NVDA -0.99% Trade NVIDIA on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Lots of investors keep coming back to dividend stocks for a pretty simple reason: While the market is often busy chasing whatever happens to be hot that week, a growing dividend is something a company actually has to earn. It has to generate the cash to keep paying investors quarter after quarter, year after year.
That makes dividends especially appealing when the market and the economy feel like they're being pulled in every direction. A company can dress up a press release, but it can't fake the cash sitting in its bank account. When it comes time to pay a dividend, the money is either there or it isn't.
Missed AI's "Act 1"? Act 2 Could Be 14x Bigger. Most investors think they missed the AI boat because they didn't buy Nvidia in 2005. But according to our analysts, we're only at the end of "Act 1"—the R&D phase. "Act 2" is the global rollout. Continue »
What interests me most, though, aren't necessarily the big, well-known dividend payers. I'm more interested in the companies flying under the radar that have increased their payouts for decades while also making meaningful changes to their underlying businesses today. These four companies fit that description.
Universal (NYSE: UVV) is the highest yielder here, paying out around 7.4% at recent prices, and it has raised its dividend for 56 consecutive years. This raise makes it a Dividend King, a company that has delivered 50 or more years of annual dividend increases. Universal isn't a cigarette maker, but it is the world's largest leaf tobacco exporter and importer. It supplies tobacco companies rather than selling to smokers directly, which is why it rarely shows up in articles about tobacco stocks.
More interesting is what it's building alongside that core business. Since 2020, Universal has acquired fruit and vegetable ingredient suppliers like FruitSmart and Shank's Extracts, creating a second segment that turns produce into juices, purees, and flavorings for food and beverage companies. That ingredients business has hit some bumps lately, including inventory write-downs and softer demand, per Investing.com, but it's a genuine attempt to diversify a tobacco-dependent cash machine into something broader.
Genuine Parts (NYSE: GPC), the company behind NAPA Auto Parts, has raised its dividend for 70 straight years, also making it a Dividend King. What makes it timely right now is that Genuine Parts plans to split into two separate public companies by the first quarter of 2027: a Global Automotive business built around NAPA, and a Global Industrial business built around its Motion brand. Each half will get its own CEO and its own investor day this December.
Splitting a conglomerate in two often unlocks value the combined company couldn't show on its own, since investors can value each piece for what it actually is rather than blending them.
Marzetti (NASDAQ: MZTI), known for decades as Lancaster Colony before its 2025 rebrand, makes salad dressings, frozen bread, and dips sold under the Marzetti and New York Bakery names. It's a Dividend King with a streak stretching back more than six decades. Marzetti recently agreed to acquire Bachan's, the fast-growing Japanese barbecue sauce brand, and has been rolling out new frozen snack platforms under New York Bakery.
Growth has been sluggish lately, its stock is near its 52-week low, and margins have been under pressure, so this isn't a stock to buy expecting fireworks. But it's a steady operator adding newer, trendier brands to an old-school pantry portfolio.
Weyco Group (NASDAQ: WEYS) is a small footwear company that most investors have never heard of, selling shoes under the Florsheim, Nunn Bush, and Stacy Adams names. Florsheim just posted record annual sales, and Weyco's most recent quarterly profit jumped sharply as the company worked through tariff pressure better than expected.
It's a tiny company compared to the other three here, which means more volatility, but also a dividend that's grown steadily for decades without the fanfare that follows larger, more widely owned names.
None of these four is flashy, and that's close to the point. A high yield alone, like Universal's 7.4%, doesn't mean much if the business funding it is deteriorating. That's why it matters that three of these four are also actively reshaping themselves. Buying all four isn't necessary, but any one of them is a reasonable way to add dividend income from outside the usual, overexposed names.
Before you buy stock in Genuine Parts, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Genuine Parts wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $370,440!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,470,022!*
Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 955% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 215% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.
*Stock Advisor returns as of October 7, 2026.
Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Weyco Group. The Motley Fool recommends Genuine Parts. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
4 Unstoppable Dividend Stocks to Buy Now (1 Yields 7.4%) was originally published by The Motley Fool
