06 compared to $(0.09) per share one year ago. Management narrowed its guidance for fiscal 2025, now seeing NFEPS in the range of $3.20 to $3.30 (from $3.15 to $3.30 at previous guidance).

NJR currently yields 4.1%.

Hormel Foods (HRL)

Hormel was founded back in 1891 in Minnesota. Since that time, the company has grown into a juggernaut in the food products industry with nearly $10 billion in annual revenue. Hormel has kept with its core competency as a processor of meat products for well over a hundred years, but has also grown into other business lines through acquisitions.

Hormel has a large portfolio of category-leading brands. Just a few of its top brands include include Skippy, SPAM, Applegate, Justin’s, and more than 30 others.

Hormel posted third quarter earnings on August 28th, 2025, and results were very weak, including disappointing guidance for the fourth quarter.

Adjusted earnings-per-share came to 35 cents, which was six cents light of estimates. Revenue was up 4.5% year-over-year to $3.03 billion, beating estimates by $50 million. Organic net sales were up 6% year-over-year on volume gains of 4%, with price and mix comprising the other 2%.

The company also noted its cost savings program is working and helping save about $125 million annually. Gross profit was flat year-on-year, with inflationary headwinds offset by top line gains. The company noted 400 basis points of raw material cost inflation, a massive headwind to margins.

Cash flow from operations were $157 million, while capex was $72 million, and dividends paid were $159 million. Guidance for Q4 was for net sales of ~$3.2 billion, about $50 million light of consensus. Earnings are expected at ~39 cents.

HRL has increased its dividend for over 50 consecutive years, and currently yields 4.9%.