3 Dividend Stocks to Buy to Create the Gift That Keeps on Giving

The holiday gift-giving season may be wrapping up, but that doesn't mean investors can't ring in the New Year with some gifts to themselves that keep on giving the whole year long. The right dividend stocks will add ever-increasing value to your portfolio, either through growing cash payouts, or -- when these payments are reinvested -- more shares of the stock paying them. And given that reliable dividend stocks tend to outperform inconsistent or non-dividend payers, even growth-minded investors might be wise to make a point of adding some of these names to their holdings.

To this end, here's a closer look at three dividend stocks that would be smart additions to nearly anyone's portfolio. In no particular order...

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PepsiCo

One of the most popular income stocks from the consumer staples sector of the stock market is Coca-Cola. And understandably so. The company's products are among the beverage industry's best-known, while the company itself has not only paid a dividend like clockwork for decades, but has raised its dividend payment every year for the past 63 years.

If you're looking for a better yield opportunity from a consumer goods name, however, Coca-Cola rival PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) is arguably the better beverage bet right now, while its forward-looking dividend yield stands at nearly 4%.

Granted, as anyone keeping tabs on this company of late knows, this yield has been pumped up largely because PepsiCo's stock has underperformed.

Blame inflation, mostly. Some of PepsiCo's rising costs have been passed along to its customers, but many of them haven't, biting into its profits.

These headwinds are finally abating, though, after the company itself has regrouped into a more relevant and marketable family of brands. For instance, in March the company acquired prebiotic soda brand Poppi, and in July unveiled the world's first prebiotic cola.

Analysts aren't looking for an explosive response to these and other overhauls. But, they do expect sales growth to accelerate to a pace of 3.6% in the year ahead, driving even faster earnings growth. Once other investors see this growth materializing, they could jump on board pretty quickly, dragging this stock's current dividend yield lower by driving the stock's price higher. Acting before that happens would be better than moving after the fact.

Chevron

Contrary to a common assumption, the advent of renewable energy and electric vehicles isn't reducing the consumption of fossil fuels like crude oil and natural gas; the need for electricity and transportation is absorbing all of this capacity growth, and then some. Indeed, the International Energy Agency now believes the world's daily usage of oil won't reach its absolute peak until 2050, pushing a previous prediction much further down the road. And even then, they'll only modestly dwindle for the next few decades.

Translation: There's still money to be made in the oil business, and there will be for a long while.

Enter Chevron (NYSE: CVX) ... one of the oil industry's biggest and best-known names. Last year, it turned a top line of $203 billion into net income of nearly $18 billion, and is on pace to report comparable numbers this year. This massive size and scale, of course, means the company can fund the very best of opportunities and operate more cost-efficiently. More specifically, it means that deeper-pocketed Chevron can afford to operate a more complex business that includes drilling, refining, and transportation, which allows it to safely maintain its dividend and required capital expenditures even if oil prices dip to $50 per barrel. The company can cover all of its upstream production costs with oil priced as low as $30 per barrel, in fact, making it one of the most cost-effective players in the energy business.

More importantly to interested income investors, it means Chevron's track record of 38 years of uninterrupted annual dividend growth should remain uninterrupted well into the indefinite future. Newcomers will be plugging in while its forward-looking yield stands at just under 4.6%.

Brookfield Asset Management

Last but not least, add Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM) to your list of dividend stocks that keep on giving well after you buy them.

If the name rings a bell, it may be because several investments bearing the same name are part of this family. These include Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Renewable Partners, and Brookfield Business Partners. Each of these outfits brings its own unique investment proposition to the table, capitalizing on the modern-day economy's top opportunities, ranging from energy infrastructure to real estate to artificial intelligence to private equity in several perpetually marketable service businesses. Brookfield Renewable's hydroelectric power plants located in Pennsylvania, for instance, will supply more than $3 billion worth of power to data centers owned and operated by Alphabet's Google for the next several years. In many cases, there's no other way to invest in these up-and-coming companies.

Brookfield Asset Management itself is different, though. It's the manager of this entire family of funds, collecting ongoing fees for its work as the management firm for over $1 trillion worth of businesses. More to the point, this recurring fee-based business is ideally suited for supporting dividends and dividend growth. Its target revenue growth of between 15% and 20% for the foreseeable future. With a payout ratio on the order of 90%, shareholders' dividend income should grow at roughly this same pace.

You'll never get explosive capital gains from this stock; that's the trade-off with a management fee-based business like this one. With plausible growth in the low double-digits and a forward-looking dividend yield of 3.3% for today's buyers, however, reinvesting your ever-rising dividends in more shares of BAM could translate into long-term net gains readily rivaling those of most growth stocks.

James Brumley has positions in Alphabet and Coca-Cola. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Brookfield Asset Management, and Chevron. The Motley Fool recommends Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Renewable, and Brookfield Renewable Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.