From 2000 through 2009, dividends earned S&P 500 investors an annualized 1.8%, according to Hartford Funds. Even with those payments, the index posted a negative total return for the decade. Over the longer stretch from 1940 through 2025, Hartford found that dividend income accounted for an average of 33% of the index’s total return. For investors who rely on quarterly dividends to pay bills, that history raises a practical question: when sales slow and debt payments take priority, how much of that income can they count on?
The COVID-19 pandemic showed how quickly that income could change. S&P 500 companies paid $119 billion in dividends in the second quarter of 2020, slightly more than a year earlier, as companies honored dividends declared before the pandemic. During those same three months, 50 stocks in the index cut or suspended their dividends. According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, those decisions reduced expected annual payments by $29 billion.
On November 2, a U.S. soup and snack maker paid shareholders 25 cents a share, down from 39 cents in August. An investor with 1,000 shares who collected $390 in August received just $250 in November. Management cut the dividend by nearly 36% to pay down debt faster after quarterly sales fell 8%. For income investors, the warning signs matter most while the old dividend is still in place. That was the issue CNBC’s Jim Cramer raised about another food stock in September.
For consumer businesses, an early clue can be what shoppers decide they can do without. A family that skips dinner out still needs groceries, but even in the cereal aisle, it can switch brands. Those everyday choices help explain why Cramer sees 10 familiar consumer stocks so differently. On the September 18 episode of Mad Money, Cramer said he had never expected to see a familiar cereal maker yield 6.72%. The dividend had caught his eye because the shares had fallen so far. What troubled him was why a business he had long considered dependable was suddenly offering that much income.
Less than two weeks later, a caller asked Cramer about a pipeline operator yielding 7.6%. This time, he liked what he saw. The operator’s second-quarter results help explain what gave him confidence in the higher payout. In November, the operator raised its quarterly distribution by 12.5%.
Cramer has applied similar reasoning in his Charitable Trust. In his 2022 investing guide, he recalled buying shares of a drugmaker yielding 5% to 6% while investors worried about the loss of patent protection on its drug, Humira. Cramer believed the company could sustain its dividend and saw two drugs whose combined sales could eventually exceed Humira’s peak. It would take time for those sales to materialize.
Methodology
We selected 10 dividend-paying companies that Jim Cramer identified on Mad Money as Charitable Trust holdings and discussed favorably. We gave the most weight to each company’s record of maintaining its regular dividend through difficult periods and its ability to fund the payment. For non-financial companies, we compared cash dividends paid with operating cash flow after capital expenditures over the same reporting period. For financial stocks, we examined earnings and regulatory capital. Where payment records and coverage were comparable, we favored the higher indicated yield. Each yield uses four payments at the latest declared quarterly rate and excludes special dividends. We listed the stocks in ascending order of the hedge fund sentiment of each stock, according to Insider Monkey’s Q2 database of over 1000 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. Insider Monkey’s quarterly newsletter strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 612% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 375 percentage points (see more details here).
Jim Cramer’s Top 10 Dividend Stocks for Safe, Consistent Returns
10. Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NASDAQ:KMB)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 53
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 4.57%
Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NASDAQ:KMB) has paid a dividend for 92 consecutive years. In January, the maker of Huggies and Kleenex raised its quarterly payment from $1.26 to $1.28 per share, its 54th consecutive annual increase. Cramer mentioned in October that he had started buying too early, but he still saw a reason to buy more. On October 30, he identified Kimberly-Clark as the Charitable Trust’s newest consumer staples holding.
The Kenvue acquisition makes that long dividend record harder to assess today. In the nine months through September, Kimberly-Clark’s operating cash flow, including discontinued operations, exceeded capital spending and cash dividends by just $101 million. The company completed the acquisition on November 2. Shareholders buying at the highest yield on this list have a long history of annual raises to draw on, but the first full quarter of combined results will give them a better measure of how comfortably the enlarged business can afford its dividend.
9. Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE:CAH)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 63
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 0.75%
Cardinal Health, Inc.’s (NYSE:CAH) 2026 dividend increase was small, taking its quarterly payment from $0.5107 to $0.5158 per share. Cramer identified the drug distributor as a Charitable Trust holding in July. By September, he was drawing attention to what set Cardinal apart from McKesson and Cencora.
Cardinal’s cash-flow statement makes a stronger case for dividend safety than the size of the raise. In the quarter ended September 30, the company reported approximately $1.4 billion in operating cash flow, spent $157 million on property and equipment, and paid $126 million in common dividends. The operating figure already reflected $338 million of litigation-related payments that management added back in its adjusted measure. Even with those payments included, Cardinal could fund both its capital spending and its dividend with significant cash to spare.
8. Eaton Corporation plc (NYSE:ETN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 68
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 1.22%
Eaton Corporation plc (NYSE:ETN) has paid a dividend every year since 1923. Its latest declaration calls for $1.10 per share on November 27. Data center demand has given investors a more recent reason to follow the electrical equipment manufacturer. In May, after the shares sold off, Cramer disclosed what the Charitable Trust had done with its Eaton position.
The useful comparison for income investors goes back to a period when Eaton generated considerably less cash. In 2021, it produced approximately $1.59 billion after capital expenditures and paid about $1.22 billion in dividends. In the first nine months of 2026 alone, the company generated approximately $2.22 billion on the same basis and paid roughly $1.29 billion. The dividend was affordable in the leaner year, and its latest financial report shows considerably more room to sustain it if industrial demand slows.
7. Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 92
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 1.23%
In December 2025, Cramer said Linde plc (NASDAQ:LIN) shares had fallen roughly 20% from their August high. He identified the industrial gas supplier as a Charitable Trust holding and he pointed to one reason its earnings had held up over the years. The company raised its quarterly dividend by 7% to $1.60 in February 2026, its 33rd consecutive year of increases.
Linde’s largest customers offer a clue to how it has sustained those payments. When the company builds a gas plant on or beside a customer’s premises, its supply agreement typically runs for 10 to 20 years. Minimum purchases protect a portion of revenue when industrial production slows, and the contracts generally allow for price increases. In the first nine months of 2026, Linde generated $7.68 billion from operations, spent approximately $4.17 billion on capital projects and paid about $2.21 billion in dividends to Linde shareholders. Those figures account for the considerable cost of building and maintaining its plants.
6. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 92
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 2.2%
When concerns about consumer credit weighed on bank stocks in June, Cramer disclosed that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) was a large Charitable Trust position. His reason for sticking with Goldman came down to who was borrowing the money. The company faces a different source of earnings volatility through its investment bank. Advisory fees depend on clients completing transactions, and trading revenue can fluctuate between quarters.
Goldman Sachs earned $17.01 per diluted share in the third quarter and paid a $5 common dividend in September. It declared another $5 payment for December. Earnings comfortably covered the payout. However, bank shareholders also have to consider how much capital regulators require the firm to retain. Goldman Sachs ended September with a standardized common equity Tier 1 ratio of 12.4%, against an 11.4% requirement. That capital margin matters when judging how much room the bank would have to keep paying shareholders in a weaker market.
5. The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 98
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 2.64%
The Home Depot, Inc.’s (NYSE:HD) September payment of $2.33 per share marked its 158th consecutive quarterly cash dividend. The shares had disappointed Cramer by early October, when he discussed their performance. Even with housing activity subdued, he saw a reason to own Home Depot before shoppers returned to the renovation aisle.
For shareholders collecting the dividend, the weaker fiscal year ended February 1, 2026, offers a useful perspective. The company’s operating cash flow fell to $16.33 billion in the fiscal year ended February 1, 2026, from $19.81 billion a year earlier. Even in the weaker year, that was enough to cover both its $3.68 billion in capital expenditures and the $9.15 billion it paid in cash dividends. Operating cash flow then rose to $11.42 billion in the six months ended August 2, 2026, from $8.97 billion in the same period a year earlier.
4. Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 104
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 0.55%
Cramer described Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST) as a longstanding Charitable Trust holding in January. By September, he had identified a group of members the retailer was having trouble winning back. Renewals matter because membership fees give Costco recurring revenue alongside its merchandise sales. Fee revenue rose to approximately $5.91 billion in fiscal 2026 from $5.32 billion a year earlier.
Costco’s current regular dividend is $1.47 per quarter. Its annual filing shows how readily the business funded shareholder payments while continuing to invest in its warehouses. It generated approximately $15.82 billion from operations in fiscal 2026, spent about $6.44 billion on property and equipment, and paid $2.46 billion in cash dividends. The $15-per-share special dividend paid in January 2024 was a separate distribution. An investor budgeting for regular income can use the quarterly rate without counting on another special payment.
3. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 117
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 1.90%
Johnson & Johnson raised its quarterly dividend from $1.30 to $1.34 in April, extending its record to 64 consecutive years of increases. That same month, Cramer disclosed that the Charitable Trust had bought J&J during a selloff and explained what he intended to do if the shares kept falling.
The latest filing gives the dividend record some financial context. Over the first nine months of 2026, J&J generated $18.85 billion from operations, invested approximately $3.73 billion in property, plant and equipment, and paid about $9.59 billion in dividends. Its pharmaceutical and medical technology businesses produced enough cash to fund the higher payment along with capital investment. Coverage also improved slightly from the same period a year earlier.
2. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 152
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 0.49%
Cramer identified Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) as a Charitable Trust holding in March. In October, when a caller who owned both Lilly and Novo Nordisk asked which had better prospects over the next three to five years, Cramer explained what tipped the decision for him. Eli Lilly’s $1.73 quarterly dividend offered the lowest indicated yield of these ten stocks at the November 9 close.
Eli Lilly’s case for reliable income rests on what it did through two years of tight cash coverage. In both 2023 and 2024, the company maintained its quarterly payments even though operating cash flow after capital expenditures fell short of dividends paid. That changed in 2025, when the company generated approximately $8.97 billion after capital spending and paid about $5.38 billion in dividends. The improvement continued through September 2026. In those nine months, Eli Lilly reported $27.42 billion of operating cash flow, spent roughly $8.44 billion on property and equipment, and paid about $4.64 billion in dividends. The current payment has significantly more cash behind it than it did two years ago.
1. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 273
Dividend Yield as of November 9: 0.72%
Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) investment in computing infrastructure has made capital spending important to its dividend story. Cramer described Microsoft as a large Charitable Trust position in August. By late September, he saw evidence that made him rethink his stance regarding the company’s AI spending.
In fiscal 2026, Microsoft generated enough cash from operations to cover both its capital expenditures and its cash dividend payments. In the year ended June 30, the company generated approximately $182.9 billion in operating cash flow, spent $115.95 billion on property and equipment, and paid approximately $26.45 billion in aggregate cash dividends on its common stock. Cash generation covered both commitments during a year of heavy investment. Additionally, Microsoft raised its quarterly dividend from $0.91 to $0.98, with the first payment at the higher rate due in December.
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