From Tuesday to Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is scheduled to hold a meeting on economic projections. This will likely bring another Fed funds rate cut by 25 bps, according to Fed funds futures at nearly 90% probability.
In turn, lower short-term interest rates should ease refinancing conditions for businesses. That is, if rate cuts do not end up signaling economic weakness. In that case, long-term borrowing costs could remain elevated, often tied to either Treasury yields or corporate bonds.
However, in the soft landing scenario when the rate cut is ‘good’ to normalize the policy, combined with the “Santa Claus” stock rally effect in December, investors should consider dividend stocks to capture both steady income and potential capital appreciation as bond yields begin to fall.
NNN REIT Inc. (NYSE: NNN) – 6.01% dividend yield at quarterly $0.6 per share
In late November, we hinted that the ‘mass deportation’ agenda from the Trump administration is largely fake, reminiscent of the ‘lock her up’ slogan during his 1st presidential campaign. However, this is good news for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). After all, a mass deportation surge would cause labor shortage, causing the building of new properties to be both slow and costlier.
Likewise, a massive demand shock would spike vacancy rates, leaving landlords reduced pricing power to raise rents. In other words, both residential and industrial REITS benefit from sustained population demand.
Florida-based NNN REIT focuses on single-tenant retail properties, such as restaurants, banks, fitness centers, convenience stores and automotive services. Owing to careful conservative management of its single-tenant, net leased (STNL) portfolio, the REIT managed to become a dividend aristocrat stock – increasing its annual dividend for 36 consecutive years.
Including Florida, NNN covers 3,697 properties with over 400 tenants, with 7-Eleven having the largest weight at 4.3%. Although based in Orlando, Florida, NNN has most properties in Texas, forecasted to have its population increased by 40% by 2050 according to the Texas Demographic Center.
Representing the rent contractually due from tenants over a full year, in Q3, NNN increased its annualized base rent (ABR) by 7.2% year-over-year. The REIT left the quarter with $1.4 billion in available liquidity and no floating rate debt (debt whose interest rate changes over time).
As for the NNN stock itself, the Wall Street Journal’s consensus places the average price target at $44.41, above the current price of $40.01 per share.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) – 6.69% dividend yield at quarterly $0.69 per share
According to the memo published by Light Reading on November 20th, Verizon is cutting 13,000 employees, representing 13% of the company’s total workforce. The massive layoffs appear to be related to AI integration, as Verizon’s new CEO Dan Schulman (former PayPal CEO) inferred:
“Verizon is the first company to set up a fund to specifically focus on the opportunities and necessary skill sets as we enter the age of AI.”
The Wall Street Journal later reported that Verizon layoffs should end up cutting the company’s non-union workers by 20%. While this will incur a massive $1.6-$1.8 billion severance charge in Q4, investors should expect payoff in the future as Schulman attempts to “reorient our entire company around delivering for and delighting our customers.”
In Q3 earnings, Verizon delivered $33.8 billion total operating revenue, representing 1.5% year-over-year growth despite increasing its broadband connections by 11.1% YoY to 13.2 million. Even before the latest layoffs, the telecom giant had already reduced its total unsecured debt by $6.7 billion from the year-ago quarter.
In addition to reducing its workforce, Verizon is set to convert 179 retail stores into franchise operations. Given the successful record of Dan Schulman during his PayPal tenure, Verizon is positioning itself for a multiyear efficiency reset, making it a solid long-term dividend choice.
Over the last three months, VZ stock is down 7%, making it an optimal entry at this point in time, at an average price target of $46.55 vs the current price of $40.89 per share.
Amcor PLC (NYSE: AMCR) – 6.27% dividend yield at quarterly $0.13 per share
As consumer demand for convenience increases through services such as Uber Eats, Glovo, Wolt and others, the packaging industry is benefiting significantly. According to Research and Markets forecasting, the online food delivery packaging market alone is expected to grow from $4.9 billion in 2024 to $10.2 billion by 2033, with a CAGR of 8.5%.
This is on top of e-commerce supplanting the traditional brick & mortar model, increasing packaging needs even more. This solidifies Swiss-based Amcor’s long-term prospects as the leader in both flexible and rigid packaging with sustainability in mind.
For fiscal Q1 2026, ending September, Amcor reported a 25% YoY increase in net sales of its flexible packaging solutions to $3.3 billion, having improved its adjusted EBIT margin by 20 basis points to 13.1%. Rigid packaging division had a much greater growth at 205% net sales increase to $2.48 billion, improving its adjusted EBIT margin by 420 basis points.
For fiscal 2026, Amcor reaffirmed its outlook of $0.8-$0.83 earnings per share (EPS). Over the last three months, AMCR stock flatlined at negative 0.36% performance. Against the current AMCR price of $8.22 per share, WSJ’s average price target is $10.63 with the overwhelming majority of analysts maintaining bullish ratings.