7% Dividend Yield and Double-Digit Upside: Truist Suggests 2 Dividend Stocks to Buy

Nearly three months into 2026, with the geopolitical situation showing increasing risk and the American political situation showing increased deadlocks on Capitol Hill, it’s only natural for investors to look for ways to shore up their portfolios. One classic play – buy into high-yielding dividend stocks.

Dividend stocks have plenty to offer investors right now – and always. The best of them combine high yields with reliable payment histories, giving investors a steady income stream that’s an asset whether the markets run up or down.

Wall Street’s analysts know this, and the team at Truist has been tagging some high-yield dividend payers for investor attention. Of particular interest, two of these picks also feature double-digit upside potential for the coming year. Add in the dividend yields that start at 7%, and we’re looking at solid returns that will be a boon for any investing strategy.

To get the full picture, we turned to the TipRanks database to see how these Truist picks stack up with the rest of the Street. Let’s take a closer look.

Diversified Energy Company (DEC)

The first high-yielding dividend stock we’ll look at is Diversified Energy Company, a producer, transporter, and marketer of natural gas and natural gas liquids in the Appalachian and Central regions of the US. Diversified follows a coherent strategy of acquiring existing production wells that feature long-life and low-decline profiles. The company operates these wells, along with midstream assets, through an efficient management style that aims to improve or restore asset production while reducing the cost of operations. The company also works to safely retire wells that reach the end of their productive lives.

Diversified’s upstream production leans heavily toward Appalachia, where the company has 70% of its producing assets. The remaining 30% of production comes from the Central region. These production assets are backed up by a midstream network that includes over 17,000 miles of gathering and transportation pipelines. Integrating these sets of assets – upstream and midstream – allows Diversified to create stable operating margins and reliable cash flows.

On the gas marketing side, Diversified acts in 25 markets and has 261 actively managed sales points. This network handles more than 1.2 billion bcf of natural gas every day, and puts the company among the top 25 of North American natural gas marketers.

Like many energy sector operators, Diversified pays out a regular quarterly dividend. The company last declared the payment on February 26 for a June 30 payout; the dividend was set at 29 cents per common share. At that rate, the dividend annualizes to $1.16 and gives a forward yield of 7%.

On the financial side, Diversified generated $667 million in revenue during its last reported quarter, 4Q25. For the full-year 2025, revenue came to $1.83 billion, beating the forecast by $190 million and registering an impressive 141% year-over-year increase. The company had a full-year net income of $342 million, and a 2025 adjusted free cash flow of $440 million.

Truist analyst Gabe Daoud lays out an upbeat outlook for Diversified. He says of the company, “DEC stands out as a differentiated small-cap E&P owing to the company’s PDP (proved developed producing) roll-up strategy. DEC securitizes low-decline, stable, and heavily hedged (80%+) PDP cash flowing assets providing stable cash flow to support an attractive dividend yield of ~8%, one of the highest in our coverage list… Valuation stands at 3.7x ’26e EV/EBITDA – roughly 1 turns below gas -focused E&P peers – and FCF/EV yield at 30.6%. We believe the current valuation/multiple construct of DEC could re -rate higher closer to peers due to its PDP roll-up strategy.”

Quantifying his stance here, Daoud puts a Buy rating on DEC, and he complements that with a $22 price target that indicates a one-year upside potential of 32%. The forward dividend yield brings the one-year return here to 39%.

Overall, the Street gives this stock a unanimously positive Strong Buy consensus rating, based on 6 recent positive analyst reviews. The shares are trading for $16.62 and have an average target price of $21.71; this combination gives a 31% upside potential on the one-year horizon. (See DEC stock forecast)

MPLX LP (MPLX)

Next up on our list is MPLX, one of the North American energy industry’s major midstream players. MPLX traces its roots to Marathon Petroleum – the midstream company was formed as a master limited partnership to own and operate Marathon’s network of hydrocarbon industry midstream and logistics assets. Along with the midstream business, MPLX also acts as a fuel distributor.

The company’s key activity, however, is hydrocarbon midstream activity. MPLX has a large network of natural gas processing assets, light product terminals, and pipelines, centered on the Appalachian and Great Lakes regions. The network extends northwest into the Bakken region of North Dakota, and southwest to the Gulf Coast, West Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Other assets link the northern Rockies with the Northwest, and provide services in California.

MPLX’s network does not stop on land. The company’s natural gas gathering and processing facilities, and its light and heavy oil product storage tanks, are connected to vital inland river routes on the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee rivers, as well as to Gulf Coast maritime transport and terminal facilities. The company’s above- and below-ground storage capabilities help to tie together the transport assets.

On January 29, MPLX made its most recent dividend declaration. The company announced a common share dividend payment of $1.0765, which was paid out on February 17. At the annualized rate of $4.31 per common share, this gives a forward yield of 7.3%. The company has been paying out, and gradually raising, quarterly dividends since 2013.

In its 4Q25 report, MPLX showed quarterly revenues of $3.25 billion. This figure was up more than 6% year-over-year, and it beat expectations by $70 million. At the bottom line, MPLX’s GAAP EPS of $1.17 was up 10 cents per share from the prior-year quarter – and it was 12 cents per share better than had been anticipated. The company’s quarterly free cash flow rose year-over-year, from $344 million to $472 million.

Once again, we’ll check in with Truist’s Gabe Daoud, who thinks the key point here is MPLX’s overall quality, and that’s where he starts his review. Daoud writes of this midstream company, “MPLX stands out as a high-quality, large scale infrastructure platform with liquids assets largely contracted to its parent Marathon (MPC) and an expanding natural gas footprint, with EBITDA growth to come from its JV export facility and its joint venture Permian gas takeaway projects… MPLX’s pivot toward growing its gas and NGL business underpins our bullish call, with customer stability for crude and refined cash flows from MPC and the growing distribution putting some cushion in the event of a production downturn… We favor the direction that MPLX is taking with its growth projects in increasing its gas exposure and maintain that the relationship with Marathon for its Crude and Refined Products segment is a more favorable positioning relative to other liquids peers.”

Daoud’s comments back up his Buy rating here, and his $67 price target implies a one-year upside potential for the stock of 13%. Add in the 7.3% forward yield from the dividend, and this stock’s full one-year return exceeds 20%. (To watch Daoud’s track record, click here)

MPLX has a Moderate Buy consensus rating on Wall Street, based on 9 reviews that include 5 Buys and 4 Holds. The stock is selling for $59.17, and its $61.38 average price target indicates a modest gain of 4% in the coming year. (See MPLX stock forecast)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.