Stock Market Crash Likely Won’t Hurt 5 Safe High-Yielding Dividend Kings

Companies that have raised dividends for shareholders for 50 years or more are the kinds of investments passive income investors need to own. Dependability is crucial for individuals seeking to increase their annual income through dividend stock investments. The Dividend Kings are the 57 companies that have raised their dividends for at least 50 years, a testament to their dependability and reliability. Those are two “must-have” items for investors who rely on passive income to boost their overall revenue. Unlike the Dividend Aristocrats, the Dividend Kings do not have to be members of the S&P 500. Now may be the best time to shift capital away from risky tech/AI ideas toward high-yielding consumer staples companies in the prestigious Dividend Kings lineup in 2026.

Consumer staples stocks tend to be among the most resilient investments during a market downturn for one simple reason: people never stop needing the basics. Whether the economy is booming or in freefall, consumers still buy food, toothpaste, toilet paper, and household cleaning products. Even when discretionary spending collapses, their pricing power, which is the ability to pass modest cost increases on to consumers without losing significant sales volume, further protects their margins. On top of that, the generous and reliable dividends these Dividend Kings pay provide a cushion of income return even when share prices dip, making them attractive to investors rotating out of riskier assets during a sell-off. In essence, consumer staples act as a natural defensive hedge: when fear drives capital out of growth stocks and cyclicals, these steady, cash-generating businesses become a safe harbor.

We screened the 2026 Dividend Kings, looking for the five highest-yielding consumer staples stocks that not only pay big, obviously reliable dividends, but also have solid upside to the price targets set by top Wall Street firms, with Buy ratings on four of the five.

Why we recommend the Dividend Kings

Companies that have paid and raised dividends for 50 years or more are the kinds of stocks growth and income investors want to buy and hold in stock portfolios forever. These stocks are mostly conservative, and should we see a dramatic market correction, which we could very well be well into, they will likely hold their ground much better than volatile technology names.

Altria

Altria (NYSE: MO | MO Price Prediction) is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of tobacco, cigarettes, and related products. This tobacco stock offers value investors a great entry point. The company manufactures and sells smokable and oral tobacco products in the United States. Altria is the undisputed yield leader among consumer staples Dividend Kings. It has an annual dividend of $4.24 per share, yielding 6.39%.

The company primarily sells cigarettes under the Marlboro brand. Also:

• Cigars and pipe tobacco, principally under the Black & Mild and Middleton brands
• Moist smokeless tobacco and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands
• on! Oral nicotine pouches
• e-vapor products under the NJOY ACE brand

It sells its tobacco products primarily to wholesalers, including distributors and large retail organizations, such as chain stores.

Altria used to own over 10% of Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD), the world’s largest brewer. Last year, the company sold 35 million of its 197 million shares through a global secondary offering. That represents 18% of its holdings but still leaves 8% of the outstanding shares in its back pocket. Altria also announced a $2.4 billion stock repurchase plan partially funded by the sale.

UBS has a Buy rating with a $74 price target.

Hormel Foods

Hormel Foods (NYSE: HRL) is an American food processing company founded in 1891 in Austin, Minnesota. It offers dual pricing power through both branded products and private-label manufacturing, and a reliable 5.09% dividend. Hormel develops, processes, and distributes various meat, nuts, and other food products to retail, food service, deli, and commercial customers in the United States and internationally. With shares down 25% already in 2025, Hormel offers dual pricing power through both branded products and private-label manufacturing, along with a very reliable dividend.

It operates through three segments:

• Retail
• Food Service
• International

Hormel is a Dividend King with over 50 years of dividend increases and is a consumer staples company focused on protein-based packaged foods. Its yield is historically high, and the Hormel Foundation’s oversight ensures dividend reliability. Reports indicate that it is restructuring its portfolio and cutting costs to improve performance.

The company provides various perishable products, including fresh meats, frozen items, refrigerated meal solutions, sausages, hams, guacamoles, and bacon, and shelf-stable products, including canned luncheon meats, nut butter, snack nuts, chili, shelf-stable microwaveable meals, hash, stews, tortillas, salsas, tortilla chips, nutritional food supplements, and others.

It sells its products under these brands:

• Hormel
• Always Tender
• Applegate
• Austin Blues
• Bacon 1
• Black Label
• Bread Ready
• Burke
• Café H
• Ceratti
• Chi-Chi’s
• Columbus
• Compleats
• Corn Nuts
• Cure 81
• Dan’s Prize
• Di Lusso
• Dinty Moore
• Don Miguel
• Doña Maria
• Embasa
• Fast N Easy
• Fire Braised
• Fontanini
• Happy Little Plants
• Herdez
• Hormel Gatherings
• Hormel Square Table
• Hormel Vital Cuisine
• House of Tsang
• Jennie-O
• Justin’s
• La Victoria
• Layout
• Lloyd’s
• Mary Kitchen
• Mr. Peanut
• Natural Choice
• Nut-Rition
• Old Smokehouse
• Oven Ready
• Pillow Pack
• Planters
• Rosa Grande
• Sadler’s Smokehouse
• Skippy
• Spam
• Special Recipe
• Thick & Easy
• Valley Fresh
• Wholly

Barclays has an Overweight rating with a $31 target price.

Kimberly-Clark

This American multinational personal care company primarily produces paper-based consumer products. Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) stock declined 23% in 2025, pushing it close to a 12-year low, and has raised its dividend for 53 consecutive years; the current yield is a rich 5.10%.

The company manufactures and markets personal care and consumer tissue products worldwide. It operates through three segments.

The Personal Care segment offers a diverse range of products, including:

• Disposable diapers
• Swim pants, training and youth pants, baby wipes
• Feminine and incontinence care products, as well as related products under the Huggies, Pull-Ups, Little Swimmers, GoodNites, DryNites, Sweety, Kotex, U by Kotex, Intimus, Depends, Plenitud, Softex, Poise, and other brand names

The Consumer Tissue segment provides facial and bathroom tissues, paper towels, napkins, and related products under the brand names.

• Kleenex
• Scott
• Cottonelle
• Viva
• Andrex
• Scottex
• Neve

The K-C Professional segment offers wipers, tissues, towels, apparel, soaps, and sanitizers under the Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech, and KleenGuard brands.

In 2025, Kimberly-Clark announced it would acquire Kenvue (NYSE: KVUE) in a $48.7 billion deal, with the transaction expected to close in the second half of 2026. The acquisition will create a combined consumer health and wellness company, with Kenvue shareholders receiving cash and stock. Kenvue shareholders will get $3.50 in cash plus 0.14625 shares of Kimberly-Clark.

Piper Sandler has an overweight rating with a $114 target price.

PepsiCo

This top consumer staples stock reported solid fourth-quarter earnings and will continue to supply all the goods for summer picnics and parties. PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) is a global food and beverage company with a very solid 3.68% dividend yield.

Activist investor Elliott Investment Management recently took a $4 billion stake in PepsiCo, revealing a strategy to unlock value within the company’s iconic brand by focusing on core strengths, such as innovation and brand marketing, rather than its capital-intensive bottling operations. This move caused PepsiCo’s stock to surge, with Elliott believing the company could see over 50% upside if its proposed strategic changes were implemented. However, these changes would involve a very long-term transformation.

Its Frito-Lay North America segment offers:

• Lays and Ruffles potato chips
• Doritos, Tostitos, and Santitas tortilla chips
• Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, branded dips
• Fritos corn chips

The company’s Quaker Foods North America segment provides:

• Quaker Oatmeal
• Grits
• Rice cakes
• Natural granola and oat squares
• Pearl Milling mixes and syrups
• Quaker Chewy granola bars
• Cap’n Crunch cereal
• Life cereal
• Rice-A-Roni side dishes

PepsiCo’s North America Beverages segment offers beverage concentrates, fountain syrups, and finished goods under these brands:

• Pepsi
• Gatorade
• Mountain Dew
• Diet Pepsi
• Aquafina
• Diet Mountain Dew
• Tropicana Pure Premium
• Sierra Mist
• Mug brands

Piper Sandler has an Overweight rating with a $181 price objective.

Universal

This is one of the world’s leading tobacco merchants. While its products may not be for everyone, Universal (NYSE: UVV) has strong demand, has been in business for almost 150 years, and offers shareholders a hefty 6.12% dividend.

Universal processes and supplies leaf tobacco and plant-based ingredients worldwide. It flies under the radar as a global leaf tobacco supplier rather than a branded consumer company, sidestepping the brand competition and consumer-facing regulatory pressure that weigh on names like Altria. Long-term supply contracts with major manufacturers provide steady earnings visibility, and its asset-light model generates strong free cash flow that comfortably supports its dividend.

The company operates through two segments:

• Tobacco Operations
• Ingredients Operations

It procures, finances, processes, packs, stores, and ships leaf tobacco for sale to manufacturers of consumer tobacco products.

The company:

• Contracts, purchases, processes, and sells flue-cured, burley, and oriental tobaccos that are primarily used in the manufacture of cigarettes
• Dark air-cured tobaccos manufacture naturally wrapped cigars, cigarillos, and smokeless and pipe tobacco products

Universal also provides value-added services, including:

• Blending, chemical, and physical tobacco testing
• Service cutting for various manufacturers
• Manufacturing reconstituted leaf tobacco
• Just-in-time inventory management services
• Electronic nicotine delivery systems
• Customer smoke testing services