When done right and not for the purpose of simply chasing yield, income investing can drastically alter your perspective of the events going on around you. While everyone else panics amid a sell-off in financial markets, you can sleep well at night. This is because you own quality businesses that are filling your brokerage account with more and more dividends each year.
For investors who have $1,000 to spare after paying bills and building an adequate emergency fund, here are two income stocks with ultra-high dividend yields that appear to be well covered by profits.
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1. Altria Group: A slow and steady grower
Like most people, you've probably been to convenience stores countless times. And this guarantees that you were in close proximity to the variety of brands owned by Altria Group(NYSE: MO).
These include the iconic Marlboro cigarette brand, the leading tipped cigar brand Black & Mild, the fast-growing oral nicotine pouch brand named on!, and the top moist smokeless tobacco brand, Copenhagen.
Altria Group pairs brand recognition with the addictive nature of nicotine. These characteristics give the company the ability to reliably grow revenue net of excise taxes over time. And this predictability is exactly why analysts believe that Altria Group will produce 4.2% annual non-GAAP (adjusted) diluted earnings-per-share (EPS) growth through the next five years.
In addition to respectable future growth projections, Altria Group's dividend is high enough and safe enough to please even the pickiest income investors. The stock's eye-popping 8% dividend yield is 5 times the S&P 500 index's 1.6% yield.
And the dividend payout ratio, which is set to be around 75% in 2022, is a bit below Altria Group's targeted payout ratio of 80%.
Best of all, shares of the tobacco company can be scooped up at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 9.8. That's hardly an unreasonable valuation for a quality company like Altria Group, which is what makes it a buy for income investors.
2. Medifast: A trifecta of growth, income, and value
If you're one of many customers looking to lose weight, you may have heard of weight loss and nutrition company Medifast(NYSE: MED) , which is helping customers achieve that very feat.
Through its health and wellness community, Optavia, Medifast is helping customers replace unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyles with healthy eating habits and active lifestyles. Along with the personal support of over 68,000 independent, active earning coaches from Optavia, this has helped more than 2 million customers to lose weight and live healthier lives.
As many customers as Medifast has reached over the years, this is a drop in the bucket of the total addressable market. In fact, 95 million Americans would consider the paid meal plans and coaching provided by companies such as Optavia, according to an internal Optavia survey.
The proven track record of Optavia and the sizable addressable market bodes well for Medifast. That explains why analysts expect the company to generate 20% annual adjusted diluted EPS growth over the next five years.
Medifast's 5.5% yield is more than triple the S&P 500 index's 1.6% yield, which is surprising for a company with such strong growth prospects. And yet, the company's dividend payout ratio will be under 51% in 2022.
As if Medifast's massive starting income and robust growth potential weren't enough, the stock is also appealing to value investors. Medifast's forward P/E ratio of 9.5 is very low for the overall package that it offers investors.
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Kody Kester has positions in Altria Group and Medifast. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
