Three dividend stocks to lock in $1,500 per year in passive income

A $10,000 investment each in three high-yield dividend stocks: Realty Income, Enterprise Product Partners, and Hormel Foods can set you up for a reliable $1,500 per year in passive income.

Of course, the distribution rate fluctuates with share price, but these three names have compounded through multiple economic cycles without cutting a payment.

Interestingly, each of these three actually represents a different pillar of income durability: fee-based infrastructure, net-lease real estate, and defensive consumer staples.

Here’s what EPD, HRL and O shares have in store for investors in 2026.

Realty Income (O)

Realty Income is a net-lease real estate investment trust (REIT) holding more than 15,500 properties, weighted toward single-tenant retail with a growing mix of industrial sites, European holdings, and gaming and data center assets.

Under “triple-net leases”, tenants absorb property taxes, insurance, and maintenance, which keeps the trust’s own expense base lean and predictable.

Reality Income stock carries an investment-grade balance sheet and yields roughly 5.2%, backed by 31 consecutive years of dividend increases paid out monthly.

Management’s push into data centers and a fee-based institutional asset management arm offers a capital-light growth lever, though higher for longer interest rate environment remains the clearest risk to its acquisition-funded model.

Additionally, scale is the tradeoff: at just under a $60 billion market cap, Realty Income can’t really compound the way a smaller landlord can.

Enterprise Products Partners (EPD)

Enterprise Products Partners generates most of its earnings from fee-based infrastructure, making volumes and contracted capacity more important than commodity prices.

The master limited partnership earns fee income on natural gas, NGL, and crude oil moved through its pipeline, storage, and export network under long-term take-or-pay contracts; so volume matters more than price.

That structure has funded 27 consecutive years of dividend payments – with the yield set at about 5.9% currently – backed by an “A-rated” balance sheet and distributable cash flow coverage above 1.6x.

A multibillion-dollar capital program, tied largely to natural gas liquids and petrochemical export demand, is self-funded rather than debt-dependent.

The longer-term risk is energy transition headwinds, though near-term volume visibility from US LNG and NGL exports looks durable.

Hormel Foods (HRL)

Hormel Foods has raised its dividend for 59 years straight, a streak that has earned it the “Dividend King” status.

At the time of writing, it yields 4.74%, well above its historical average, which indicates the stock has lagged – but the payout is not really at risk.

Beyond SPAM, Planters, and Applegate, HRL runs a “sizable” foodservice business that supplies restaurants and institutions, and has held up better than retail.

Moreover, Hormel Foods’ management is divesting non-core assets and cutting expenses to rebuild margins as well.

If the turnaround takes hold, earnings growth should pull the payout ratio back toward historical norms; and until then, the elevated yield is compensation for that uncertainty.