Jolyon Yates

Morningstar just dropped their new list of “10 Best Dividend Stocks to Buy Now”… and it’s the most Morningstar list imaginable. Not hype. Not AI froth. Just 10 companies you’d be totally fine owning through a recession, rate cuts, or whatever chaos 2026 brings. Here’s the vibe of each name: • $MRK – The quiet assassin. No drama, just pharma cash flow and a pipeline Wall Street keeps underestimating. • $KO – Your grandparents’ favourite stock… and they’re probably still right. Pricing power + brand dominance = eternal. • $PEP – Snacks don’t go out of style. Neither does a 50-year dividend streak. • $CL – Boring? Yes. Profitable forever? Also yes. Toothpaste is basically a subscription business. • $MDLZ – Oreo empire. Emerging markets beast. Sneaky good compounding story. • $KMB – If humanity keeps using toilet paper, Kimberly-Clark keeps printing dividends. • $MDT – The comeback attempt. Been beaten down for years, but med-tech recoveries can move fast when they finally turn. • $SLB – Not your dad’s oil services company anymore. Leaner, tech-heavier, and quietly benefiting from global underinvestment. • $COP – The disciplined operator in a chaotic energy world. • $EOG – The shale efficiency king. When oil firms race to cut costs, EOG usually wins. No meme stocks. No “to the moon.” Just a reminder that dividends + durability still build real wealth. Boring? Sure. But boring is undefeated over decades.