One of the most appealing aspects of investing on Wall Street is the flexibility it offers. There’s no single path to success – investors can choose from thousands of stocks and ETFs, tailoring their portfolios to match their personal goals, risk appetite, and timeline.
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Among the many strategies investors use to build wealth, few have stood the test of time like owning high-yield dividend stocks.
In the report The Power of Dividends: Past, Present, and Future, Hartford Funds, in partnership with Ned Davis Research, analyzed stock performance over the 50-year period from 1973 to 2023. The results speak volumes: companies that paid dividends dramatically outperformed those that didn’t. Specifically, dividend-paying stocks generated a 9.17% average annual return, more than double the 4.27% return of non-payers, and did so with far less volatility.
Of course, yield and risk often go hand-in-hand. Ultra-high-yielding stocks can look tempting at first glance. But in many cases, that elevated yield is masking deeper issues with the business model, and investors may end up paying the price through poor long-term returns or dividend cuts.
That’s why a balanced approach is key, seeking out stocks that offer attractive yields without compromising financial health. With this in mind, we used the TipRanks database to find two compelling dividend opportunities. Both offer solid yields – including one reaching 12% – and importantly, they’ve earned Buy ratings from Wall Street analysts. Let’s take a closer look.
AG Mortgage Investment Trust (MITT)
We’ll start with a look at a real estate investment trust, or REIT. This class of companies brings returns for investors through the real estate markets, usually by directly acquiring, owning, leasing, and managing real properties, or by investing in various mortgage-based assets, including direct loans and mortgage-based securities. AG Mortgage, the REIT we’re looking at here, operates as a pure-play residential REIT, with a portfolio based on a risk-adjusted set of diverse residential mortgage-related assets.
As of the second quarter of this year, the company’s portfolio was valued at $7.3 billion, reflecting a modest increase from the previous quarter. Of this total, just over 90%, ~$6.6 billion, was made up of securitized loans. The remainder of the portfolio was composed of warehouse loans, other residential assets, and a legacy WMC commercial component.
We should note here that AG Mortgage is an externally managed entity, under the aegis of TPG Angelo Gordon, which itself is a credit and real estate platform within the larger TPG private equity firm. AG Mortgage’s officers and personnel are all employees of TPG Angelo Gordon, and the REIT benefits from access to that company’s expertise and resources. In effect, AG Mortgage acts as TPG Angelo Gordon’s residential real estate investor, with the goal of generating returns for its own investors.
Those investors, for their part, buy into MITT to gain access to a solid set of return-generating assets. These include, but are not limited to, opportunities in the non-agency residential mortgage loan market, a proprietary securitization platform, and long-term market opportunities that generate attractive returns.
For investors seeking out high dividends, it’s worth noting that in its most recent dividend declaration on June 17, AG Mortgage implemented a 5% increase in the payment. The dividend was raised to $0.21 per common share and was paid out on July 31. At this rate, the dividend annualizes to $0.84 per share, representing a forward yield of 12%.
Looking at the company’s financial results, AG Mortgage reported Q2 2025 net interest income of $18.5 million, or approximately $0.19 per share. The company’s earnings available for distribution (EAD) came in at $0.18 per share, about 14% below the quarterly dividend amount.
Among the bulls is Piper Sandler analyst Crispin Love, who believes the key points here are AG Mortgage’s attractive valuation, its potential for upside, and its balance sheet.
“MITT continues to screen attractive trading at ~70% price to tangible book value. We favor MITT given our expectations for earnings expansion as well as an attractive valuation. We also see further upside to our estimates if MITT sees better spreads in the securitization market as the company continues to scale and funding costs improve as rates decline. The company has significantly derisked the balance sheet driving economic leverage lower over the past several years, reducing liquidity concerns and volatility,” Love opined.
Love goes on to put an Overweight (i.e., Buy) rating on the stock, with an $8.5 price target that implies a one-year upside potential of 22%. Add in the dividend yield, and this stock’s possible total return for the coming year reaches 34%. (To watch Love’s track record, click here)
The 5 recent analyst reviews here break down to 3 Buys and 2 Holds, for a Moderate Buy consensus rating. The shares are priced at $6.96 and their $8.44 average target price suggests an appreciation of 21% by this time next year. (See MITT stock forecast)
Verizon Communications (VZ)
Next on our list, Verizon Communications is one of the US telecom industry’s best-known names; its “Can you hear me now?” marketing slogan is both memorable and meme-worthy. In the US market, Verizon is the third-largest telecom company by market cap, with a valuation of $181 billion. Verizon ranks first among US telecoms by revenue, having brought in more than $135 billion at the top line in the four quarters ending with 1Q25.
Verizon has reached this top tier of its industry by posting solid growth numbers. In its last reported quarter, 2Q25, the company saw gross adds of 2.7 million wireless retail postpaid phones (up 14% year-over-year); 2 million commercial wireless retail postpaid phones (up 19% year-over-year); and 4.5 million wireless postpaid upgrades (up 31% year-over-year).
These numbers underscore how the wireless phone segment is at the core of Verizon’s work, but the company is much more than that. In addition to its leading position in the mobile networking lane, Verizon also has an extensive fiber optic network, offering bundled internet, telephone, and television service in nine US states. Fios, the company’s fiber network, saw 32,000 net internet adds in Q1 this year.
Finally, Verizon is at the leading edge of the US 5G buildout and expansion. The company offers 5G networking and solutions for both retail and commercial customers, and its coverage area is home to more than 200 million people.
On the financial side, Verizon’s total revenue in 2Q25 came to $34.5 billion, up 5.2% year-over-year and $793 million better than had been expected. The telecom giant’s bottom line, reported as a non-GAAP EPS of $1.22, beat the forecast by 3 cents per share.
When we look at the dividend, we find that Verizon declared a 67.75-cent payment on June 6 of this year, to be sent out to shareholders on August 1. The dividend’s annualized rate of $2.71 per common share gives a forward yield of 6.35%.
This stock has caught the attention of Kutgun Maral, from Evercore ISI, who expects Verizon to continue expanding its network per existing strategic plans.
“The next catalyst will likely be management’s upcoming update on its strategy, broadband expansion, and capital allocation plans where we expect color on its fiber build plan, deleveraging, and perhaps a more firm stance on the timing of buybacks (perhaps 2H26 with tax reform benefits?). At 6.2x EV/EBITDA and 9.7x P/FCF on 2026E (PF for Frontier), we continue to believe shares aren’t getting enough credit for the resiliency of the wireless service revenue growth outlook, fiber efforts and the strategic/financial upside from the pending Frontier acquisition, as well as the attractive pro forma financial profile,” Maral stated.
Looking ahead, the analyst rates VZ shares as Outperform (i.e., Buy), complementing that with a $48 price target that indicates room for a 12.5% gain in the coming year. Taken together with the dividend yield, investors can look for a total return of ~19% in the next 12 months. (To watch Maral’s track record, click here)
All in all, there are 16 recent analyst reviews on file for this stock, and they include 7 Buys and 9 Holds, to give the shares a Moderate Buy consensus rating. The stock is trading for $42.67, and its $48.53 average target price implies that VZ will gain ~14% on the one-year horizon. (See VZ stock forecast)
To find good ideas for dividend stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.