Comparing Dividend Stock Sectors by Yield: Which Pays the Most?

UPDATED: August 13, 2026

Dividend.com maintains and updates this article weekly to track yield trends and highlight names income investors should have on their radar. Data reflects dividend-paying common stocks only, filtered to those with an active current yield on record. Sectors are ordered by average current yield, highest to lowest.

Dividend yields vary significantly across sectors — here’s how all 11 stack up based on Dividend.com’s data from last week.

Behind every sector average is a mix of industries pulling in different directions — here are the 15 highest-yielding ones across the market.

The yield numbers only tell half the story — scroll down to see which industries and stocks are actually moving the needle for income investors this week.

Avg. Current Yield: 5.74% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 23.21%

Financials keep the top yield spot as Q2 earnings came in strong across the big banks, with loan growth and net interest income holding up even as the Fed keeps rates parked at 3.50%–3.75% for a fifth straight meeting. Credit quality has stayed clean enough that banks are comfortable raising payouts rather than building reserves.

Financials diversified (8.60%) and asset management (8.42%) still dominate on yield, driven by BDCs and closed-end funds with mandated high payout ratios. Specialty finance (7.78%) sits close behind for the same reason. Banking, where the money-center names actually live, yields a much lower 2.46%, since traditional lenders retain more earnings for capital buffers than BDCs do.

Bank of America (BAC) raised its payout 14.3% to $0.32, ex-dividend September 4. Goldman Sachs (GS) bumped its dividend 11.1% to $5.00, ex-dividend September 1. PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (PFLT) declared a special payout of $0.0833, and Horizon Technology Finance (HRZN) declared a special dividend 50% larger than its last one, at $0.09, both ex-dividend in mid-August.

Avg. Current Yield: 5.39% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 16.82%

Real estate is benefiting from a valuation gap that’s been building for years. REITs entered 2026 trading at their widest P/E discount to the S&P 500 in 25 years, and that cheapness has pulled in acquirers, with 2026 on pace for the busiest year of REIT M&A in a decade. That buying interest is helping support yields even as long-term rates stay elevated.

REITs, the sector’s dominant industry, average a 5.55% yield. A handful of smaller specialty REITs are dragging on that average with sharp cuts, while the larger, more diversified names keep raising.

Community Healthcare Trust (CHCT) cut its payout 31.3% to $0.33, and NexPoint Diversified Real Estate Trust (NXDT) slashed its dividend 80% to $0.03. On the other side, Kimco Realty (KIM) raised its payout 7.69% to $0.28, Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRT) nudged up 2.65% to $1.16, and NETSTREIT (NTST) increased 2.27% to $0.225.

Avg. Current Yield: 4.23% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 45.90%

Energy’s return surge tracks a sharp reversal in oil prices. Brent has climbed back above $87 a barrel as tensions around the Strait of Hormuz flared up again and Washington tightened sanctions on Iranian exports, a big swing from the low-$70s it touched earlier this summer. Since royalty trust payouts scale directly with production revenue, that price recovery is flowing straight through to distributions.

Oil, gas & coal, which makes up nearly all of the sector, holds a 4.27% average yield. The dispersion inside that industry is wide: large-cap producers barely moved their payouts this month, while smaller royalty trusts, more exposed to spot prices, posted some of the biggest increases in the market.

Sabine Royalty Trust (SBR) raised its distribution 44.3% to $0.619, and Kimbell Royalty Partners (KRP) increased 14.6% to $0.47. North European Oil Royalty Trust (NRT) increased 18.2% to $0.26, and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) raised its dividend 7.69% to $0.28.

Avg. Current Yield: 4.13% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 12.39%

The sector’s split personality is still the main story. Legacy telecom carriers are leaning on scale and cost discipline as growth slows, while media names are getting a lift from a recovering ad market and streaming demand. Telus’s steep cut this month reflects pressure specific to the Canadian telecom market, where competitive pricing has squeezed margins harder than in the US.

Telecommunication yields 5.10% but grows slowly, while media, at 3.69%, offers less income but more upside from the ad and content rebound.

Telus (TU) cut its dividend 55.2%. T-Mobile US (TMUS) held its payout steady at $1.02, and Comcast (CMCSA) kept its $0.33 dividend unchanged. Scholastic (SCHL) raised its dividend 25% to $0.25, and Fox Corporation (FOX)/(FOXA) increased 3.57% to $0.29.

Avg. Current Yield: 3.56% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 11.59%

Utilities are riding the AI infrastructure buildout. Data-center power demand is forcing grid operators to accelerate capacity spending, and utilities are using that visibility to keep raising payouts even in a higher-for-longer rate environment that would normally weigh on the sector.

Utilities diversified leads on yield at 5.52%, largely names with less regulated, higher-payout structures. Integrated utilities, home to most of the big regulated names tied to the AI power story, sit lower at 3.24% but are seeing steadier increases.

Duke Energy (DUK) raised its payout 1.88% to $1.09. NextEra Energy (NEE) held its dividend steady at $0.623, and Southern Company (SO) kept its $0.76 payout unchanged. Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN) raised its dividend 2.93% to $0.065.

Avg. Current Yield: 3.29% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 2.09%

Staples are still absorbing tariff-driven cost pressure on packaging and imported ingredients, which is why yields are inching up even as total returns stay flat. Higher payouts here are less a sign of confidence and more a function of stock prices lagging while dividends hold steady.

Consumer products, the sector’s largest industry, moved from 3.56% to 3.80%, the clearest evidence of that price-lag dynamic.

Walmart (WMT) held its dividend at $0.248. Coca-Cola (KO) and PepsiCo (PEP) stayed steady at $0.53 and $1.48. Kroger (KR) raised its payout 11.4% to $0.39, and J.M. Smucker (SJM) bumped its dividend 1.82% to $1.12.

Avg. Current Yield: 2.53% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 18.69%

A cluster of increases this month, spanning restaurants, home improvement, and auto retail, points to management confidence in consumer spending even with tariff costs still moving through supply chains. Wendy’s steep cut is the clear exception rather than a sign of sector-wide stress.

Commercial services leads on yield at 3.38%, and leisure products, a smaller industry, climbed into the top 15 nationally at 3.07% this month.

Wendy’s (WEN) cut its dividend 50% to $0.07. McDonald’s (MCD) and Starbucks (SBUX) both held steady at $1.86 and $0.62. Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) raised its payout 1.20% to $0.84, and Penske Automotive Group (PAG) increased 1.41% to $1.44.

Avg. Current Yield: 2.42% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 21.90%

Drug pricing policy is still the overhang here. Washington has signaled tariffs on branded pharmaceuticals could climb toward 200% later this year, and the Most-Favored-Nation pricing framework keeps reshaping how manufacturers set prices. Large pharma is absorbing that uncertainty by holding payouts flat rather than pulling back.

Biotech & pharma stays the sector’s top-yielding industry at 4.85%, essentially unchanged from last month, which suggests the tariff overhang hasn’t yet forced any real repricing of these payouts.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) held its dividend at $1.34, and Merck (MRK) kept its $0.85 payout unchanged. ResMed (RMD) raised its dividend 10% to $0.66, McKesson (MCK) bumped its payout 14.6% to $0.94, and STERIS (STE) increased 9.52% to $0.69.

Avg. Current Yield: 1.94% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 39.65%

Tariff policy is doing most of the work on materials returns right now. Copper touched $14,000 a tonne ahead of an expected tariff decision, and a new polysilicon tariff and price floor are reshaping input costs across the sector, which explains why returns jumped nearly 10 points while yields barely moved.

Chemicals and containers & packaging carry the sector’s yield, while metals & mining, thin on yield, is where most of that tariff-driven price action is showing up in returns.

CF Industries (CF) raised its dividend 20% to $0.60, and Karat Packaging (KRT) increased 4.44% to $0.47. AngloGold Ashanti (AU) cut its dividend 37.9% to $0.72, and DuPont de Nemours (DD) trimmed its payout to $0.60. Linde (LIN) and Air Products (APD) both held steady.

Avg. Current Yield: 1.90% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 37.30%

A shipping rally is carrying the sector’s return this month, as tanker rates climb on tighter Middle East supply routes. Worth noting: Honeywell’s headline dividend cut isn’t a distress signal. It reflects last quarter’s Aerospace spinoff and 1-for-2 reverse stock split, which rebased the per-share payout on a much smaller share count rather than cutting the underlying dollar commitment.

Transportation & logistics leads on yield at 3.21%, with tanker and dry-bulk names driving most of the industry’s outsized return.

Genco Shipping & Trading (GNK) increased its dividend 129% to $0.80, and DHT Holdings (DHT) raised its payout 90.6% to $1.22. Union Pacific (UNP) increased its dividend 2.9% to $1.42. Honeywell (HON) declared $0.70 per share, ex-dividend August 14, its first payout under the post-spinoff share count.

Avg. Current Yield: 1.59% | Avg. 1Y Total Return: 45.10%

Tech’s return keeps outrunning every other sector on the back of AI infrastructure spending, and a genuine DRAM and NAND shortage tied to that demand has kept memory and semiconductor names volatile but strongly positive. None of that shows up in yield, since most of the sector’s cash goes to capex and buybacks instead of dividends.

Software and technology services carry what little yield the sector has, and both stayed roughly flat month over month.

Microsoft (MSFT) held its dividend at $0.91. Broadridge Financial Solutions (BR) raised its dividend 11.8% to $1.09, and Open Text (OTEX) increased 1.82% to $0.28. MarketWise (MKTW) declared a special dividend of $0.45, an 80% jump.

The macro backdrop right now favors income names more than it has in months. The S&P 500 just hit its 25th record close of the year on a soft jobs report that took a September rate hike mostly off the table, and REITs in particular are drawing buyer interest after years of trading at their widest discount to broader equities in a quarter century.

The bigger theme is that not every headline move means what it looks like. Honeywell’s “cut” is really a post-spinoff rebasing, while the double-digit yields showing up in energy trusts, BDCs, and shipping names track directly to volatile commodity and freight prices rather than durable payout policy. Treat those as satellite positions and watch this week’s ex-dividend cluster for a cleaner read on where management confidence actually sits heading into next month.

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