5 Dividend Stocks That Are Bucking The Bear Market

Forbes

26-04-2025

Bearish scenario in stock market with bear figure in front of red price drop chart.
Let's talk about consumer staples dividend stocks today. If we're heading for a slowdown then we need to be picky about our payouts. When the economy slows, discretionary spending is often punted but staples continue to be bought.
Today we'll discuss five dividends between 4.2% and 10.7%. These 'must have' products can provide our portfolios with important recession-resistant qualities.
Year-to-date staples have been flat and, in this market, that is great. Their sideways action has lapped the over-owned S&P 500 this year:
XLP Total Returns
Consumer staples stocks tend to have more stable operations that result in more stable share performance in turbulent markets. And they also have predictable profits that allow them to pay out better-than-average dividends.
But there are exceptions. Perpetually too-popular staples like Costco (COST) and Walmart (WMT) deliver sub-1% yields. This also drags down the yields of staples-focused funds.
This is why we cherry pick our payouts, as always. Let's get into these five which yield up to 10.7%.
Smokers are going to keep smoking, which is why these two tobacco companies have delivered double-digit gains (against the market's 15% decline!) since Feb. 19:
Altria (MO, 6.9% yield) is best-known for its Philip Morris USA segment, which produces Marlboro cigarettes and is by far and away the company's top revenue driver. But the company is putting increasing focus on its smokeless products, which include Copenhagen and Skoal smokeless tobacco, On! Oral nicotine pouches, NJOY e-vapor products and—through a joint venture with JT Group called Horizon Innovations—heated tobacco products.
Altria has been battling volume declines in cigarettes for years, and it has suffered a few self-inflicted wounds, such as its ill-fated stake in Juul Labs. However, higher prices on cigarettes, as well as growth in its smokeless products, have helped keep earnings and its high dividend on the rise, and both are expected to continue their (admittedly slow) growth in 2025.
MO Earnings Growth
Ever since the market started sliding in February, investors have been snapping up MO shares to get some of that stability. But Altria is getting expensive—yes, a forward P/E of 11 doesn't scream 'overbought,' but it's noticeably higher than the 8x-9x valuation it has typically carried over the past few years.
British American Tobacco (BTI, 7.5% yield) owns a number of well-known cigarette brands, including Camel, American Spirit and Newport. But it too deals in smokeless tobacco, including Grizzly dipping tobacco, Glo heated tobacco, VELO nicotine pouches, and Vuse vapes. In late 2023, BTI announced it would take a massive noncash writedown—which a few months later would become official, at $34.5 billion—on the value of its American cigarette brands. The stock bottomed in late 2024 and has been recovering ever since, including a roughly 10% gain since the February market top.
Despite the writedown, BTI's top and bottom lines have been generally stable if not improving for years. But the company doesn't expect sustainable growth until at least 2026, when management believes it will get more support from its smokeless portfolio. Fortunately, the company still keeps finding enough change under the couch to improve its dividend, which it has done in 26 of the past 27 years. A 7%-plus yield is stellar. A forward P/E of 9 not so much once we realize that's at the high end of its multiyear range.
Let's move on to more traditional consumer staples businesses—but not traditional consumer staples names. The sector's blue chips tend to be overcrowded, which is a recipe for limited yields. Instead, I prefer stocks that live outside of the spotlight but offer good to great levels of income.
SpartanNash (SPTN, 4.2% yield) is a company that we've previously discussed as a 'grocer-plus.' It operates nearly 200 grocery stores in 10 states across numerous brands, including Family Fresh Market, Metcalfe's Market and Supermercado Nuestra Familia. But its other, larger segment is a wholesale distribution business that services roughly 2,300 independent grocers across the U.S. The company is several years into a turnaround plan that has helped to rejuvenate the top and bottom lines, but the stock's performance hasn't matched.
As we said back in 2020, 'a look at the past 10 years is probably a decent indication of what the next 10 will broadly look like.'
SPTN boasts a decent 4%-plus yield that dwarfs most other grocers, it has raised its distribution for 15 consecutive years, and it pays out just less than half its earnings, so the dividend should have more upside. It's hard to say the same about the stock price. Management did recently express interest in expanding its Hispanic grocery and convenience store presence, but its plans are in their infancy.
BGS Foods (BGS, 10.7% yield) is the name behind brands such as Crisco, Cream of Wheat, Ortega and Bear Creek. Its double-digit yield is largely the product of a slumping stock, with shares off by more than 70% over the past few years amid slumping top and bottom lines.
Its 10% return since the market top is something of a small miracle considering its continued operational woes. In late February, B&G reported it was booking charges of $320 million related to 'intangible trademark assets' on its Green Giant, Victoria, Static Guard and McCann's brands. BGS also kept its dividend at 19 cents per share, but it's an open question as to how long B&G can keep it up. The dividend annualizes to 78 cents per share. The pros expect adjusted profits of 68 cents this year and 73 cents in 2026. Something has to give.
FEMSA (FMX, 7.0% yield)—the merciful shorthand for Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V.—isn't a familiar name, but it's awfully interesting. FEMSA operates a huge chain of small-box retail stores, called Oxxo, in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil. It uses the same brand for auto service stations in Mexico. It also operates drugstores under several names in Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador. And it owns nearly half of Coca-Cola FEMSA (KOF), the world's largest bottler of Coca-Cola (KO) by volume.
FEMSA isn't automatically a great defensive play, then, if our worry is the U.S. economy. We have to keep our eyes on Mexico to determine FMX's real utility. But there's a lot to like here. It has a dominant position in Latin America. Top- and bottom-line growth hasn't been pristine, but it's better than many other staples names. Estimates are for 26% profit growth this year, then another 12% in 2026. The dividend itself is generous—FEMSA has become increasingly aggressive about returning capital, and it plans on paying four quarterly ordinary dividends as well as four 'extraordinary' dividends, coming out to a yield of about 7%.
But while FMX has been plenty fruitful, it has also been more volatile than the average staples stock, and it's also richly priced at 20 times earnings estimates.
Brett Owens is Chief Investment Strategist for Contrarian Outlook. For more great income ideas, get your free copy his latest special report: How to Live off Huge Monthly Dividends (up to 8.7%) — Practically Forever.
Disclosure: none