Top Wall Street analysts like these 3 dividend stocks for solid returns

The Federal Reserve stated after its last meeting that there was a possibility of an interest rate increase this year; This can have negative consequences for investors seeking income.

Given this, dividend-paying stocks with strong yields and growth potential can help investors earn attractive returns.

Backed by solid research, top Wall Street analysts can provide critical insight for selecting stocks with the ability to generate compelling capital appreciation and pay consistent dividends based on solid fundamentals.

Here are three dividend-paying stocks highlighted by Wall Street’s top pros, tracked by TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

Kinetic It is a mid-sized company operating in the Delaware basin. With a quarterly dividend of 81 cents per share ($3.24 annual dividend per share), KNTK The stock’s dividend yield is approximately 7%.

RBC Capital analyst Elvira Scotto reiterated and increased her buy rating on Kinetik shares price target $53 Prices start at $50, citing expected growth from the KL2 project and the sour gas opportunity in New Mexico. Scotto updated its forecasts to reflect Kinetik’s first quarter 2026 results; increased adjusted EBITDA estimates due to improving margins and Gulf Coast marketing gains offsetting Waha price-related closures.

The five-star analyst expects price-related closures at Waha to continue until increased takeout capacity comes online later this year. Scotto said Kinetik is well positioned to capture New Mexico sour gas growth expectations when prices support activity. He sees the Northern Delaware Basin in New Mexico as a major growth opportunity for Kinetics. Scotto emphasized that Kinetik purpose-developed its system for sour gas handling, giving it an advantage over new competitors that may face permitting delays of at least three years to build sour gas injection wells.

Additionally, Scotto noted Kinetik’s attractive capital return framework targeting 3.5x to 4.0x leverage, 3% to 5% annual dividend increases until dividend coverage reaches 1.6x, and opportunistic share buybacks.

“We still view KNTK as a logical exit candidate for buyers looking to increase NGL barrel equity and sour gas processing,” Scotto said.

Scotto is ranked #211 out of more than 12,300 analysts followed by TipRanks. Their ratings were successful 68% of the time, with an average return of 16%. Check out Kinetik Financials on TipRanks.

oilfield services company SLB (SLBThe stock formerly known as Schlumberger is this week’s second dividend pick. The company announced a quarterly cash dividend of approximately 30 cents per share, payable on July 9. With an annual dividend of $1.18 per share, SLB The stock offers a 2.5% dividend yield.

Goldman Sachs analyst Neil Mehta recently reiterated his buy rating on SLB shares. price target $63He said he believes the company is “positioned to capitalize on long-term opportunities in oilfield activity triggered globally by ongoing disruptions and changing supply dynamics in the Middle East.”

The five-star analyst expects SLB’s dominant position in the international oilfield services market to drive earnings power in the long term, supported by increased activity levels in the medium to long term.

Given management’s comments regarding accelerated exploration activity in regions such as Latin America, Africa and Asia, and the expectation of accelerated final investment decisions on deepwater projects in West Africa, the Gulf of America and Brazil, Mehta expects SLB to benefit from higher service activity needed due to increased drilling and production.

Additionally, Mehta expects portfolio diversification resulting from digital business and data center growth to lead to higher returns in the long run. Notably, the analyst expects SLB to achieve around 40% margin in the Digital business this year and expand further in the coming years.

Mehta is ranked #626 out of more than 12,300 analysts tracked by TipRanks. It did well in the ratings 60% of the time and delivered an average return of 10.7%. See SLB AI Stock Analysis on TipRanks.

Finally we move on to the technology giant IBM’s (IBM’s). The company is increasingly focusing on quantum computing and artificial intelligence to fuel future growth. With a quarterly dividend rate of $1.69 per share, IBM shares offer a dividend yield of 2.7%.

Following a fireside chat with Ric Lewis, IBM’s senior vice president of infrastructure, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan reaffirmed his buy rating on IBM stock and increased his holdings price target $315 Prices starting from $300.

The five-star analyst noted that Lewis sees IBM Infrastructure as an increasingly less cyclical and more structurally advantaged business, with AI driving additional demand across the entire technology stack rather than just the graphics processing units.

Mohan added that AI headwinds were most pronounced in IBM’s Z mainframe offering, where program-to-program growth rose from 110% a few generations ago to a range of 120% to 125% in the previous cycle and roughly 135% for the Z17. This acceleration is driven by AI workloads moving beyond fraud detection into areas of inference such as insurance, actuarial modeling, and transaction-level intelligence.

The analyst noted that IBM benefits from customers upgrading their systems and increased revenue from higher-value workloads from its existing customer base. Mohan also noted other positives in IBM’s storage business, such as AI-driven demand and its quantum roadmap.

“Overall, Fireside reinforced that IBM’s Infrastructure business is positioned to converge through a combination of accelerating Z demand, AI-driven workload expansion, storage power and better monetization on a differentiated full-stack architecture,” Mohan said.

Mohan is ranked 21st out of more than 12,300 analysts followed by TipRanks. It did well in the ratings 65% of the time, with an average return of 52.6%. Check out IBM Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks.