Five Stocks Whose Dividend Yields Have Risen
Posted: October 27, 2026
October 16, 2026 (Maple Hill Syndicate) – I knew Geraldine Weiss only slightly. The author of Dividends Don’t Lie (published in 1988) died in 2022 at age 96.
A well-known investment-newsletter writer in her day, Weiss favored stocks whose dividend yield was below that stock’s historical norm. If a stock usually yielded 3% but was yielding 4% now, she was interested.
The dividend yield is a stock’s dividend as a percentage of the stock price. When the yield has gone up, either the board of directors raised the dividend, or the market knocked the price of the stock down.
The first case is a good sign: It means the board thinks that earnings progress is sustainable. The second case is ambiguous. Maybe investors were right to pummel the stock. Or maybe the stock is now a bargain.
Weiss also looked for a few other attributes. Among them: (1) the company isn’t paying out more than half its profits in dividends. (2) The stock sells for 20 times earnings or less. (3) The company has raised its dividend at least five times in the past 12 years.
Here are a few stocks that I think Geraldine Weiss would favor if she were alive today.
Comcast
In addition to being the nation’s largest broadband provider, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) owns NBC television, the Peacock streaming service, Universal studios, the Universal theme parks, DreamWorks, Telemundo, and Sky television in Europe.
The stock yields 5.8% in dividends., compared to a ten-year average of 2.3%. The company has raised its dividend 18 times in the past 40 years.
Weiss preferred for debt to be no more than half of a company’s market value. Comcast doesn’t meet that criterion.
Indeed, I couldn’t find any companies that currently meet all of Weiss’s criteria. But Comcast meets most of them. I like it, and I think Weiss would too.
McCormick
Spice seller McCormick & Co. (MKC) has raised its dividend 41 times in the past 42 years. The current dividend yield is 3.8%, versus an historical average of 1.8%.
The stock is down about 28% this year (through October 23), even though revenue and earnings are up in the past four quarters. Two of McCormick’s directors, Gavin Hattersley and Michael Conway, have recently added to their holdings of the stock.
Lear
Lear corp. (LEA) is a major supplier to the car industry, specializing in seats and electrical systems. Its stock yields 2.6%, compared to a past average of 2.1%. It has raised its dividend only gradually over the years.
Lear’s earnings have risen more than 18% a year over the past five years. The company pays out only 23% of its profits as dividends, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it hike the dividend soon.
Lennar
Last year, Lennar Corp. (LEN.B) edged out D.R. Horton Inc. as the nation’s largest homebuilder by revenue. Its stock yields 2.5% in dividends, compared to a historical average of less than 1%.
The stock is down 12% year-to-date, as stiff mortgage rates continue to discourage home buying. But I think it has staying power, and will probably reward patient buyers. There’s a lot of pent-up demand for houses.
Korn Ferry
Based in Los Angeles, Korn Ferry (KFY) is a business consulting and executive-search firm – one of the largest ten such firms in the world. Its stock has risen 278% in the past decade, including a 17% rise this year.
The dividend yield on Korn Ferry stock is 2.8%, compared to about 1.1% historically. Because it’s in a niche industry, it doesn’t have a lot of Wall Street coverage. Only six analysts cover it, four of whom rate it a “buy.”
Performance
This is the third column I’ve written about Geraldine Weiss’s stock-picking approach. My picks in the first one returned 23.4%, beating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Total Return Index at 17.6%.
My second try suffered from a sophomore jinx. My picks rose 9%, against 16.3% for the index. The main detractor was Novo Nordisk AS, a Danish company best known for diabetes and weight-loss drugs. It fell 26%, even after taking dividends into account.
My best pick from a year ago was EOG Resources Corp., an oil-and-gas producer, which returned 53%.
Bear in mind that my column results are hypothetical and shouldn’t be confused with results I obtain for clients. Also, past performance doesn’t predict the future.
Disclosure: I own Novo Nordisk shares for one of my clients. I don’t currently own the other stocks discussed in today’s column, either personally or for clients.
John Dorfman is chairman of Dorfman Value Investments in Newton, Massachusetts. His firm or clients may own or trade the stocks discussed here. He can be reached at jdorfman@dorfmanvalue.com.