4 Stocks to Watch That Recently Declared Dividend Hikes Amid Volatility
Economic data released this week doesn't paint a rosy picture, raising concerns over the economy slipping into a recession in the coming months. Although President Donald Trump temporarily paused reciprocal tariffs last month, which helped markets rebound from their earlier lows, Wall Street remains volatile.
Given this uncertainty, cautious investors looking for a steady income and ways to protect their capital may want to hold or buy dividend-paying stocks. Three such stocks are Atkore Inc. ATKR, Enact Holdings, Inc. ACT, Pool Corporation POOL and American Water Works Company, Inc. AWK.
The Commerce Department said earlier this week that the U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter of 2025. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.3% in the first three months of the year, recording the first quarter of negative growth since the first quarter of 2022, and missing analysts' expectations of 0.4% growth.
This came as fears grew that Trump's tariffs could weigh on the economy's health. Trump temporarily paused tariffs for 90 days, which saw a sharp rise in imports in the final month of the first quarter as consumers bought imported goods at a higher rate. Imports jumped 41.3% for the quarter, while exports grew just 1.8%.
Consumer spending also slowed as people saved more, anticipating tougher days ahead. Besides, there was also a significant decline in federal expenditures, which played a major role in the sluggish GDP figures.
Investors are worried that the economy could shrink further once the tariffs go into effect. Consumer confidence fell 7.9 points to 86 in April to hit a five-year low. Needless to say, investors aren't confident about the economy and with the picture on trade negotiations still unclear, markets could remain volatile for a longer period.
Given the uncertainty, it would be a wise decision to invest in stocks that pay dividends. These companies usually remain stable and consistently pay out dividends while sustaining profitability through strong business strategies. In a fluctuating market, companies that pay high dividends often outperform those that do not.
Atkore Inc. manufactures and distributes electrical raceway products. It offers steel tubes and pipes, electrical conduit, armored wire and cable, cable trays, metal framing systems and building components. Atkore has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
On April 30, Atkore announced that its shareholders would receive a dividend of $0.33 a share on May 28. ATKR has a dividend yield of 2%. Over the past five years, Atkore has increased its dividend once, and its payout ratio presently sits at 12% of earnings. Check Atkore's dividend history here.
Enact Holdings, Inc. operates principally through its wholly owned subsidiary Genworth Mortgage Insurance Corporation, which provides U.S. private mortgage insurance. Enact Holdings has a Zacks Rank #3.
On April 30, Enact Holdings declared that its shareholders would receive a dividend of $0.21 a share on June 11. ACT has a dividend yield of 2.07%. Over the past five years, Enact Holdings has increased its dividend six times, and its payout ratio presently sits at 16% of earnings. Check Enact Holdings' dividend history here.
Pool Corporation is the world's largest wholesale distributor of swimming pool supplies, equipment and related products. In addition, POOL is a leading regional wholesale distributor of irrigation and landscape products. Pool Corporation carries a Zacks Rank #3.
On April 30, Pool Corporation announced that its shareholders would receive a dividend of $1.25 a share on May 29. POOL has a dividend yield of 1.64%. Over the past five years, Pool Corporation has increased its dividend six times, and its payout ratio presently sits at 46% of earnings. Check Pool Corporation's dividend history here.
American Water Works Company, Inc. provides essential water services to more than 14 million customers in 24 states and has an employee strength of 6,700. AWK also acquires small water service providers to expand its customer base. American Water Works carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
On April 30, American Water Works declared that its shareholders would receive a dividend of $0.83 a share on June 3. AWK has a dividend yield of 2.08%. Over the past five years, American Water Works has increased its dividend six times, and its payout ratio presently sits at 57% of earnings. Check American Water Works' dividend history here.
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Can Fashion's ‘Bridges' Overcome Its ‘Barriers'?
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It was a stealthy retreat that, inadvertently or not, reflected the muted mood of the two-day conference, which one attendee described as 'somber,' another as 'a bit flat' and a third as evocative of a 'palpable decline of interest.' Fewer high-level brands abounded, a consequence of throttled travel budgets, a fear of appearing overtly political—and potentially ticking off a certain White House inhabitant—and cannibalization by concurrent events such as SXSW's first London foray and, we were told, an especially buzzy textile recycling expo in Brussels where shoulders were slapped and hands shaken over business deals. For the thousand or so people who converged on Copenhagen, just a hair fewer than those who turned up for last year's 15th anniversary, there was very little to feel celebratory about. Geopolitical turmoil, tariff uncertainty and environmental deregulation hung heavily in the air. Even attempts to put a positive gloss on corporate efforts that were already lagging before the rightwing shift in both Europe and the United States, but could now be actively backsliding, felt more perfunctory than usual. The same week, a analysis of more than 40 apparel companies found that 40 percent increased their carbon footprint versus their baseline, outlapping those on a 1.5-degree Celsius trajectory by a nearly six-to-one margin. In the latest iteration of the International Trade Union Confederation's global rights index, data showed a 'sharp escalation' in violations of fundamental labor rights, including freedom of association and collective bargaining. 'Apparently more was happening in the roundtables,' one attendee said of the closed-to-press executive-level sessions, which had the likes of Kering diving into what a just transition means in the age of climate change, Target speaking about moving production closer to consumer markets and The Fashion Pact hosting a conversation about corporate financial engagement in decarbonization. The more accessible stages—the concert hall, 'action' and 'ignite'—stuck to broader, more anodyne issues such as fiber innovations, resale, regenerative materials and the gender pay gap. The biggest ripple in all that taut placidity was occasioned by Veja co-founder Sébastien Kopp, who described sustainability as a 'bag of vomit.' Kalpona Akter's heartfelt description of garment workers' struggles in Bangladesh produced little response and, by the time the 'celebration dinner' rolled around, no offers of help that might relieve her organization's loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID for short. Eileen Fisher's call for everyone to 'show up more and collaborate more' offered a burst of inspiration. Things flattened from there. 'Some feedback I heard is that some people feel the brands are too restrained and they prefer the speakers that are more candid and speak more openly,' an attendee said. But the event's dour note was hardly unexpected. There is simply no way to spin the current climate, whether political, environmental or otherwise, no matter how many times someone insists that there is no business on a dead planet. For brands grappling with the existential threat of tariffs, sustainability has dropped several rungs in priority. The Trump administration's crackdown on so-called 'woke' notions such as climate action or DEI in the United States isn't even the half of it. In Europe, the omnibus package, a series of amendments designed to simplify—and many say water down—the corporate sustainability due diligence directive, the corporate sustainability reporting directive and other legislative instruments, threatens to unravel years of progress holding corporations liable for their environmental and social impacts. It's still unclear how other forthcoming regulations involving extended producer responsibility, greener design requirements and traceability compliance will play out. 'There's a general backlash on sustainability in Brussels,' Lara Wolters, the Dutch politician who was the European Parliament's lead negotiator on the CSDD, said at a pre-game policy masterclass at the Danish Architecture Center. 'None of this is for a good reason, but maybe to take a step back. What the Commission has done is roll out a deregulatory agenda under pressure from a lot of large lobby groups in some of the member states. The intention, I think, is to give a political signal that we, too, are going to do things differently. I would even call it a sort of 'Trump Lite.'' She said that the result of this reversal would be more paperwork and less impact, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. For the politicians who have been clamoring for fewer guardrails, however, the 'intention is to do things as fast as possible, never mind the consequences.' Across the Atlantic, the Trump administration has pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement (again), dismantled critical climate safeguards and obliterated other regulations governing clean water, toxic pollutants and wildlife. It has clawed back most forms of foreign assistance, including grants for programs that strengthened workers' rights and combated child and forced labor. 'I spent a good chunk of my flight over breaking through President Trump's proposed 2026 budget,' said Chelsea Murtha, senior director of sustainability at the American Apparel & Footwear Association. 'And, of course, USAID is completely eliminated, and a lot of the functions that it had are not even fully being transposed over to the State Department. The U.S., in particular, was a very large funder of the [International Labour Organization's] Better Work program, and all of that funding is gone now.' The outcome has been a 'sort of paralysis,' she said. Brands, squeezed by higher import costs, are hard-pressed to fill the breach. And while individual states could step up with rulemaking to counter the White House's actions, there's also only so much they can do. 'It's not like they can't step in and do things, but they're constricted in their authorities,' she said. 'They cannot negotiate trade deals, and they can't control imports. They can pass EPR programs, because EPR programs regulate products within their state, but what they can't do is institute something like an export ban.' On the first day of the Global Fashion Summit, themed 'Barriers and Bridges,' Federica Marchionni, CEO of Global Fashion Agenda, didn't mince words, either, calling this an 'extremely challenging time for sustainability' that is hampering fashion's ability to be a 'force for good.' At the same time, she said, the only certainty in an uncertain world is climate change. And a 'strong absence' of leadership requires 'collective courage' to build supply chain resilience. The few suppliers who spoke—their attendance likely, again, constrained by a lack of financial wherewithal—alluded to their struggles. 'The volumes are lower than they used to be a couple of years ago,' said Attila Kiss, CEO of Gruppo Florence, an integrated manufacturing hub in Italy. 'The brands are asking for lower prices because they have pressure on the margins. And from the other side, we have all the ethical issues, the social issues to manage.' In a panel that discussed Arvind Limited and Fashion for Good's plans for 'near-carbon-neutral' textile factory in India that would bring online tested and emergent solutions that could collective slash greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 93 percent, Abhishek Bansal, the former's head of sustainability, said that most of the industry's climate mitigation efforts either involve setting targets or pushing the supply chain to do so. 'Unfortunately, I have seen very little money going into helping build the hard assets that are going to actually reduce emissions,' he said. 'If you honestly ask how many industry stakeholders have set aside funds to build plants or invest in technologies to achieve those targets, I think you can count them on the fingers of one hand.' 'It's a big thing to say,' Bansal added quietly, 'but I don't think we are going to meet 2030 targets.' The dearth of representation—from suppliers, from economists, from investors—was noticeable, more than one attendee said. Speaking to an audience, Tara St. James, senior director of sustainability at the Canadian retailer Moose Knuckles, said that brands could take more responsibility for fostering inclusion by bringing their suppliers to conferences or having them speak on panels with them or in their stead. 'We talk about making changes in our supply chain, which is where most of the impact is, but then we don't invite suppliers into every conversation,' one attendee said. 'And when we do, it's usually farmers and manufacturers, which is great, but I want to hear from a mom-and-pop mill, a dye house. I want more doers on the panels. And that includes more brands.' 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Senate GOP seeks to cut SALT cap, triggering fight with House
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Senate Republicans emerged from a conference meeting Wednesday where key committees laid out their portions of the bill and lawmakers discussed numerous changes on the table. Several contentious issues remained unresolved, with only two legislative weeks to go until the July 4 recess. But multiple senators told The Hill that the chamber appears ready to chop down the $40,000 SALT cap, which was painstakingly negotiated between Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House GOP moderates from New York, New Jersey and California who have warned not to touch it. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), one of the members who led the meeting, was insistent that the cap would fall below $40,000, one Senate Republican said. It's unclear exactly what number Republicans in the upper chamber are eyeing, but Bloomberg News reported it was $30,000. 'There was never a number specifically discussed other than the House's [$40,000] — and it's a lot,' Sen. 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'Imagine a jigsaw puzzle with 3,000 pieces — and no picture,' Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said after the meeting. 'That's what we're trying to put together.' Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a top ally of Thune, labeled that deadline for committees as an 'aspirational goal,' with the entire bill potentially hitting the floor by Monday, June 23 to kick off consideration. If that happens, a vote-a-rama could take place by that week's end. He admitted all those are lofty plans. 'We work really good on deadlines,' Mullin said. 'Without deadlines, we don't ever work.' Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Wednesday morning that he does not believe July 4 is a realistic deadline for the bill to hit Trump's desk given that roughly one-third of the bill is set to be revised by the upper chamber. 'And so I think the Senate will vote it out right before the July 4 recess, and then, I think it is likely that we will spend the month of July in conference and trying to reconcile the two,' Cruz said at an event hosted by Punchbowl News. 'The Senate bill is going to be markedly different from the House,' he continued. 'My guess is the Senate bill will track the House bill, maybe 60 to 70 percent. There are a lot of good provisions. A lot of the broad outlines are going to be similar, but it's the Senate. So the Senate is going to do what it damn well wants to do and that's a good process.' When asked if the deadline is realistic, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) was unsure. 'Maybe,' he said, noting that a number of members are awaiting scoring from the Congressional Budget Office. And a number of members still need to be won over. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a key lawmaker who remains up for grabs, told reporters that she has questions about Medicaid changes and is still 'deliberating.' 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Miami Herald
20 minutes ago
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Apple WWDC underwhelms fans in a crucial upgrade
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