Boomers Are Piling Into These 5 High-Yield Dividend Stocks, and None Are Yield Traps

These five dividend stocks yield 5% to nearly 10% and avoid yield traps through recurring cash flow, strong balance sheets, and durable business models.

ARCC's near-10% yield holds up because first-lien loans place it first in the repayment line, with net investment income consistently covering the dividend.

Enterprise Products Partners has raised its distribution for nearly 30 consecutive years and generates $4.2 billion in annual free cash flow after capital expenditures.

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Investors love dividend stocks because they provide dependable passive income streams and an excellent opportunity for solid total return. Total return includes interest, capital gains, dividends, and distributions realized over time. In other words, the total return on an investment or portfolio consists of income and stock appreciation. At 24/7 Wall St., we have focused on dividend stocks for 20 years because, despite the stock market's ups and downs, many people need reliable passive income streams to supplement their income from employment or other sources such as Social Security and pensions.

Investors, especially Boomers, looking to add as much passive income as possible to Social Security or pension checks, are often enticed into buying companies that pay dividends, sometimes more than 10%, 15%, or higher. In many cases, they end up getting burned by what Wall Street calls "yield traps." A yield trap appears when a stock's dividend yield looks unusually high only because the share price has collapsed amid a failing business or an unsustainable payout ratio.

24/7 Wall St has helped investors make money for over two decades, and our top analysts just finished ranking the definitive Top 10 Stocks To Buy Now . Not the ten biggest companies. Not the ten everyone is arguing about. The ten best stocks to buy right now.

The report is free, and you can see why we think each stock is a top investment today.

We screened our 24/7 Wall St. high-yield research database. We found five companies below that avoid that risk, as recurring operating cash flow, strong balance sheets, and durable underlying businesses fully support their large distributions. The five stocks we found are all companies we have covered for years here at 24/7 Wall St., and are large-cap stocks and partnerships that Wall Street analysts and income professionals widely consider safe from being yield traps. Plus, all five are rated Buy by top Wall Street firms that we cover.