The goal is to build a portfolio you can comfortably hold through difficult markets. That’s where these three funds come in.

ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF 

For investors who want exposure to dividend growers without choosing individual stocks, NOBL offers a straightforward approach. The fund follows the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index. Its expense ratio remains 0.35%, or about $35 annually for every $10,000 invested. 

ProShares reported a 30-day SEC yield of 2.09% and a trailing 12-month yield of 2.01%, both as of August 31, 2026. Some of its top holdings to date include Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), Aflac (NYSE: AFL), and PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP), among others. That gives investors exposure to businesses across several industries through one purchase.

The appeal is easy to understand: These companies have demonstrated a willingness and ability to increase shareholder payments over time.

Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Value ETF 

SCHV takes a broader approach, giving investors exposure to large U.S. companies classified as value stocks. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Value Total Stock Market Index and charges just 0.04% annually. That works out to about $4 per year on a $10,000 investment. Its 30-day SEC yield was 1.84% as of October 5, 2026.

Some of its top holdings include Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). SCHV can appeal to investors who want broad value exposure at a very low cost.

Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF 

For investors placing greater emphasis on income, SCHD offers another option.

The fund tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index and maintains an expense ratio of 0.06%. That’s approximately $6 annually for every $10,000 invested. Its 30-day SEC yield was 3.37% as of October 5, 2026. It also has a distribution yield of 3%. Its holdings included Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN), Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), and Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO).

That mix gives investors access to dividend-paying businesses across technology, consumer products, energy, and other industries.

Build a Portfolio You Can Stick With

Building a more resilient portfolio starts with understanding what you own and why you own it. NOBL emphasizes companies with long records of dividend increases. SCHV offers broad exposure to large value stocks at a low cost. SCHD puts greater emphasis on dividend income. Each offers a different way to approach the same goal: growing your money while collecting income along the way.

That doesn’t mean you need all three. Their holdings can overlap, so combining them won’t necessarily provide as much additional diversification as you might expect. A better starting point is to consider what your portfolio needs. Are you looking for income to help cover expenses, dividends to reinvest, or broader exposure beyond growth stocks?

It also helps to look beyond the yield. Fees, holdings, and the fund’s strategy all matter. An attractive payout means less if the investment takes on more risk than you’re comfortable holding through a downturn.

These ETFs won’t eliminate market losses, but they can be useful pieces of a long-term plan. Choose investments that fit your goals, keep your expectations realistic, and give your strategy time to work. A portfolio you understand and can stick with is often more useful than one built around whatever happens to be grabbing headlines.

Philip Morris Raised Its Quarterly Payout to $1.60

Philip Morris raised its quarterly dividend from $1.47 to $1.60 per share. That is an 8.8% increase. That’s payable on October 26 to shareholders of record as of October 2. Philip Morris still sells cigarettes, but it has also built a growing business around products such as heated tobacco devices and nicotine pouches. Those smoke-free products brought in about 42% of its net revenue in the second quarter of 2026, according to the company.

The company also just hiked its guidance. It raised its full-year diluted EPS forecast to a range of $7.28 to $7.43. The company also updated its third-quarter adjusted diluted EPS forecast to a range of $2.29 to $2.34. The midpoint of the range, $2.315, is ahead of the estimate of $2.25.

Texas Instruments Raised Its Dividend to $1.52

Texas Instruments just raised its dividend to $1.52 from $1.42. That’s payable on November 10 to shareholders of record as of October 30. Analysts at Citi also reiterated a buy rating on the stock, noting that, “We remain buyers of TXN, our top analog pick, as its manufacturing capacity should position it to capture a greater share,” as quoted by Seeking Alpha.

Earnings and guidance were also strong. In its second quarter, EPS OF $2.14 beat by 20 cents. Revenue of $5.46 billion, up 22.7% year over year, beat by $220 million. The company added that “Revenue increased 13% sequentially and 23% from the same quarter a year ago with broad growth led by industrial, data center and automotive,” as reported by Seeking Alpha. “TI’s third quarter outlook is for revenue in the range of $5.65 billion to $6.15 billion vs. $5.24B consensus and earnings per share between $2.23 and $2.57 vs. $1.95 consensus.”

Microsoft Raised Its Payout to 98 Cents

Microsoft raised its quarterly dividend from $0.91 to $0.98 per share, an increase of about 8%. That’s payable on December 10 to shareholders of record as of November 19.

Helping, the stock was just upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel, as the investment firm said the tech giant is “getting back on track,” reported Seeking Alpha. “We are increasingly comfortable with the company’s ability to sustain mid/upper teens revenue growth as open-weight model advancement has boosted management’s LLM-agnostic strategy (Azure & Copilot), COGS/OPEX operational efficiencies are supportive of stable operating margins, and strong cash flows should limit the company’s need for outside financing,” they added.

The firm also increased its price target on Microsoft to $575 from $530 and added that it expects “accelerating” revenue growth in Azure.

What These Dividend Raises Mean for Investors

Dividend increases are encouraging because they put more cash in shareholders’ pockets. They can also show that a company feels confident about its ability to keep generating cash in the years ahead. 

These companies give investors three different businesses to consider for income. Philip Morris is growing its smoke-free product business, Texas Instruments is seeing stronger demand across several markets, and Microsoft continues to benefit from its cloud business. Each company is also returning more cash to shareholders. And if you’re looking to build a portfolio that can pay you while you hold it, PM, TXN, and MSFT are worth a closer look.

Of course, a dividend increase doesn’t guarantee that a stock will rise. Investors still need to consider the price they’re paying and whether each company can sustain its growth. But for anyone building a portfolio with both income and long-term potential in mind, these three stocks deserve a place on the watchlist.

Of course, Wall Street doesn’t hand out gifts for options traders. As you would expect, there’s a major catch behind the aforementioned spread: the market doesn’t believe it’s a probabilistically reasonable transaction.

To break even on this trade, TXN stock must reach $274.20 at expiration (Oct. 16). On paper, that’s only 4.09% away from Monday’s closing price of $263.42. Given that the current implied volatility (IV) of 38.67% is higher than the historical volatility of 32.89%, combined with a 60-month beta of 1.33, there does seem to be the potential fuel for TXN to hit the necessary threshold.

However, the Street believes that the chance is only 36.3%. Making matters worse, OptionCharts’ Probability Distribution screener suggests that the odds of Texas Instruments stock rising through the $280 strike sit at 29.55%.

You don’t need to run a formal expected value calculation to recognize the dilemma. If you were to trade this exact TXN stock trade multiple times across parallel universes, your portfolio would quickly fall into negative territory. Basically, the full-loss ratio will outnumber the full-win ratio. And that would likely cause financial experts to steer you away from this “opportunity.”

Nevertheless, by accepting these low percentages, we are presupposing that whatever framework is utilized to calculate them is representative of the market reality of Texas Instruments’ stock. I don’t automatically grant that opening premise — and neither should you.

Black-Sholes is Not the Exclusive Solution for TXN Stock

As a standard practice, the pricing of derivative contracts and their implied probabilities stem from the Black-Scholes family of calculations. That’s not necessarily problematic, and that’s not my argument. My point is simpler and more defensible: if you accept Black-Scholes, if you let it be the final arbiter of your trading decisions, you are accepting both the benefits and the drawbacks of its market theology.

This theology is the random walk. Black-Scholes assumes that once the current price (the factual coordinate) and IV are input into its framework, the output mathematically follows a random path. Thus, the model doesn’t necessarily provide the “true” probability of Texas Instruments stock hitting $280 on Oct. 16.

Rather, the presupposition is that if TXN stock follows a random walk from now until the expiration date, the odds of hitting the desired threshold are 29.55%. Therefore, the question isn’t whether the math is correct; it is. The question is whether TXN will truly trade randomly.

It can be possible, for instance, that Texas Instruments stock may trade nonrandomly. And that, I would argue, is a far more reasonable presupposition.

If we were to play devil’s advocate, a random market would suggest that there’s no reason to do any kind of analysis on TXN stock. Think about it — what would the point be if the future of Texas Instruments were completely independent of its past? It would be utterly pointless to pick up a chart or read a quarterly statement because no matter what, TXN’s price discovery would be random.

Aligning with Our Own Beliefs

I’ve been in the financial publication sector for a long time. While my anecdotal observation doesn’t necessarily hold privileged weight, I can tell you with full confidence that I have never met a contributor who genuinely believed the markets were truly random.

In fact, if it were proven that the market is random, it would destroy the whole finpub industry.

Let’s consider the discipline of technical analysis. No matter what you think of it, the main premise behind the technical approach is that chart patterns embed probabilistic inferences about the future. Fundamental analysis claims to be a completely different discipline, but the premise is largely identical: embedded in financial disclosures are probabilistic inferences about the future.

Quantitative-minded analysts also operate by an identical premise: trends found within quantitative data embed probabilistic inferences about the future. What’s the core denominator? That the future is dependent on the (recent and material) past.

Narrative-wise, Black-Scholes does not make that conclusion. Instead, the way the math works out, the future is independent of the past. In practice, this system means that a huge drawdown in TXN stock would have no bearing on its future trajectory.

Does that make sense to you?

If you’re like most traders, the answer is clearly “no.” And that’s the core driver behind why I’m bullish on TXN stock.

Order Flow Imbalance Points to Higher Odds for Texas Instruments Stock

Obviously, recent sessions have not been conducive for bullish traders of TXN stock. In the trailing month, the ticker is down nearly 7%. From a quantitative perspective, we know that in the last 10 weeks, only three of the weekly candlesticks were positive, thus leading to a downward slope across the period. This 3-7-D sequence indicates that 70% of the defined period were net drawdowns.

I think it’s a very rational idea that this severe pessimism would likely change the perception of Texas Instruments’ stock. Some might see it as a falling knife. But others might interpret a discounted opportunity.

In fact, we know that since January 2019, this sequence or behavioral state has flashed 30 times on a rolling basis. We also know that in the fifth week (corresponding to the Oct. 16 expiration date) that TXN stock hit the equivalent of the $280 strike price 12 times or 40%. Moreover, the ticker has hit the breakeven point ($274.20) 17 times or 56.7%.

Are these ratios great by themselves? Not at all. While I haven’t done an expected value calculation, I can tell that the 270/280 bull spread remains a risky proposition. But the point is relative. Under Black-Scholes, few would take the gamble. Under a nonrandom, path-dependent process, there’s a rational case for being aggressively bullish on TXN stock.

The Final Word on Options

It’s also worth reminding ourselves that we’re not limited to taking an aggressive bet. More conservative traders may consider the 260/270 bull spread (also expiring Oct. 16). Here, Wall Street’s probability of breaking even improves to 46.4%. But the main drawback is the payout, which plummets to 62.6%.

But notice something interesting here. Even with the safer transaction, the probability of breaking even on the 260/270 spread is lower than the probability of breaking even on the 270/280 spread when viewed from a path-dependent framework. Therefore, a change of presupposition can radically alter assumed risk.

To be clear, path dependency doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the truth. However, I would argue that given the current quantitative structure of TXN stock, this presupposition is more reflective of reality than random path independence.

Revenue came in at $4.02 billion, while adjusted EPS reached a record $3.45, beating expectations on both counts. But what makes this difficult to dismiss as a one-off is where management says the business goes next: its midpoint forecast calls for $4.3 billion in revenue and $3.86 in adjusted EPS, putting another record quarter directly in front of it.

Yet with all of that happening, ADI shares are sitting around $377, well below the roughly $440 they reached earlier this year.

That price action becomes more revealing when you look at what is producing the growth. Data-center demand is accelerating, industrial demand is recovering, and management says parts of the broader portfolio are still shipping below historical consumption levels, leaving the company to post record numbers before the recovery has fully worked its way through the business.

The $4 billion milestone tells you what ADI has already done. Now let’s find out how much recovery is left.

ADI’s AI Opportunity Starts Long Before the Chip

The recovery becomes far more revealing once you follow the demand beyond ADI’s income statement, because AI is creating pressure at nearly every point between the power grid and the processors doing the computing, and the company believes it has a product sitting somewhere along much of that chain.

Chairman and CEO Vincent Roche calls the strategy “grid to chip,”  covering everything from grid monitoring, energy storage and high-voltage power conversion to rack-level delivery, optical systems and processor-level power. 

The same AI buildout that has made NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) the face of the boom is creating problems far beyond the GPUs themselves: more electricity has to be generated and moved with less waste, while data has to travel between increasingly powerful processors at speeds traditional infrastructure was never designed to handle.

Though ADI isn’t alone in chasing those bottlenecks. Monolithic Power Systems (NASDAQ: MPWR), Infineon Technologies (OTC: IFNNY) and Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN) operate across power and analog infrastructure, while Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) and Coherent (NYSE: COHR) have their own positions in high-speed connectivity and optics…Its advantage is that it is trying to sit across several of those pressure points at once.

Management’s view of the prize has expanded accordingly, with its estimate of the 2030 data-center and energy opportunity more than doubling from what it envisioned a year ago. Bottomline is, the“Grid to chip” strategy is a good indicator of how much further into the AI buildout it wants to go.

AI Is Creating Problems ADI Has Spent Decades Solving

A data center drawing enormous amounts of power cannot simply add more racks and carry on. The electricity has to be generated, monitored and stored before moving through increasingly dense power architectures, while the heat, voltage loss and data traffic created by that compute keep forcing engineers to redesign what sits around the processors.

ADI has spent decades building products for exactly those kinds of problems.

Its energy business has already grown beyond $500 million, while management expects Optical Circuit Switching revenue to approximately double this year and deliver similar growth again in 2027. At the other end of the chain, its Empower acquisition is taking ADI closer to the processor through higher-voltage, processor-level power delivery.

That is why AI’s physical infrastructure matters so much to this story. Every new bottleneck creates another layer of spending, and ADI already operates across several of the areas now being pushed to their limits. The problem is that investors have already noticed.

The Recovery Has Brought ADI to Its First Real Test

ADI’s chart is no longer describing a stock in free fall, and at $377.01, the shares now sit above the 200-day moving average of $341.09 while trading almost exactly at the 20-day average of $376.28. But with the 50-day moving average sitting higher at $389.14, the stock has reached a level where the recovery needs to prove it can keep advancing.

That proof has yet to show up in the volume. ADI traded 6.49 million shares in the latest session, and the stock remains below its 50-day average without the kind of participation that would suggest buyers are forcing a decisive break higher.

This is where the valuation debate becomes harder to ignore, because the business is recovering and the market has already rewarded that recovery, yet the technical picture still lacks the confirmation needed to dismiss concerns that investors may be paying too much for the improvement ahead.

The recovery may be real, but with the stock still trapped beneath its 50-day average and volume offering no clear breakout signal, the question is whether the next move higher has already been priced in.

ADI Is Building A Bigger Story Than Its Stock May Have Priced In

It’s a strong buy on Analog Devices because the company does not need to win the GPU race to benefit from the AI boom. Its opportunity begins with the infrastructure required to support that compute, and AI is creating more demand for exactly the kind of power, data-conversion, connectivity and control systems ADI has spent decades building. And thanks to the “grid-to-chip” strategy, the company now has multiple ways to capture more of the AI infrastructure buildout as those systems become bigger and harder to power. 

But what should you look for? Let’s take as a given that investors should look for stocks with a dividend yield of around 3%. The most recent, if not necessarily reliable, inflation data we have puts inflation around 2.7%. It’s too early to tell if inflation will increase as monetary power loosens and stimulus is added to the economy. Nevertheless, a dividend of at least 3% will be needed to keep your investments ahead of inflation. 

These stocks provide investors with the benefit of reliable quarterly distributions that you can accept as cash in your bank account or that you can reinvest to increase your position in the stock.  

However, you should expect more from dividend stocks than reliable income. The stocks on this list also have a history of delivering a solid total return, which includes stock price appreciation to go along with a growing dividend. That’s how you maximize the benefits of compounding.  

Dividend Stocks to Buy: AbbVie

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) is hardly considered a comeback story. ABBV stock is up nearly 30% in 2025, and analysts are raising their price targets for the next 12 months. Outside of a company like Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY), which is in a dominant position in the GLP-1 market, it’s been a rough year for pharmaceutical stocks. 

The key for AbbVie is that the company has successfully replaced the revenue it’s losing as its blockbuster Humira drug reached the patent cliff. But AbbVie’s patent-protected Skyrizi and Rinvoq are picking up the slack, and the company has a deep pipeline and a robust balance sheet that gives the company the firepower to get them across the finish line. 

AbbVie is also a dividend king, meaning it’s increased its dividend for at least 50 consecutive years. The yield as of this writing is 2.84% and is well covered by the company’s cash flow.  

Dividend Stocks to Buy: Bristol-Myers Squibb 

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) has had a challenging few years as investors have cooled on large pharmaceutical names facing patent expirations. But value-minded dividend investors may find an opportunity as the stock appears deeply discounted relative to its historical valuation. The company trades at a forward P/E under 10 and offers a dividend yield in the 4.9% range—well above the market average. 

The fundamentals remain solid. Bristol-Myers is focusing on expanding newer drugs like Eliquis, Opdivo, and Reblozyl while investing in its pipeline of oncology and immunology therapies. Near-term results may stay lumpy, but with a steady cash flow profile and consistent earnings support, the dividend looks safe.

For contrarian investors, BMY provides a classic example of a high-yield stock with stabilization and upside potential if sentiment improves in 2026. 

Dividend Stocks to Buy: Pepsi 

PepsiCo Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP) offers a blend of income reliability and defensive growth that fits well in a 2026 portfolio rotation. While consumer staples stocks have lagged during the speculative surge into AI and tech, that underperformance has set the stage for better entry points. PepsiCo’s diversified product portfolio, from beverages to snacks, gives it pricing power and resilience even in a slower economy. 

The company has increased its dividend for more than 50 years, placing it among the Dividend Kings. Its yield of roughly 3% is comfortably above inflation, and its payout ratio of around 70% indicates room for further growth. As input cost pressures ease and global demand normalizes, PepsiCo looks positioned for mid-single-digit earnings growth alongside continued capital returns. 

Dividend Stocks to Buy: Enbridge 

Next on my list is Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB), which is an energy infrastructure company. For starters, Enbridge has a high-yield dividend of 5.66% as of December 26. An above average yield can be a value trap, but that doesn’t appear to be the case with Enbridge.  

The catalyst is likely to be the company’s positioning with heavy crude oil. This is the type of crude oil needed for applications like diesel fuel. Unlike light crude oil, heavy crude inventories are low. That means countries with heavy oil resources, such as Canada, will benefit.  

Enbridge is the largest transporter of Western Canadian select. And the company has long-term contracts, a stable tolling model, and expansion opportunities that give investors exposure without the upstream risk.  

Dividend Stocks to Buy: Texas Instruments 

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) stands out in the semiconductor space as one of the most dependable dividend payers. While many chipmakers lean heavily on cyclical end markets, TI’s strategy focuses on analog and embedded chips used in long-duration industrial and automotive applications—segments that provide stable, recurring demand. 

The company has raised its dividend for 20 consecutive years, and at a current yield near 3.3%, TXN offers an appealing blend of income and long-term growth. With its disciplined capital allocation, massive free cash flow generation, and conservative balance sheet, Texas Instruments embodies the kind of steady compounder that dividend investors can hold through multiple market cycles. 

The Bottom Line on High-Powered Dividend Stocks for 2026 

As the market transitions from speculative tech toward more income-focused investing, dividend stocks are regaining their appeal. The five companies highlighted here: AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, PepsiCo, Enbridge, and Texas Instruments, combine reliable dividend growth with the potential for solid total returns. 

They operate in diverse sectors, ranging from healthcare and consumer staples to energy and semiconductors, providing investors with balance and resilience across different market conditions. In 2026, when interest rates may finally stabilize and inflation holds near current levels, long-term dividend payers like these could quietly outperform, rewarding patient investors with steady income and compounding gains over time.