Retirement Stock Portfolio: Top 15 Stock Picks

In this article, we will take a look at the Top 15 Stock Picks for a retirement portfolio.

The Federal Reserve is decreasing its benchmark rate after holding them stable for most of the year despite President Donald Trump’s demands to do so. At its September 17 meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to cut the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a target of between 4% to 4.25%.

Some retirees may be satisfied with the rate reduction, but not all senior citizens will benefit from it. According to Sebastián Leguizamón, director of Western Kentucky University’s Center of Applied Economics:

“The effect is mixed and very portfolio-specific. So rather than cheering or booing, it’s better to think in terms of trade-offs that depend on debt levels and how a retiree’s assets are allocated.”

In an unpredictable climate, individuals preparing for retirement usually view dividend-paying stocks as reliable options, as they can reduce the danger of depleting their funds by depending on monthly dividend payments rather than capital gains from stock sales.

Photo by Max Harlynking on Unsplash

Our Methodology

We employed a screener to select dividend stocks for this list that are suitable for a retirement stock portfolio, as they are diversified across multiple industries and have demonstrated robust and consistent payout policies. The stocks are ranked according to hedge funds having stakes in them as per Insider Monkey’s Q2 2025.

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).

15. Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG)

Dividend Yield: 3.51%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 34

Evergy Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) ranks among the top picks for a retirement portfolio. UBS maintained its Buy rating and $81 price target for Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) on September 19. Analyst William Appicelli believes that at its fourth quarter update, Evergy could boost its growth rate from the current 4-6% to 6-8%.

UBS attributed its higher capital expenditure projections and higher earnings per share estimates to the anticipated generation capacity to handle about 2GW of additional load from data centers.

According to UBS, Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG) is wrapping up deals for two major data center projects, with the possibility of further projects that might result in a capital expenditure of about $5 billion.

Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVRG), formed in 2018 from the merger of Great Plains Energy and Westar Energy, provides 16,000 megawatts of generating capacity across more than 40 power plants, serving 1.7 million customers in Kansas and Missouri.