The 10-Year Treasury Pays Nearly 5% These 6 Dividend Stocks Still Pay More
Treasury yields are making income investors work harder than they have in years, and most dividend stocks no longer clear the bar. Six still do, but yield alone is the easy part of the analysis.
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Cash instruments are paying serious money again. The 10-Year Treasury yielded nearly 5% to close out the week, sitting at the top of its trailing 12-month range. That is the hurdle any dividend stock has to clear before an income investor takes on equity risk, and it is a real hurdle. A Treasury coupon is contractual. A dividend is a decision the board can reverse next quarter. Clearing the yield bar is necessary, but nowhere near sufficient, and plenty of former income staples no longer clear it at all. The six names below still pay more than the 10-year, and each one gets scrutinized on coverage, not just headline yield.
Verizon Communications
Verizon (NYSE:VZ | VZ Price Prediction) yields 5.54% on a forward payout of $2.83 per share, with the latest quarterly declared at $0.7075. The safety read is straightforward. Free cash flow reached $6.43 billion in Q2 2026, up 27.1% year over year, and the company guided full-year free cash flow to $21.94 billion to $22.14 billion against adjusted EPS of $4.99 to $5.04. That is comfortable coverage of the payout and leaves room for an expanded $4.5 billion buyback. The dividend schedule shows consecutive quarterly increases going back years, with the payment stepping up from $0.6775 to $0.69 to $0.7075 across the last four quarters. The bull case is a covered, growing high-yield telecom payout backed by improving unit economics and postpaid phone churn of 0.92%. The caveat: $136.5 billion in unsecured debt and net leverage of 2.5x adjusted EBITDA mean any rate spike hits refi economics and equity valuation together.
Altria Group
Altria (NYSE:MO) is an ultra-high-yield name at 6.22% on a trailing payout of $4.24 and a freshly raised quarterly of $1.11 declared on August 27, 2026, which annualizes to $4.44. On coverage, management reaffirmed full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $5.56 to $5.72, comfortably above the new payout. The company also paid $1.8 billion in Q1 2026 dividends while repurchasing 4.5 million shares at an average $62.33. Dividend history shows a long chain of increases with the quarterly amount stepping from $0.80 in 2019 to $1.11 in 2026. The bull case is a cash cow with pricing power funding both dividend growth and buybacks. The caveat is secular: US cigarette industry volumes were down about 5% and Marlboro retail share fell 1.4 points to 39.7%. Balance sheet quality also carries a footnote in negative stockholders’ equity of $3.2 billion.
Enterprise Products Partners
Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) is a midstream MLP yielding 5.66%. The forward distribution is $2.24 per unit, and the Q2 quarterly was $0.56. The right coverage metric here is distributable cash flow, and operational DCF hit $2.3 billion in Q2 2026, a record, providing 1.9x coverage of the cash distribution. Enterprise distributed $1.2 billion to unitholders and retained $1.1 billion for growth capex and buybacks in the quarter, and it has $6.5 billion of organic growth projects under construction. Distribution history shows sequential quarterly increases, with the quarterly amount rising from $0.515 in early 2024 to $0.56 in mid-2026. The bull case is a hard-asset cash generator with almost 2x coverage of a growing distribution and a long streak of hikes. The caveat is structural: unitholders receive a K-1, and NGL and crude realizations swing with global cycles, with WTI averaging $92.71 in Q2 providing an outsized tailwind that can reverse.
Realty Income
Realty Income (NYSE:O) is the monthly-payer net-lease REIT, yielding 5.30% on an annualized dividend of $3.252 per share as of June 30, 2026. For a REIT the correct coverage metric is AFFO, not GAAP EPS, and Q2 AFFO/share was $1.09, up 3.8% year over year, against Q2 monthly dividends totaling $0.8115. Full-year 2026 AFFO guidance was raised to $4.44 to $4.45. Balance sheet is investment grade, with Fitch assigning an ‘A’ rating, Stable. Portfolio occupancy stood at 98.8% and rent recapture at 102.7%. On the streak, Q2 marked the 115th consecutive quarterly dividend increase. The bull case is a durable monthly income stream backed by AFFO growth and an A-rated balance sheet, now expanding into a $6 billion hyperscale data center JV. The caveat is duration risk: net debt/adjusted EBITDAre ticked to 5.4x, and the shares are rate-sensitive.
Ares Capital
Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC) is a Business Development Company and the highest ultra-high-yield name on this list at 9.75%. The Q3 2026 dividend was declared at $0.48 per share, record 9/15/2026, pay 9/30/2026. The right coverage metric for a BDC is core net investment income, and Q2 core EPS came in at $0.47, essentially covering the payout. Portfolio scale is $29.35 billion across 619 borrowers, with 71% floating-rate at fair value and a weighted average yield on debt of 10.3%. Liquidity sits near $6.0 billion with no meaningful near-term maturities, and Ares just priced $750 million of 6.250% unsecured notes due 2033 on September 8, 2026. Management flagged 17 consecutive years of stable or increasing regular quarterly dividends. The caveat is credit: non-accruals rose to 2.4% at amortized cost from 1.8% at year-end 2025, and NAV/share slipped to $19.35 on $183 million in net unrealized portfolio losses. Middle-market credit is where dividend risk earns its yield.
Pfizer
Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) rounds out the list at 6.19%, another ultra-high-yield reading, on a quarterly of $0.43 and a forward payout of $1.72. Coverage on adjusted earnings looks fine: 2026 guidance calls for adjusted diluted EPS of $2.80 to $3.00 on revenue of $59.5 billion to $62.5 billion, and Q1 2026 adjusted EPS of $0.75 exceeded expectations of $0.72. Free cash flow yield sits at 5.73%. Dividend history confirms a run of quarterly increases from $0.38 in 2020 to $0.43 in 2025 and 2026. The bull case is a covered ultra-high yield alongside a growing non-COVID base, with launched/acquired products up 22% operationally and effective Vyndamax US exclusivity extended to June 2031. The caveat is patent-cliff and policy overhang: Comirnaty fell 59% and Paxlovid 63% year over year, and generic/biosimilar erosion is a $1.5 billion revenue headwind in 2026.
Reading the List
Every one of these names pays more than the 10-year, and each one pays for a distinct reason. Enterprise and Realty Income are covered by hard-asset cash flow. Verizon and Altria are covered by durable operating earnings and buybacks. Pfizer is covered by adjusted EPS but carries real patent risk. Ares is covered by floating-rate NII while non-accruals are drifting the wrong way. Yield beats the Treasury; the rest of the work is deciding which of these coverage stories you actually want to underwrite for the next several years of retirement income. (When a headline yield starts flashing double digits, that scrutiny matters even more, and we put the seven warning signs a big dividend is about to be cut in a free report here.)
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Chris Lange is a financial and geopolitical writer with more than a decade of experience covering a myriad of topics. He has published thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St., with past coverage focused heavily on stocks, IPOs, healthcare, defense, global affairs, and technology.
His work has been quoted, or referenced by a number of outlets including Business Insider, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. A graduate of Southwestern University, he studied business with a focus on investments and has previous experience in banking and startups.
When not reading or writing the news, he is following his passion for Lacrosse, playing chess, or building solar projects with his dad.
