My 5 Favorite Dividend Stocks to Buy Right Now

Dividend stocks are a tried-and-true way to maximize your investments and build wealth that leads to a comfortable retirement. These payments, which are a portion of the company's profits, are often made by mature, stable companies and are seen as an incentive to entice new investors into taking a position in the company.

For investors, this provides two benefits. First, you can reinvest your dividend payment into your portfolio, making it grow even faster. The S&P 500 index has had a mean dividend yield of 1.74% over the last 10 years. That may not sound like a lot, but over a decade, it adds up. The index has risen 240% in the last 10 years, but if you account for the reinvested dividends, the S&P 500's total return is 305%.

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Or you can use those dividend payments as regular income. Dividends are a favored vehicle for investors who are in retirement because they act as a form of passive income -- meaning that retirees don't need to draw down their retirement accounts as quickly.

There are plenty of different dividend stocks from which to choose, but here are my five favorites right now.

1. Realty Income

Realty Income (NYSE: O) has long been at the top of my list of dividend stocks. First, I like that it's a monthly dividend stock rather than a quarterly one. That's important because getting payments into your account quickly means you can reinvest them sooner. Or, if you are using Realty Income for passive income, it's easy to set up a monthly budget when you have a monthly dividend stock.

Second, Realty Income is dedicated to raising its dividend. The company has paid a monthly dividend for more than 55 years, in which time it's increased its dividend 133 times. The yield currently sits at 5%.

Realty Income is consistent because it's a solid business, built to last. The real estate investment trust owns more than 15,500 properties and rents them to more than 1,700 clients, generating $5.3 billion in annualized rent.

2. ExxonMobil

ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) is a massive oil and gas company that offers upstream production, midstream pipelines, and downstream refining and chemicals. It also operates more than 12,000 gas stations in the U.S. under the Exxon and Mobil brands.

The company generates a ton of money. Cash flow from operations totaled $52 billion in 2025, which allowed ExxonMobil to pay out $17.2 billion in dividends and repurchase an additional $20 billion worth of shares. ExxonMobil's dividend yield is a healthy 2.8%.

3. AbbVie

AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) is my favorite pharmaceutical company for dividend yields. The company is getting a lot of its profits these days from Skyrizi, which was responsible for $5 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, up 31.9%, and from Rinvoq, which contributed another $2.37 billion, up 28.6%.

Those gains allowed AbbVie to report revenue growth for the quarter, even though the company lost exclusivity for its popular Humira drug. Overall, the company generated $16.6 billion in revenue in the quarter, up 10% year over year. AbbVie's dividend yield is 3%.

4. Coca-Cola

Beverage company Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) is a Dividend King, meaning that it's raised its dividend for at least 50 consecutive years. The company shows no sign of slowing, as Coca-Cola's dividend yield is a respectable 2.6%.

Coca-Cola has the biggest market share of carbonated soft drinks in the U.S., but this is much more than a soda company. The Atlanta-based company also manufactures sports drinks, water, tea, lemonade, juices, and coffee.

5. JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF

The JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF (NASDAQ: JEPQ) isn't a stock. In fact, it's not even a traditional dividend ETF. JEPQ, which is managed by a division of JPMorgan Chase, employs a covered-call strategy through equity-linked notes to generate dividends for shareholders. Fund managers sell out-of-the-money call options on stocks in the index, and the proceeds are distributed as a dividend each month.

I love tech stocks, so the JEPQ ETF caught my eye a few months ago. I was looking for a way to draw passive income from tech stocks that typically don't offer a payout at all. The ETF's top holdings include some of my favorite stocks -- Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon. Those stocks offer just a pittance of a dividend, if at all. But JEPQ's covered-call strategy allows it to pay a current yield of 10.6%. That means I'll be keeping the JEPQ in my portfolio for a long time.

JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Patrick Sanders has positions in JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AbbVie, Alphabet, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Realty Income. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.