We recently published a list of the 15 Best Dividend Aristocrat Stocks with Over 3% Yield. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) stands against other best dividend aristocrats with a high yield.
Dividend Aristocrats are the companies that have raised their payouts for 25 consecutive years or more. Dividends have been an important part of the overall market return for a very long time. According to a report by S&P Global, dividends have represented approximately 31% of the total return of the broader market from 1926 to February 2025, while capital appreciation has accounted for 69%.
Growing dividends consistently highlight the companies’ confidence in their firms’ prospects as market participants see this as a sign of corporate maturity and strong balance sheets. Dividend aristocrats reveal characteristics of both capital growth and dividend income, as opposed to alternative income strategies that mainly pay attention to pure yield or pure capital appreciation.
Investors are more inclined toward dividend growth stocks, and the performance of these equities has also remained stable over the years. According to a report by S&P Global, dividend aristocrats have reported higher returns with lower volatility over the long run as compared to the broader market, which eventually resulted in higher risk-adjusted returns.
In addition to dividend growth, dividend yield is also an important component of total return. The ability to increase dividends does not come at the expense of lower yields; in fact, the dividend aristocrats index has consistently delivered higher yields than its benchmark. The index had dividend yields within the range of 2.0% to 2.8% over the 28-year period, as reported by S&P Global. Moreover, the average dividend yield of the index was 2.5%, compared with a 1.8% dividend yield of the broader market.
As highlighted above, dividend aristocrats have shown lower volatility as compared to the broader market index. Their ability to provide downside protection can be seen in the upside and downside capture ratios. The S&P report highlighted that the dividend aristocrats index has outperformed the market index 66.67% of the time in down months and 43.88% of the time in up months. Notably, the index also has a lower drawdown level compared with the benchmark index. In addition, the dividend aristocrats index provided an average excess return of 0.87% in down months over the broader market. To further emphasize their low volatility, the report mentioned that the dividend aristocrats had a market beta of 0.8 between December 29, 1989, and February 28, 2025.
With the AI boom and tech stocks taking center stage, dividend stocks are somehow overlooked by the market. However, the recent market sell-off has restored their importance, as the Dividend Aristocrats Index has surged by over 2% since the start of 2025, compared with a nearly 5% decline in the broader market. The significance of these equities is much more apparent over long periods of time. According to the S&P Global report, the dividend aristocrats index outperformed its benchmark by an average of 1.59% per year between January 2000 and February 2025. This outperformance was because of the fundamental characteristics of the constituents of the index.
A close-up of a hand cutting fresh turkeys, revealing the perishable products of the company.
Our Methodology
For this article, we scanned a list of the Dividend Aristocrat index, which tracks the performance of companies that have raised their payouts for 25 consecutive years or more. From that list, we picked 15 stocks with dividend yields above 3%, as of March 29. The stocks are ranked in ascending order of their dividend yields.
At Insider Monkey, we are obsessed with hedge funds. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL)
Dividend Yield as of March 29: 3.82%
Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) is a Minnesota-based multinational food processing company. In fiscal Q1 2025, the company reported a revenue of $2.99 billion, which declined by nearly 1% from the same period last year. However, the revenue surpassed analysts’ estimates by $42 million. Its operating income came in at $228 million, and its operating margin stood at 7.6%.
In its earnings call, Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) reaffirmed its position as a market leader because of its flagship and rising brands, such as SPAM, Applegate, Hormel Black Label, and Jennie-O. These brands grew volumes during the quarter while gaining share in their respective categories. In its food service segment, the company achieved broad-based growth across numerous categories, most notably in its premium offerings. The international segment also benefitted from the growth of its global brands and products in the Chinese market.
Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE:HRL) ended the quarter with $840.4 million available in cash and cash equivalents, up from $741.8 million in the prior-year period. During the quarter, the company returned $155 million to shareholders through dividends. Currently, it pays a quarterly dividend of $0.29 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.82%, as of March 29. One of the best dividend aristocrat stocks on our list, HRL has been rewarding shareholders with growing dividends for 51 consecutive years.
Overall, HRL ranks 5th on our list of the best dividend aristocrat stocks. While we acknowledge the potential of HRL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued dividend stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued dividend stock that is more promising than HRL but that trades at 10 times its earnings and grows its earnings at double digit rates annually, check out our report about the dirt cheap dividend stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.