3 Safe Stocks Increasing Dividends: Buy Before October Ends for an Instant 6.5%+ Yield

Altria, Enterprise Products Partners and Verizon offer forward dividend yields of 6.14%, 6.23% and 6.54%, respectively; their average is 6.3%, and the article says each payout is covered by cash and was raised this year. Enterprise’s $0.56 quarterly distribution goes ex-dividend October 30, 2026, while Verizon’s October 9 ex-date has passed. Risks include falling U.S. cigarette volumes, Enterprise’s K-1 tax reporting, Verizon’s $136.5 billion in unsecured debt and recent share-price declines.

Analysis

The apparent income opportunity is also a duration and balance-sheet bet: a sustained rise in long-term yields could pressure all three at once, so the dividends offer less diversification than their different industries imply. Don’t treat a high payout yield as a substitute for total-return analysis.

Relative quality favors Enterprise Products Partners (EPD): contracted project capacity and distribution coverage provide more cushion than Verizon Communications’ (VZ) debt-heavy post-acquisition balance sheet, though EPD still faces project execution, customer-credit and energy-volume risks. Its October 30 ex-date is not a free return; the distribution is reflected in the unit price, and K-1/tax complexity can make the headline yield less attractive for some holders.

Altria (MO) has pricing power, but persistent cigarette-volume and share losses make the key question whether price increases can continue without accelerating customer attrition. Oral nicotine is a potential offset, not yet proof that the legacy cash engine has been replaced. VZ’s low valuation and improving operating indicators could support a rerating, but only if integration produces cash for debt reduction without compromising network investment or the dividend.

Near term, rate moves may dominate price action. Over 1–3 months, watch EPD project updates, MO volume trends and VZ free-cash-flow/deleveraging commentary. Over 6–18 months, the structural test is whether EPD converts backlog to cash, MO stabilizes its addressable nicotine business, and VZ meets its leverage path. The income thesis weakens materially if EPD coverage falls toward 1.5x, MO cuts guidance as volume erosion accelerates, or VZ free cash flow no longer covers distributions and debt paydown. The article’s “safe” framing understates these risks; no need to buy all three for yield.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Prefer EPD to VZ for incremental income exposure, subject to project execution and tax suitability; do not buy solely to capture the October 30 distribution.
• Keep MO exposure sized for secular volume decline: monitor cigarette volumes, retail share and adjusted-EPS guidance for evidence that pricing is no longer offsetting attrition.
• Treat VZ as a conditional turnaround, not a bond proxy. Reassess after its next results for free-cash-flow coverage, Frontier integration and progress toward the stated leverage goal; defer adding if those indicators disappoint.
• Avoid a concentrated basket of these high-yield names as a rate hedge. A sustained rise in long-term Treasury yields is a shared downside catalyst; consider waiting for rate stabilization rather than chasing yield after recent selloffs.