Hey, what's up everyone welcome back to my world of stocks as you all know chat GPT is Arguably, you know one of the most popular maybe the most popular and widely used AI chat bot in the world It's of course in competition with Google's Gemini Grok and others But it was really the first viable option to hit the market and it's been getting Upgraded and really riding high ever since well for today's video I asked the AI to give me what it thinks are the top five best dividend stocks to buy for 2025 and beyond considering a balance of yield stability and potential for growth among a variety of sectors now i did have to reword my questions a couple a couple times this tends to happen with ais until you get them to comply and do what you want them to do but ultimately it did answer the question and it gave me these stocks here and did it actually a very good job in my opinion now i'm going to run through these one by one I'll give you my opinion on each one of them and I'll even rank them from best to worst too based on that opinion. So it should be a ton of fun. Please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel to help keep it alive. It really means a lot to me.
Thank you for that support. But this is going to be a ton of fun. Like I said guys, it actually gave me some really interesting stocks to talk about here.
Some I've never even covered before on the channel. So let's not waste any time. Let's go ahead and jump straight into this list.
All right, now the first dividend stock it gave me here was Altria, ticker symbol MO, which it states dividend yield over 8% sector consumer staples, specifically TOB. And then for why it's a good choice, it says Altria consistently offers one of the highest dividend yields in the market supported by its resilience cash flow from the TOB sector. While the TOB industry faces regulatory headwinds, Altria has invested in alternatives like ECIGs and CAN. Its strong dividend history and focus on returning capital to shareholders makes it a reliable high yield option. I've always really thought of as the type of stock that we all kind of know is a good value.
It's a very logical stock to buy for any income and value oriented investors out there with a dirt cheap P.E. ratio that is over 40 percent lower than the sector median. While the dividend also yields over 8 percent with more than five decades of consecutive growth.
Those two things alone, the valuation and the dividend are among the most attractive in the entire market. However, it's a TOB company that. many people just kind of, you know, don't really feel too comfortable investing in, which even I myself kind of struggle with that conundrum.
Like, you know, on one hand, the logical part of my brain tells me that stocks are just stocks and people can make their own individual decisions on what they consume. And if I boycott this stock, well, then where do I draw the line? Should I also boycott, you know, car companies because of all the car accidents out there or junk food companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, McDonald's, when, you know. probably like the biggest cause of death in America is heart disease.
And I'm pretty sure I could really find like a moral reason to not invest in literally any company in the entire world because of how often, you know, companies care about more about profits than they do about the health of their customers. And yet I still can't bring myself to buy this stock. And I can't really give you any kind of logical reason for it other than just kind of the purely emotional part of me just refuses to buy a smoking related company or even like a you know, maybe like a weapons manufacturer things that I know just can cause a lot of death and destruction and you know, I admit that that makes me 100% a hypocrite because I also own PepsiCo stock I own auto companies pharmaceuticals and more all of which have done, you know shady things in the past But you know just kind of trying to put my personal bias aside for a minute here because I still have to do my job I have to make this video for you guys. So when looking at Altria Well, as GPT mentioned, they have at least tried diversifying into other offerings too for growth, which of course they market that as much as possible with the first thing you see when clicking on their website is how they offer more smokeless products than ever before.
They also invested in Anheuser-Busch, which, you know, ALK perhaps tends to be a little less stigmatized, and even Kronos Group for exposure into the can market as well. They also spent nearly $3 billion to acquire Enjoy, which is a maker of VAP products, who also had a big win recently back in June, being the first flavored VAP products to get FDA approval. However, these moves have yet to really kind of move the needle much on the top line.
In fact, sales not only decreased, declined in both of the last two years, but are also expected to slightly drop in the next two years as well. Assuming that that does end up happening, well, it would technically be four consecutive years of revenue declines for the company. However, those are very tiny drops, and considering how strongly profitable they are with that cheap valuation and the mouthwatering dividend, I can absolutely understand why anyone would be buying the stock right here. And I'm going to rank them. around the middle at number three because of it until i see what else is on this list all right now while i may not be buying altria stock myself at least not at the moment uh stock number two i actually am very interested in and that is actually a reit a real estate investment trust known as vici properties ticker symbol v-i-c-i which gpt had this to say about it vici properties is a reits with a portfolio of high quality entertainment and gaming properties including casinos like caesar's palace the long-term inflation protected leases ensure stable cash flows vc's high yield and growth potential through acquisitions make it an appealing choice in the real estate sector especially as the gaming industry rebounds and yeah what i particularly like about this pick here is that it's in a market that i don't ever see going away by the way we know I just talked about how I'm kind of a hypocrite because, you know, the emotional part of me can't invest in a company like Altria.
But I also like Vici properties and they're in the gaming kind of, you know, casinos and gambling type of area. But at least I admit that I'm a hypocrite. Right. So hopefully that counts for something. But I don't want to go too deep into that.
But yeah, like I said, I do actually like Vici properties as a stock. And again, the reason why is because the market is does actually seem very resilient to me. I mean. It's not like retail, for example, where you could argue that maybe the rise of e-commerce is going to put a lot of brick and mortar retail stores out of business and thus hurt the rates that leads to them. Office buildings would also be a great example of this.
You know, they're more vulnerable to the economy and to the rise in remote working trends. We've seen big swings in that, of course, during the pandemic, both in the economy and in the rise of remote work, you know, really hurting those companies. Well, Vici, on the other hand.
well, they actually collected 100% of their rent during the height of the pandemic, even when the Las Vegas Strip was shut down, which really shows just how much more resilient they are with high quality tenants, especially in areas of entertainment and gaming properties like casinos, for example. I mean, have you ever gone to a casino? They typically don't struggle.
They're usually packed, a lot of people there, and they make a ton of money. And I also don't think they're ever going to disappear anytime soon because, you know, people obviously enjoy. gambling and going somewhere for entertainment and all that kind of stuff so that's a very resilient market in my opinion which in the case of vici well they lease their land and properties to giant players like those in vegas including mgm grand the venetian mandalay bay caesar's palace and more as well as even more giant properties across 26 states in the country the results being that their funds from operations have been rising while the dividend payout ratio remains well covered Speaking of which, that dividend currently yields over 5%, which should become even more attractive over time as the Fed rates continue to drop.
The stock itself has been a decent enough performer over the years, but isn't up any kind of crazy amount. And I still think it's a buy right here. In fact, I might even pick this one up myself very soon, too. I'm glad GPT reminded me of it because I was actually looking at them a little while back.
And yeah, this reminded me that I actually do want to buy this stock. So. I'm going to rank it pretty high here. I'll put it at number two for now.
Uh, cause like I said, I am a hypocrite. I would actually buy Vici instead of, uh, Altria anyway, uh, moving on to stock number three. Well, this one is actually a stock that I own myself and that is Merck ticker symbol MRK with a dividend yield close to 3% within the healthcare sector specifically.
pharmaceuticals with GPT saying Merck offers a lower dividend yield compared to others on the list but is one of the most stable pharmaceutical companies globally. Its cancer drug Keytruda and robust drug pipeline provide long-term growth opportunities. Merck's consistent dividend growth and strong fundamentals make it a conservative but solid pick in the healthcare sector and yeah that's exactly the reason why I'm invested in them too. When it comes to pharmaceuticals, Merck is really one of the largest out there.
Last year, for example, they were only behind Pfizer, AbbVie, and J&J. Their Keytruda drug was the best-selling in the world. Their financials have been steadily growing for years.
They're solidly profitable. They had a little correction last year. It was really due to one-time charges though, but both sales and profits are rising back up to record highs again with double-digit EPS growth. And even though the stock has risen along with them, a recent dip has actually left the valuation much cheaper than the sector on virtually any metric you look at, with also a still pretty attractive dividend of close to 3%, with also some decent enough growth metrics on it too.
There are concerns of patent protections expiring, like is the case with many pharmaceuticals out there, but Merck is doing literally everything they can and should to invest in new growth opportunities with rising R&D spend every year. Last year, by the way, was the largest in the entire world for pharmaceuticals, and a large part of which was in new deals in Japan for key cancer treatments. And they have a growing pipeline of drugs and treatments with lots of future potential too.
So I agree with the pick here. The only thing that I'll say though is that Pfizer and Bristol-Myers are a little more attractive to me at the moment because of their bigger dividend yields. And because of that, I'm going to keep Vici actually at the top and squeeze Merck in between them and Altria at number two. All right, moving on to stock number, what are we at here, four?
So, okay, we actually have another super interesting read that could potentially give Vici a run for its money. We'll have to take a look at it, but that is... Omega Healthcare Investors, ticker symbol OHI, at a dividend yield of about 6.8% within the healthcare sector for REITs, of course.
And here's what GPT says about it. It says, Omega Healthcare is a REIT that specializes in skilled nursing and long-term care facilities. The aging US population provides strong tailwinds for growth in healthcare services, despite potential risks tied to regulations.
Omega's consistent dividends and ability to weather market volatility make it an attractive high yield income stock And yeah, that is a statement that I mostly agree with myself However, I do have some concerns now on the positive side of things Okay, GPT mentions the aging US population being a strong tailwind. I 100% agree with that In fact, it's something that I've mentioned before in the past on my channel that specifically our aging baby boomer population will result in one out of every five US citizens at above the age of retirement by 2030, which should clearly result in the demand for healthcare facilities remaining high long-term. And voting very well, of course, for Omega, too, who happens to be one of the largest REITs for facilities in skilled nursing, assisted living, rehab, acute care, and more, with over 900 properties across the US and the UK.
And that usually results in... very strong performance and profitability for this company, making it a great choice for dividend income investors as they currently yield close to 7%. However, unlike Vici, who proved surprisingly resilient in our recently very difficult years that we've been going through, well, Omega actually struggled during the pandemic with lower occupancy rates as many hospitals and facilities actually went bankrupt and even those that remained continued to struggle either attracting patients or even staff and as a result omegas financials took a big hit during that time now moving forward the industry is absolutely recovering and so too are omegas financials so it's probably a safe play here if i'm thinking long term i don't see any reason why someone shouldn't invest in the stock i think it's a totally reasonable play on the future of healthcare through a reit but i just think that vici proved to be more resilient whereas omega stock price has been much more volatile than I would like to see for a REIT like this. So I don't think I would ever buy into this one myself. I think I'd prefer other options and because Altria also has a bigger yield well I'm actually going to put this one even behind them too.
Again it's not a bad stock by any means though and I actually think every stock that GPT has given us so far is pretty good. We just have to rank them and this is how I would rank them myself. Okay finally guys this leaves us with the last stock, stock number five GPT gave us AT&T at a dividend yield above 5% within the telecommunications sector. And it had this to say about it, AT&T remains a high yield dividend stock even after its divestiture of WarnerMedia. The company is now refocused on its core telecom services and expanding its 5G and fiber broadband networks with a solid dividend yield and efforts to stabilize its balance sheet.
AT&T offers a reliable income stream in the telecommunications space. Well, yeah, I mostly agree with that. I actually kind of liked it, though, when AT&T had WarnerMedia.
I felt like it made them a little larger, a little... more diversified. It was a little more exciting of a stock for me, but they had so much debt from those giant acquisitions that they made that they kind of had to make these moves eventually to kind of prevent from drowning in all of the debt that they'd been acquiring.
And not only did they actually get rid of Warner Media because of it, but they also just recently sold off DirecTV as well, which I think they should have probably done a long time ago. But yeah, GPT is right here in the sense that... Now you really have this more lean company that is kind of laser focused on what they want to do specifically.
They don't have to worry about these other markets out there that have their own unique challenges and issues like the declining cable TV, for example. Instead, now they can just kind of focus on what they do best, which is telecom and internet services. However, the issue of giant debt still remains with them even after these divestitures. And although Verizon also has giant debt, too. They're just, in my opinion, a bit more preferable of a stock with larger size, especially after the DirecTV sale.
They also have higher quality of service, which I think gives them an edge over the competition. Plus, they have a cheaper valuation and they also have a larger dividend above 6%. So even though AT&T stock is down a lot right now and it may seem like a good turnaround play, I just think that Verizon is the more attractive choice. I'm putting AT&T in last place here because of it, leaving us with my final rankings here of Vici at number one, Merck at number two, Altria at number three, Omega at number four, and AT&T at number five.
But honestly, guys, all five picks here by ChatGPT actually look pretty good to me. I was surprised at how much I actually like these picks, even though stocks number one and number two are really the only ones that I would personally buy myself. But hey, that's just my opinion. What do you guys think?
Do you? agree with my rankings. Would you make any changes? And let me know if you'd like me to do this also with maybe Google Gemini or Grok and make a similar video.
Could be fun. I think it'd be fun. But anyway, I enjoyed making this video. I hope you enjoyed watching it and I will catch you in the next one.
All right. Take care of my friends. Bye bye.