3 Dividend Kings For Safe Retirement Income

Low interest rates and high valuations have made it difficult to find quality high-yield investments for retirement income. Difficult, but not impossible.

That is where the Dividend Kings can be useful. Sure Dividend helps investors live a more comfortable and stress-free retirement (or early retirement) by finding quality, high-yield investments.

We believe the Dividend Kings are among the best stocks to buy and hold for the long run. With that in mind, the following 3 Dividend Kings can help investors build safe retirement income.

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 59 consecutive years.

Kimberly-Clark (KMB)

The Kimberly-Clark Corporation is a global consumer products company that operates in 175 countries and sells disposable consumer goods, including paper towels, diapers, and tissues. It operates through two segments that each house many popular brands: Personal Care Segment (Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex, Depend, Poise) and the Consumer Tissue segment (Kleenex, Scott, Cottonelle, and Viva), generating about $20 billion in annual revenue.

Kimberly-Clark posted third quarter earnings on October 30th, 2025, and results were better than expected on both the top and bottom lines. Adjusted earnings-per-share came to $1.82, which was seven cents ahead of estimates. Revenue was flat year-over-year at $4.15 billion, but did best estimates by $50 million.

Sales included negative impacts of about 2.2% from the exit of the private label diaper business in the US. Organic sales were up 2.5%, which was driven by a 2.4% gain in volume, while portfolio mix and price were flat. Gross margin was 36.8% of revenue on an adjusted basis, off 170 basis points year-over-year. This reflected strong productivity gains that were more than offset by unfavorable pricing net of cost inflation.

Operating profit was $683 million on an adjusted basis, driven by lower marketing and R&D costs, as well as efficiency efforts. Net interest expense was $59 million, up from $49 million a year ago. We now see $7.50 in adjusted earnings-per-share for this year, which would be the highest since 2020, if achieved. Separately, Kimberly-Clark announced its intention to buy Kenvue (KVUE) for $48.7 billion in a cash and stock deal.

KMB has increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years,

Automatic Data Processing (ADP)

Automatic Data Processing is one of the largest business services outsourcing companies in the world. The company provides payroll services, human resources technology, and other business operations to more than 700,000 corporate customers.

ADP posted first quarter earnings on October 29th, 2025, and results were better than expected on both the top and bottom lines. Adjusted earnings-per-share came to $2.49, which was a nickel ahead of estimates.

Revenue was up 7.2% year-over-year to $5.18 billion, beating estimates by $50 million. Expenses were $3.98 billion, down from $4.03 billion in Q4, but higher from $3.70 billion a year earlier. Adjusted EBIT margin was 25.5% of revenue, up from 23.7% in Q4 and flat to 25.5% a year ago. Employer Services revenue was $3.49 billion, up 7% year-over-year. Segment earnings were $1.23 billion, up 6%, while pretax margin was down from 35.7% of revenue to 35.2%.

PEO Services revenue was $1.69 billion, up 7% year-over-year, while segment earnings fell to $219 million. Pretax margin was 13% of revenue, off from 14.3% a year ago. The company raised its dividend to $1.70 per share quarterly, which was up 10.4% from the prior payout. That’s the 51st consecutive year of dividend increase.