3 Monster Dividend Stocks to Buy and Hold Through 2036

Anyone can find stocks with monster dividend yields. The tricky part is finding the juicy dividend stocks you can actually trust with your money. Often, a high yield is a warning sign of problems boiling beneath the surface at a company, and it can sting your portfolio when a company has to cut its dividend.

Fortunately, there are high-yield dividend stocks you can trust, especially in the energy sector. Whether it's oil and gas or renewable power, the world needs increasingly more energy in this new era of artificial intelligence (AI).

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD), Enbridge (NYSE: ENB), and NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE) are three monster dividend stocks with strong track records, durable competitive advantages, and long-term growth prospects that should continue putting cash in your pockets for the foreseeable future. Here's why investors should be able to confidently buy and hold them through at least 2036.

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1. A cash machine with a 5.7% yield

Enterprise Products Partners is arguably the gold standard in the energy infrastructure space. The company operates more than 50,000 miles of pipelines, storage facilities, and export terminals located throughout North America, helping bring natural gas and liquids to the global marketplace. It's also a master limited partnership (MLP), a unique business structure that requires a special tax form, called a K-1.

The business functions like a toll road, generating revenue from fees it charges for materials flowing through its pipes. The fees are tied to long-term contracts, which protect the company from fluctuating commodity prices. Enterprise Products Partners isn't invincible if the entire industry slows down, but there's always a baseline level of consumption because the economy never stops.

As an MLP, Enterprise Products Partners can distribute large sums of cash to its unitholders, the MLP term for shareholders. That's how you wind up with a dependable 5.7% yield. The payout ratio is actually quite conservative, at just 57% of the company's trailing 12-month distributable cash flow. That leaves money for capital expenditures to help capitalize on rising energy production and export activity over the coming years.

2. A diversified energy juggernaut

Enbridge is one of the largest energy companies in North America. Its business combines liquids, pipelines, gas utilities, and renewable energy assets to offer investors a little bit of everything the energy sector has to offer. It also diversifies the company's revenue streams, making Enbridge a dependable dividend stock that yields 5.1% and has grown its dividend by an average of 9% annually over the past 30 years.

The company is an essential cog for the U.S. and Canadian economies. Enbridge transports roughly 30% of the crude oil produced in North America and about 20% of the natural gas consumed by the United States. Virtually none of the business is exposed to commodity prices, and roughly 80% of its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) is protected from inflation by price escalators.

Management maintains a targeted dividend payout ratio of 60%-70% of distributable cash flow, leaving a generous financial buffer in the event the business experiences an unexpected downturn. That doesn't seem too likely at this point; Enbridge anticipates growing at an annualized rate of about 5% as energy demand continues to rise.

3. An energy behemoth forming

NextEra has ridden the secular growth trend in renewable energy for decades, becoming one of the world's largest producers of wind and solar power. It also operates Florida Power & Light, America's largest electric power utility. It offers a lucrative one-two punch that has driven the stock to market-beating returns and many years of dividend growth.

It also hasn't prevented NextEra from swinging for the fences. The company has agreed to merge with Dominion Energy in a blockbuster deal worth more than $66 billion. With Dominion in the fold, NextEra would expand its empire beyond Florida into North and South Carolina and Virginia, the country's primary data center hub. It will position NextEra front and center for growth as data center ramps up electricity consumption over the next decade.

The merger is expected to close later next year. Such large deals are also risky because all the pieces must fit together well, and that can take time. NextEra increased its dividend by 10% earlier this year, perhaps a vote of confidence in the company's bright future. Management believes the combined entity will grow earnings by 9% annually through at least 2032, enough growth to make NextEra a no-brainer to buy and hold at the stock's current dividend yield of 2.8%.

Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Enbridge and NextEra Energy. The Motley Fool recommends Dominion Energy and Enterprise Products Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.